OBJECTIVE: Fly a series of staggered single-aircraft night raids to harass airbases at Canton and prevent JAAF pilots from flying night bombing missions against American airbases in China.
RESULTS: One B-25 bombs aircraft revetments at White Cloud airbase and two B-25s bomb barracks at Tien Ho airbase. Two B-25s bomb and strafe small craft on the West River, sinking or setting on fire five small boats and sampans. A sixth B-25 is unable to take off for the mission due to a Japanese air raid on the American airbase at Liuchow.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~7:45 p.m. on October 06 to 12:15 a.m. on October 07
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Five B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:
- B-25J #43-27807: Flight Officer Ronald E. Irwin; 2nd Lt. Robert W. Burtner; 2nd Lt. Maurice J. Freeman; 2nd Lt. Edward Tempest; Sgt. Kenneth L. Henry; Corporal Oscar W. Lowe; Corporal Edward L. Naylor
- B-25J #43-4091: 1st Lt. Marcus L. Shoat; 2nd Lt. Boyd A. Shumway; 2nd Lt. Clifford Dutton; 2nd Lt. Philip J. Holman; Sgt. Donald E. Bell; Staff Sgt. Richard A. Smart; Sgt. Henry E. Krant
- B-25H #43-5072: 2nd Lt. Arthur E. Thomas; Flight Officer John J. Hanley; Corporal Oscar G. Jones; Staff Sgt. Jerome J. Krasowitz; Sgt. Robert D. Jorgenson
- B-25J #43-28807: 2nd Lt. John J. Wise; 2nd Lt. William K. Mack; 2nd Lt. Charles G. Frederick; Corporal Charles G. Edelman; Corporal Ralph M. Surber; Corporal Joseph C. Brucker
- B-25J #43-3949: 1st Lt. Charles S. Nichols; 2nd Lt. Floyd H. Woosley; 2nd Lt. Elmo B. Hessler; Staff Sgt. Frederick J. Reyer; Staff Sgt. William C. Zimmerman; Staff Sgt. Merrill B. Hewitt
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 12 x 100-pound fragmentation bomb clusters; 36 x 100-pound bombs; 16 x 250-pound bombs; 4,240 .50 caliber machine-gun rounds
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None
SOURCES: Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
Information compiled by Steven K. Bailey, author of Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942-1945 (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2019).