OBJECTIVE: Fly post-sundown sea sweep mission to detect and sink Japanese ships in the South China Sea.
RESULTS: A lone B-24 makes a radar-guided nocturnal bomb run on ships 40 miles to the north of Hong Kong, which are later determined to be islands. The aircraft commander then opts to bomb the Kowloon docks (the designated secondary target) on the return flight with his remaining bombs. Damage is unknown.
TIME OVER TARGET: Late evening over Kowloon docks
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: One B-24 from the 308th Heavy Bomb Group
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Lt. Beadle in plane #267
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 12 x 500-pound bombs (six on the islands and six on the Kowloon docks)
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).