OBJECTIVE: Sink merchant vessel anchored on south side of Hong Kong Island
RESULTS: Pilots strafe a motor launch and claim four direct hits on a tanker in or near Repulse Bay. Possibly, this is the oiler IJNS Kamoi, but if so, the ship suffers no damage during the attack.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~3:00 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Two P-51s from the 118th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Lt. Pascoli and DeVeer (26th Fighter Squadron)
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 4 x 500-pound bombs and 1,710 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition
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.
- Tabular Record of Movement for IJN Seaplane Tender/Oiler Kamoi at http://www.combinedfleet.com/Kamoi_t.htm
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).