70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Shows diary entries from seventy-one years ago, using today's date in Hong Kong as the starting point. To see pages from earlier dates (they go back to 1 Dec 1941), choose the date below and click the 'Apply' button.

  • 16 Mar 1944, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2014-03-05 23:46
    Book / Document: 
    R. E. Jones Wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 16 Mar 1944

    Fine, warm cloudy.

    German lesson aft.

    Much talk re new ration scheme.

    With Steve pm.

    No news.

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  • 16 Mar 1944, Eric MacNider's wartime diary

    Submitted by David on Sun, 2017-03-05 17:26
    Book / Document: 
    Eric MacNider's wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 16 Mar 1944

    “A Bill of Divorcement” (Clemence Dane)  (Norah Witchell, Raymond Hughes, Jim Moodie, Nina Valentine, Margaret McGuffog, Harold Bidwell, Betty Longbottom – P. by WH Colledge; Music – Heath, Pauline Beck)

  • 16 Mar 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

    Submitted by ssuni86 on Mon, 2019-03-11 00:15
    Book / Document: 
    WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 16 Mar 1944

    OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton

    RESULTS: Aircraft fail to find target due to cloud cover and return to base without dropping any bombs

    TIME OVER TARGET: ~8:15 to 8:45 a.m.

    AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:

    • Eight P-40s from the 74th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
    • Eight P-40s from the Chinese American Composite Wing (squadrons unknown, but possibly 28th or 32nd Provisional Fighter Squdron)
    • Nine B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group)
    • Eleven B-25s (most likely 1st Bomb Squadron, 1st Medium Bomb Group) from the Chinese American Composite Wing

    AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

    • 74th FS: Major Barry Melloan; Lt. Bear; Lt. Duffy; Lt. Robert Gibeault; Lt. Strantz; Lt. [Kenneth?] La Tourelle; Lt. [Virgil A?] Butler; Lt. Cousins
    • 11th BS:
      • B-25 #431: 1st Lt. Edward J. Pawlowski; 1st Lt. Delwyn F. Ritzdorf; 1st Lt. Raymond J. Mazanowski; 1st Lt. Robert D. Guma; Tech Sgt. Robert C. Appleby; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Steiner; Staff Sgt. Thomas P. Kolenda
      • B-25 #436: Captain Robert S. Thompson; 1st Lt. Harold Rochelle; 1st Lt. Frank H. Gibson; Staff Sgt. Ray T. Hamilton; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Lucas; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker
      • B-25 #429: 1st Lt. James J. Harnett; 1st Lt. William F. Angell; 2nd Lt. James F. Butler; Tech Sgt. Henry M. Ellis; Staff Sgt. Michael Ilnicki; Staff Sgt. Frederick C. DeWitt
      • B-25 #428: 1st Lt. Robert A. Nice; 1st Lt. Richard M. Gramling; 1st Lt. Arthur I. Blechman; 1st Lt. Herbert I. Robinson; Tech Sgt. Eugene E. Banzhof; Staff Sgt. Earl F. Porter; Sgt. Arbun K. Griffen
      • B-25 #427: Captain Theodore J. Michel; 2nd Lt. Daniel J. Pfiefer; 1st Lt. Robert B. Fischborn; Staff Sgt. Robert L. Harmon; Staff Sgt. George E. Zecher; Tech Sgt. Lawrence W. Jarrett
      • B-25 #432: 1st Lt. Carl J. LaValle; Lt. Colonel Joseph B. Wells; 1st Lt. Thomas B. Cox; 1st Lt. Clyde H. Wells; Tech Sgt. Robert A. Petrucelli; Staff Sgt. Lambert B. Regstock; Staff Sgt. Harold J. Coleman
      • B-25 #425: 1st Lt. Denning M. Perdew; 2nd Lt. Raymond S. Horey; 2nd Lt. Earl C. Stone; Staff Sgt. Steven Simon; Sgt. William C. Whaley
      • B-25 #415: 1st Lt. Dow J. Richter; 1st Lt. Stanley A. Johnson; 2nd Lt. Gerald M. O’Day; Staff Sgt. Walter P. White; Staff Sgt. Frederick T. Kaveney; Private First Class Herbert Morrison

    ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

    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).

    Tags: 
    air raids

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