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.

  • 28 Oct 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary

    Submitted by Barbara Anslow on Sun, 2012-03-04 11:44
    Book / Document: 
    Barbara Anslow's diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 28 Oct 1942

    Another air raid today, we distinctly heard bombs,and saw ack-ack fire.   Must have been big bombs for us to hear all this way, think they were at Taikoo. Dreadful to think of the poor Chinese casualties there must be at the docks and other places.

    Dr Y-E said Mabel's heart beats are showing through her skin, said it's pushing against the chest wall and isn't right.

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  • 28 Oct 1942, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Mon, 2012-10-01 12:01
    Book / Document: 
    R. E. Jones Wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 28 Oct 1942

    Saw another air attack on Colony at 11AM. Ideal day for air attacks. Fine, with high cloud.

    Black out.

  • 28 Oct 1942, Harry Ching's wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2013-03-13 22:03
    Book / Document: 
    Harry Ching's wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 28 Oct 1942

    About noon when third raid. Much machine gunning. Great excitement. Early blackout. Rumour one American plane shot down. Chinese airmen said in downed American machine.

  • 28 Oct 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong

    Submitted by David on Thu, 2014-02-20 14:42
    Book / Document: 
    WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 28 Oct 1942

    Henry Ching notes that his father's diary mentions the third American air raid on Hong Kong happened on this day, and that:

    In Edwin Ride’s book on the BAAG he states “the first of regular 14th Air Force bombing raids over Hong Kong took place during 25-28 October 1943 (sic)”  - he says “there were all told three raids, 3.30 p.m. Oct 25th, 1.30 a.m. Oct 26th and 11 a.m. Oct 28th”.

    R E Jones and Barbara Anslow also mention the raid, see this page.

  • 28 Oct 1942, Eric MacNider's wartime diary

    Submitted by Old Man on Wed, 2014-10-29 21:12
    Book / Document: 
    Eric MacNider's wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 28 Oct 1942

    Black-out 10.45 p.m.

  • 28 Oct 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

    Submitted by ssuni86 on Sun, 2017-07-09 00:02
    Book / Document: 
    WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 28 Oct 1942

    OBJECTIVE: Dive-bomb shipping in Victoria Harbor

    TIME OVER TARGET: ~11:00 a.m.

    AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Seventeen P-40Es from 16th and 75th Fighter Squadrons (23rd Fighter Group, China Air Task Force, 10th Air Force)

    AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

    • P-40s (top cover): Major Bruce K. Holloway; Captain Edmund R. Goss; 1st Lt. Jack R. Best; 1st Lt. Dallas A. Clinger; 1st Lt. Robert H. Mooney; Lt. H. K. Stuart; 2nd Lt. Walter E. Lacy; 2nd Lt. R.A. Mitchell; 1st Lt. Robert A. O’Neill
    • P-40s (bomb flight): Major John R. Alison; Captain John F. Hampshire; Captain Philip B. O’Connell; Major H.M. Pike; 1st Lt. Chester D. Griffin; 1st Lt. John D. Lombard

    ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 500-pound bombs (carried by six P-40s) and .50-caliber machine-gun rounds (strafing)

    RESULTS: Possible damage to ships from near misses.  BAAG reports bombs exploding in the water left many dead fish floating in the harbor.

    JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Likely Ki-43s from the 33rd Sentai, though American pilots report a wide variety of enemy aircraft, including Ki-27s, Ki-45s, A6Ms, and even (erroneously) German ME-109s.

    AIRCRAFT LOSSES: One P-40 is shot down by Japanese fighters and its pilot, Capt. Philip B. O’Connell, is the first American airman to be killed on a mission over Hong Kong.  Four more P-40 pilots make forced landings when they run out of fuel while returning from Hong Kong.

    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 Raid
    air raids

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