06 Jul 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
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OBJECTIVE: Bomb docks, godowns, and gasoline storage facilities in Canton
TIME OVER TARGET: ~12:45 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Five B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group) and four P-40s from the 23rd Fighter Group. All aircraft are from the China Air Task Force (10th Air Force).
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Major William E. Bayse (B-25s); Major David “Tex” Hill, John Petach (P-40s)
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: American M-30 100-pound bombs and Chinese 17-kg fragmentation bombs
RESULTS: Bombs strike docks, godowns, gasoline storage facilities, and a 100-foot riverboat
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Ki-27 fighters, likely from the 54th Sentai
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: American P-40 pilots claim two Ki-27 shot down
SOURCES: Original 11th Bomb Squadron mission report in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. I do not, however, have the mission report for the P-40s.
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).
