06 Aug 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
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OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton
TIME OVER TARGET: ~5:15 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Four B-25C from 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group) and 7 P-40E from the 76th Fighter Squadron (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 Edward F. Rector
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Chinese 50-kg incendiary bombs and 17-kg fragmentation bombs, plus Russian 100-kg general-purpose bombs
RESULTS: Americans claim ten Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground and severe damage to runways
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: No Japanese fighters attempt to engage the American aircraft
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None
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).
