08 Aug 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton

TIME OVER TARGET: ~6:20 a.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Five B-25C from 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group) escorted by 7 P-40Es from 23^rd Fighter Group.  All aircraft are from the China Air Task Force.

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Major Dalene E. Bailey (B-25s); Captain Charles Sawyer; 1^st Lt. Patrick H. Daniels; 1st Lt. Charles H. Dubois; 1^st Lt. Harold K. Stuart (P-40s)

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Chinese 50-kg incendiary bombs and 17-kg fragmentation bombs, plus Russian 100-kg general-purpose bombs

RESULTS: Bombs hit Tien Ho airfield as well as docks and godowns near railroad station

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: One recon plane from an unknown JAAF unit apparently spots the incoming American aircraft, which gives the Japanese time to scramble six Ki-27 and three Ki-43 fighter aircraft, most likely from the 24^th Sentai and 54^th Sentai, respectively.

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: American P-40 pilots claim to shoot down one Ki-27 and one Ki-43.  There are no American losses.

SOURCES: Original 11^th 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).