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

OBJECTIVE: Tien Ho airfield at Canton is the primary target, but when ground fog obscures the airbase, the bombers hit gasoline storage facilities and godowns instead.

TIME OVER TARGET: ~4:15 a.m.

AMERICAN SQUADRONS AND AIRCRAFT: Three B-25s from 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group, China Air Task Force)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• B-25 #18: Lt. Col. Herbert “Butch” Morgan; 1^st Lt. Joseph L. Skeldon, 2^nd Lt. Charles H. Dearth, 2^nd Lt. Joseph F. Dockwiller, Staff Sgt. Lawrence W. Bowen, Sgt. Joseph L. Soikowski
• B-25 #63: 1^st Lt. Elmer L. Tarbox, 2^nd Lt. Mason O. Brown, Sgt. Robert W. Hawkins, Corporal Karl H. May, Staff Sgt. Robert L. Propst
• B-25 #92: 1^st Lt. Wilmer E. McDowell, 2^nd Lt. Wilson M. Thomas, 2^nd Lt. Carl F. Gordon, 2^nd Lt. Harry G. Locknane, Sgt. John O. Van Marter, Staff Sgt. George B. Crandall

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 50-kg incendiary bombs and 17-kg fragmentation bombs

RESULTS: Unknown, though bomber crews report up to twenty fires resulted from the bombing

JAPANESE SQUADRONS AND AIRCRAFT: Nightfighters from an unknown squadron attempt to intercept without success

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).