12 Nov 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

12 Nov 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

Date(s) of events described: 
Thu, 12 Nov 1942

OBJECTIVE: Reconnaissance flight over San Chau and Hong Kong

TIME OVER TARGET: ~7:15 a.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Two P-40E1s from 16th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group, China Air Task Force, 10th Air Force)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Captain Edmund H. Goss; 1st Lt. Robert H. Mooney

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

RESULTS: Pilots observe construction activity at San Chau airfield, but the only aircraft on the ground is a single transport plane.  At Hong Kong, the pilots use high-powered binoculars to observe ships in Victoria Harbor, including four to five large merchant vessels and two smaller vessels.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None

SOURCES: Original mission report 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).