08 May 1943, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield in Canton.  This is the first raid on a target in the Pearl River delta by the China-based 14^th Air Force, the successor unit to the China Air Task Force (a unit of the India-based 10^th Air Force).  This is also the first raid on a Pearl River delta target by the 308^th Heavy Bomb Group, and only the unit’s second combat mission.

TIME OVER TARGET: ~1:30 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:

• Ten B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group)
• Sixteen B-24s from the 373^rd, 374^th, 375^th and 425^th Bomb Squadrons (308^th Heavy Bomb Group)
• Twenty-four P-40s from the 16^th and 75^th Fighter Squadrons (23^rd Fighter Group)

All aircraft are from the 14^th Air Force commanded by General Claire Chennault.

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• P-40s: Lt. Col. Clinton D. Vincent; Major John R. Alison; Major Harry M. Pike; 1^st Lt. Lauren Barneby; 1^st Lt. Joseph H. Griffin; 1^st Lt. Melvin B. Kimball; 1^st Lt. James W. Little; 2^nd Lt. Robert L. Tempest
• B-24s: Brigadier General Howard Davidson (traveling as an observer while on an inspection trip from Washington); Colonel Eugene H. Beebe; Captain Adler; Staff Sgt. Israel Blumenfeld; Tech Sgt. Edward J. McCon; Tech Sgt. Harold A. Mcquate
• B-25s: Captain Douglas C. Weaver; 1^st Lt. John B. Lyman; 2^nd Lt. Frederick B. Lee; Staff Sgt. Eldon E. Shirley; Staff Sgt. George A. Kelly; Staff Sgt. Hubert F. Blades; Staff Sgt. Thomas H. Cave (all KIA)

 ORDNANCE EXPENDED: The B-24s drop 1,000-pound bombs and propaganda leaflets.  The B-25s drop a mix of 30-pound fragmentation bombs and 100-pound demolition bombs. 

RESULTS: The bombing ignites a substantial fire among buildings near the runway that burns for at least two days and generates considerable smoke.  American bomb-damage assessments claim 25 buildings and a large aircraft hanger are destroyed.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Ki-43-IIs from the 33^rd Sentai

AIRCRAFT LOSSES:

• One B-25 is lost with its crew over Canton, possibly due to the premature explosion of its fragmentation bombs.  The crewmembers (listed above) are all presumed killed in action.
• One P-40 belly-lands in friendly territory due to fuel exhaustion, but the pilot walks away.
• B-24 gunners Blumenfeld, McCon, and Mcquate (see above) claim three enemy fighters shot down and American fighter pilots claim another thirteen.  However, Japanese records suggest that only Capt. Yuto Sakashita and 1^st Lt. Ichiro Sakai of the 33^rd Sentai are lost over Canton on this day. 

SOURCES:

• Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama
• Japanese Army Fighter Aces, 1931-45, by Ikuhiko Hata, Yasuho Izawa, and Christopher Shores

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).