20 Aug 1943, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
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OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton
TIME OVER TARGET: ~2:37 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Six B-25 medium bombers from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group) and ten P-40s from the 74th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:
- P-40s: Colonel Bruce K. Holloway; Major Norval C. Bonawitz; Captain Arthur W. Cruikshank; 1st Lt. George W. Lee; 1st Lt. Samuel P.M. Kinsey; 1st Lt. Fennard Herring; Lt. Hendrickson; Lt. Lawrence W. Smith; Lt. Bennett; Lt. Sinclair
- B-25s: Tech Sgt. George W. Gouldthrite
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 48 120-pound M-3 fragmentation clusters and 24 100-pound general purpose bombs
RESULTS: Results unobserved due to interception by Japanese fighters
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: American pilots report up to 20 intercepting Japanese fighters. These were likely Ki-44-IIs from the 85th Sentai.
AIRCRAFT LOSSES:
- Japanese fighter aircraft inflict minor damage on three B-25s.
- American fighter pilots and B-25 gunner Sgt. Gouldthrite claim to shoot down up to seven Japanese fighters, though this is likely an inflated total.
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).
