09 Sep 1943, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Bomb White Cloud airbase at Canton

TIME OVER TARGET: ~11:45 a.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Eight B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group) escorted by eleven P-40s from the 74th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group).  All aircraft are from the 14^th Air Force.

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• P-40 pilots: Colonel “Rosy” Grubbs; Captain Morrison; Captain Bell; Lt. Mimmack; Lt. Jones; Lt. Lundy; 2^nd Lt. Altheus B. Jarmon; Lt. Meyer; 1^st Lt. Richard Mauritson; Lt. Thomas P. Bennett; 1^st Lt. Samuel P.M. Kinsey.
• Crewmen aboard B-25 shot up by Japanese fighter pilots: 2^nd Lt. Herbert F. Hempe; Captain L.S. Nickels; 1^st Lt. Charles H. Dearth; Sgt. Martin S. Waite; Staff Sgt. Michael Barnick
• B-25 crew on other aircraft: 2^nd Lt. Robert D. Guma; Staff Sgt. Loren Morris; Staff Sgt. Golden U. Gallup; Staff Sgt. Charles M. Cox

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 96 x 100-pound bombs

RESULTS: Bombs fall within perimeter of airbase, and B-25 crews report direct hits on one hangar and one fuel dump

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: An estimated 15 to 25 Ki-43-II and Ki-44-II from the 25^th Sentai and 85^th Sentai.  Pilots include Major Toshio A. Sakagawa and Captain Yoshiaki Nakahara.

AIRCRAFT LOSSES:

• P-40 pilots and B-25 gunners claim to shoot down up to nine Japanese fighters, though Japanese records indicate that just one pilot—Captain Nakahara—was shot down and killed on this date over Canton.
• Ki-43 pilots claim to shoot down two American planes, but no American aircraft are lost on this mission.  However, the B-25 flown by 2^nd Lt. Hempe is badly shot up, and the copilot (Capt. Nickels) and bombardier (1^st Lt. Dearth) are wounded.  Hempe lands his badly damaged B-25 safely at Kweilin.

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).