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

OBJECTIVE: Bomb ships in Victoria Harbor

TIME OVER TARGET: ~2:00 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Ten P-38 Lightnings from the 449^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: 2^nd Lt. Gregg; 2^nd Lt. Newnom; 2^nd Lt. Ivan A. Rockwell; 2^nd Lt. Taylor

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Four P-38s use skip-bombing tactics and drop 4 x 500-pound bombs, while six P-38s fly top cover

RESULTS: Three P-38 pilots bomb merchant ships, and though they claim two hits, none of the vessels sink.  A fourth pilot bombs a dam on Hong Kong Island, but the bomb apparently fails to explode.  All four pilots strafe the gunboat IJNS Saga.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: Two P-38s are damaged by antiaircraft fire and one later crashes, killing 2^nd Lt. Rockwell.  He is the first pilot from the 449^th to be killed on a mission to Hong Kong.

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).