15 Nov 1943, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Bomb Kowloon docks and mine Victoria Harbor

TIME OVER TARGET: ~11:00 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Twenty B-24s from the 373^rd, 374^th, 375^th and 425^th Bomb Squadrons (308^th Heavy Bomb Group)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• B-24 #183: Captain Sam J. Skousen; Captain James S. “Jack” Edney; 1^st Lt. Ralph E. Bower; 1^st Lt. Daniel J. Palmer; 1^st Lt. Malcolm S. Sanders; Tech Sgt. Arthur J. Benko; Tech Sgt. Robert M. Kirk; Tech Sgt. A.L. Flaherty; Tech Sgt. W.J. Novak; Staff Sgt. Casper J. Chirieleison
• B-24 #409: 1^st Lt. Wyndham M. Manning; 2^nd Lt. Milton H. Werner; 2^nd Lt. Winfred A. Cates; 2^nd Lt. Harold M. Thomas; Tech Sgt. Anastacio M. Contreras; Staff Sgt. Norman E. Bonds; Staff Sgt. Orla M. Reichel; Staff Sgt. Paul E. Ebner; Staff Sgt. James J. Garrott
• B-24 #826: 2^nd Lt. James P. Gilbert; 2^nd Lt. Linus J. Austin; 2^nd Lt. Donald G. Richardson; 2^nd Lt. John W. Grosbeck; Tech Sgt. Harold W. Case; Staff Sgt. Barton W. Owens; Staff Sgt. Patsy Gerrone; Staff Sgt. Arthur Regal; Staff Sgt. John Orovecz; Staff Sgt. Clifford T. Hamilton

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 61 x 500-pound bombs and 18 x 1,000-pound anti-ship mines (some B-24s fail to find target and return to base with bombs and mines still aboard)

RESULTS: Bomb damage to Kowloon docks is unknown.  Mines are dropped in Kellet and Lei Yue Mun channels.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES:

• B-24 #409 and #826 crash on the return flight, apparently due to fuel exhaustion.  All crewmen bail out and eventually return to their unit.
• B-24 #183 loses two engines and seven of the ten crewmen bail out.  1^st Lt. Sanders and Tech Sgt. Benko are captured after landing in enemy territory.  #183 makes the field at Kweilin despite the loss of two engines.

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).