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

OBJECTIVE: Sea sweep over South China Sea

TIME OVER TARGET: Twelve noon

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Two B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• B-25 #38: 1^st Lt. Edgar N. Gentry; 1^st Lt. William M. Henry; 2^nd Lt. Ralph Kamhi; Sgt. Robert L. Lantz
• B-25 #88: 1^st Lt. Dow J. Richter; 2^nd Lt. Thomas H. Anderson; 2^nd Lt. Charles A. Lutton; Staff Sgt. Frederick T. Kavaney

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 8 x 500-pound bombs

RESULTS: The B-25s bomb and strafe a 200-foot armed freighter at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta.  The ship is mostly likely the auxiliary minesweeper Genchi Maru (525 GRT).  The vessel is on fire and sinking when the B-25s depart the scene.  Crewmen who abandon ship are strafed by gunners aboard the B-25s.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None

SOURCES:

• Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
• The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War Two: A Graphic Presentation of the Japanese Naval Organization and List of Combatant and Non-Combatant Vessels Lost or Damaged in the War from the Military History Section of the General Headquarters of the U.S. Far East Command in 1952.

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).