01 Dec 1943, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tai Koo dockyard and HK & Whampoa dockyard

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

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:

• Six B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group)
• Six B-25s from the 2^nd Bomb Squadron (1^st Bomb Group, Chinese American Composite Wing)
• Eight P-40s from the 74^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group)
• Six P-51As from the 76^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group)
• Seventeen P-40Ns from the 3^rd Fighter Group (Chinese American Composite Wing)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• P-40s (74^th FS): Col. Rouse; Lt. Colonel Norval C. Bonawitz; Major Denney; Captain Bell; Lt. Lundy; Lt. Hendrickson; Lt. Morello; Lt. Morin
• P-51s (76^th FS): Lt. Col. David L. “Tex” Hill; Captain James M. “Willie” Williams; 1^st Lt. Dale Bell; 1^st Lt. Robert T. Colbert; 1^st Lt. Harry G. Zavakos; Flight Officer Wilson
• B-25s (2^nd BS): Lt. Colonel Branch; Captain Conrad; Captain Harper; Captain Carson; Captain Churchill; 1^st Lt. Seacrest; Sgt. C.C. Wei
• B-25s (11^th BS):
  • B-25 #38: Flight Officer Richard M. Gramling; Flight Officer William R. Monroe; Sgt. Rafael C. Arellano; Corporal Everett F. Hamilton
  • B-25 #46: 2^nd Lt. John M. Overstreet; 2^nd Lt. Stanley A. Johnson; 2^nd Lt. Ralph Kamhi; Sgt. Frederick C. DeWitt; Private Charles J. Wilder
  • B-25 #57: 1^st Lt. Edgar N. Gentry; 2^nd Lt. Harold E. Sparhawk; 1^st Lt. Paul J. Diekman; Sgt. William H. Johnson; Staff Sgt. Robert D. Shaak; Corporal E.Z. Mann
  • B-25 #68: 1^st Lt. William A. Brenner; 2^nd Lt. Delwyn F. Ritzdorf; 1^st Lt. Frank H. Gibson; Staff Sgt. Ray T. Hamilton; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker
  • B-25 #88: 1^st Lt. George T. Grottle; 2^nd Lt. Harold Rochelle; 2^nd Lt. Robert B. Fischborn; Staff Sgt. Golden U. Gallup
  • B-25 #92: Lt. Col. Joseph B. Wells; 1^st Lt. William M. Henry; 1^st Lt. Charles J. Bethea; 2^nd Lt. Herbert I. Robinson; Sgt. Joe D. Josserand; Sgt. Harold J. Coleman; Corporal Arbun K. Griffen

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 72 x 500-pound bombs

RESULTS: Bombs hit the Tai Koo and HK & Whampoa dockyards.  At Tai Koo, the 2,645-ton Teiren Maru is damaged beyond repair.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Ki-43 and Ki-44 pilots from the 85^th Sentai

AIRCRAFT LOSSES:

• Pilots of the 85^th Sentai shoot down two P-51As (pilots Colbert and Williams) and damage a third (pilot Hill)
• One B-25 gunner claims to shoot down one enemy fighter and Lt. Col. Hill damages one Ki-44

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).