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

OBJECTIVE: Bomb the Kowloon shipyards (most likely the HK & Whampoa dockyard)

TIME OVER TARGET: ~12:30 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Eight P-40s from the 74^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group) escort seven B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group) and an unknown number of B-25s from the 1^st Bomb Group of the Chinese American Composite Wing. 

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• P-40s: Colonel Rouse; Major Denny; Captain Bell; Captain Jones; Lt. Lundy; Lt. Lee; 1^st Lt. Richard Mauritson; 2^nd Lt. Altheus B. Jarmon
• B-25s (11^th BS):
  • B-25 #46: 1^st Lt. William A. Brenner; 2^nd Lt. Delwyn F. Ritzdorf; 2^nd Lt. Richard W. Sherman; Staff Sgt. Ray T. Hamilton; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker
  • B-25 #56: 1^st Lt. Robert A. Nice; 2^nd Lt. Thomas H. Anderson; 2^nd Lt. Robert B. Fischborn; Staff Sgt. Eugene E. Banzhof; Sgt. Jean W. Walburn
  • B-25 #55: 2^nd Lt. Dow J. Richter; 2^nd Lt. John T. Schmidt; 2^nd Lt. Gerald M. O’Day; Sgt. Walter P. White; Sgt. Frederick T. Kaveney
  • B-25 #57: 1^st Lt. Carl J. LaValle; 2^nd Lt. Richard L. Edwards; 1^st Lt. William H.C. White; Staff Sgt. Robert A. Petrucelli; Sgt. Harold J. Coleman; Corporal Carl Cannon
  • B-25 #68: 1^st Lt. LeRoy J. Fontaine; 2^nd Lt. Harold E. Sparhawk; 1^st Lt. Seaborn V. Howard; Staff Sgt. Marino R. Galluzzo; Staff Sgt. Arthur B. Smith
  • B-25 #79: 2^nd Lt. Edward J. Pawlowski; 2^nd Lt. Orrin G. Zebarth; 1^st Lt. Paul J. Diekmann; Staff Sgt. Robert C. Appleby; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Steiner
  • B-25 #92: Lt. Col. Joseph B. Wells; Captain Loren S. Nickels; 2^nd Lt. Jack H. Potter; 2^nd Lt. Charles A. Lutton; 2^nd Lt. Herbert I. Robinson; Sgt. Joe D. Josserand; Staff Sgt. Harry L. Veale; Corporal Arbun K. Griffen

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

RESULTS: Due to heavy cloud cover the bomber crews are unable to bomb the target and return all bombs to Kweilin

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.

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).