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

OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton

TIME OVER TARGET: ~12:55 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:

• Eighteen B-24s from the 373^rd, 374^th, and 425^th Bomb Squadrons (308^th Heavy Bomb Group)
• Unknown number of P-40s from the 74^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group)
• Three P-51s and one P-40 from the 76^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group)
• Unknown number of P-40Ns from 28^th Provisional Fighter Squadron (Chinese American Composition Wing)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• P-40s (28^th PFS): Major Eugene Strickland; Captain Cheng; Lt. C.Y. Meng; Lt. Y.H. Chao; Lt. S.L. Chow; Lt. Frank Smiley; Lt. Art Skidmore
• P-40s (74^th FS): Lt. Virgil A. Butler
• P-40s (76^th FS): 1^st Lt. Harry G. Zavakos
• P-51s (76^th FS): Captain Lee Manbeck; Lt. Boylan; Lt. Butler
• B-24 #246: Staff Sgt. Joe Duran; Staff Sgt. Earl L. Smith; Staff Sgt. Frederick D. Day
• B-24 #247: Tech Sgt. Sydney H. McPherson
• B-24 #249: Sgt. F.G. Blair; Staff Sgt. Ben A. Weischman
• B-24 #252: Tech Sgt. John E. Beaudoin, Jr.; Staff Sgt. Marvin D. Gray
• B-24 #257: Staff Sgt. Leonard Davenport; Staff Sgt. Herman Peterson; Staff Sgt. Howard A. Buchman; Sgt. Clarence J. King
• B-24 #262: Staff Sgt. Clemon V. Eaton
• B-24 #286: Staff Sgt. Arthur Regal, Jr.; Staff Sgt. John Coughlin; Staff Sgt. Clifford T. Hamilton; Staff Sgt. W.S. Polchlopek; Staff Sgt. Cecil L. Olson
• B-24 #309: Tech Sgt. LeRoy C. Jordon; Staff Sgt. Charles V. Dumato; Tech  Sgt. Robert O. Wafle
• B-24 #317: Staff Sgt. Barton W. Owens; Tech Sgt. Robert Berman; Staff Sgt. John Orovecz
• B-24 #320: Staff Sgt. Roy D. Smith
• B-24 #324: Sgt. Beckman Winecoff
• B-24 #329: 1^st Lt. Charles M. Swanson; 2^nd Lt. H.W. Linihan; 2^nd Lt. Dale R. Anderson; 2^nd Lt. Harvey Berman; 2^nd Lt. Charles C. Boone; Tech  Sgt. Perry J. Humphries; Tech Sgt. Dan W. Lee; Staff Sgt. Wendell G. Mettert; Staff Sgt. Alfred H. Geibel; Staff Sgt. Raymon L. Pavilina; Staff Sgt. Willis D. Culps
• B-24 #436: Tech Sgt. Stanley Marshall; Tech Sgt. Alvin Heath

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 198 x 250-pound bombs and 8 x 300-pound bombs

RESULTS: For the second day in a row, the B-24s fail to find the correct target and bomb an auxiliary airstrip by mistake.  Bombs hit runway and revetments, and possibly destroy one aircraft.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS:

• Ki-43 pilots from the 11^th Sentai and 25^th Sentai, including Capt. Nakakazu Ozaki
• Ki-44 pilots from the 85^th Sentai

AIRCRAFT LOSSES:

• B-24 #329 is shot down over Canton, most likely by Capt. Nakakazu Ozaki.  Five of the crew bail out and eventually return to their unit (Swanson; Boone; Lee; Geibel; Culps).
• One P-40 is lost in a forced landing, though the pilot (Zavakos) is uninjured.
• Enemy fighters inflict minor damage on four more B-24s.  Sgt. Blair in #249 is wounded in the leg by a 20mm cannon shell fragment.
• B-24 gunners claim to shoot down at least 17 Japanese fighter aircraft, and P-40 pilots of the 28^th Provisional Fighter Squadron claim three more.  Japanese losses are unknown, but certainly nowhere near the 20 planes claimed by American aviators.

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).