10 Mar 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
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OBJECTIVE: Bomb HK & Whampoa dockyard
RESULTS: B-24s attempt to bomb dockyard at night with the aid of flares, but only six aircraft find the target. Bombs are widely scattered and cause little damage, with some apparently falling on Hong Kong Island. The Hongkong News later claims a hospital is hit, killing several Chinese patients. The 308th judges that the use of flares for night bombing over Hong Kong is a failure and the group does not repeat this experiment.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~10:20 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Eleven B-24s from the 374th and 375th Bomb Squadrons (308th Heavy Bomb Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Captain Fiser; Captain Morgan; Captain Crawford; Captain Hairston; Lt. Smith; Lt. Huffman; Lt. Braun; Lt. Bingman; Lt. Manning; Lt. Heeth; Lt. Nolan (all aircraft commanders)
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 36 x 1,000-pound bombs plus 25 air-dropped flares
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).
