16 Mar 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

16 Mar 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

Date(s) of events described: 
Thu, 16 Mar 1944

OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton

RESULTS: Aircraft fail to find target due to cloud cover and return to base without dropping any bombs

TIME OVER TARGET: ~8:15 to 8:45 a.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:

  • Eight P-40s from the 74th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
  • Eight P-40s from the Chinese American Composite Wing (squadrons unknown, but possibly 28th or 32nd Provisional Fighter Squdron)
  • Nine B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group)
  • Eleven B-25s (most likely 1st Bomb Squadron, 1st Medium Bomb Group) from the Chinese American Composite Wing

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

  • 74th FS: Major Barry Melloan; Lt. Bear; Lt. Duffy; Lt. Robert Gibeault; Lt. Strantz; Lt. [Kenneth?] La Tourelle; Lt. [Virgil A?] Butler; Lt. Cousins
  • 11th BS:
    • B-25 #431: 1st Lt. Edward J. Pawlowski; 1st Lt. Delwyn F. Ritzdorf; 1st Lt. Raymond J. Mazanowski; 1st Lt. Robert D. Guma; Tech Sgt. Robert C. Appleby; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Steiner; Staff Sgt. Thomas P. Kolenda
    • B-25 #436: Captain Robert S. Thompson; 1st Lt. Harold Rochelle; 1st Lt. Frank H. Gibson; Staff Sgt. Ray T. Hamilton; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Lucas; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker
    • B-25 #429: 1st Lt. James J. Harnett; 1st Lt. William F. Angell; 2nd Lt. James F. Butler; Tech Sgt. Henry M. Ellis; Staff Sgt. Michael Ilnicki; Staff Sgt. Frederick C. DeWitt
    • B-25 #428: 1st Lt. Robert A. Nice; 1st Lt. Richard M. Gramling; 1st Lt. Arthur I. Blechman; 1st Lt. Herbert I. Robinson; Tech Sgt. Eugene E. Banzhof; Staff Sgt. Earl F. Porter; Sgt. Arbun K. Griffen
    • B-25 #427: Captain Theodore J. Michel; 2nd Lt. Daniel J. Pfiefer; 1st Lt. Robert B. Fischborn; Staff Sgt. Robert L. Harmon; Staff Sgt. George E. Zecher; Tech Sgt. Lawrence W. Jarrett
    • B-25 #432: 1st Lt. Carl J. LaValle; Lt. Colonel Joseph B. Wells; 1st Lt. Thomas B. Cox; 1st Lt. Clyde H. Wells; Tech Sgt. Robert A. Petrucelli; Staff Sgt. Lambert B. Regstock; Staff Sgt. Harold J. Coleman
    • B-25 #425: 1st Lt. Denning M. Perdew; 2nd Lt. Raymond S. Horey; 2nd Lt. Earl C. Stone; Staff Sgt. Steven Simon; Sgt. William C. Whaley
    • B-25 #415: 1st Lt. Dow J. Richter; 1st Lt. Stanley A. Johnson; 2nd Lt. Gerald M. O’Day; Staff Sgt. Walter P. White; Staff Sgt. Frederick T. Kaveney; Private First Class Herbert Morrison

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

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).

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