08 Jul 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Bomb military targets in Canton

RESULTS: Eleven aircraft bomb the primary target, military facilities near Chungshan University.  Six aircraft are unable to locate the primary target.  Four of these planes bomb White Cloud airbase, and two bomb Tien Ho airbase.

TIME OVER TARGET: ~9:00 to 10:55 p.m. depending on the squadron

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Seventeen B-24J from 373^rd, 374^th, 375^th, and 425^th Bomb Squadron (308^th Heavy Bomb Group)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• B-24J #422: 1^st Lt. R.P. Aldridge; 2^nd Lt. S.E. Whitman; 2^nd Lt. L.M. Jacobson; 2^nd Lt. M. Shapiro; Staff Sgt. A.S. Boreson; Staff Sgt. R.L. Shane; Sgt. B.A. Pentasia [spelling?]; Sgt. J. Macarelli

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 90 x 100-pound incendiary bombs; 400 x 100-pound bombs; 48 x 250-pound bombs

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: B-24J #422 crashes near Kunming for unspecified causes, but all crewmembers safely bail out.

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).