09 Aug 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Block channels in Victoria Harbor and Pearl River with anti-ship mines

RESULTS: B-24s drop anti-ship mines into Victoria Harbor (East Lamma Channel, Rambler Channel, and near Green Island) and into the Pearl River.

TIME OVER TARGET: 10:25 to 11:55 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Nine B-24s from the 373^rd, 374^th, 375^th, and 425th Bomb Squadrons (308^th Heavy Bomb Group)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• B-24 #822: 2^nd Lt. E.P. Mitchell; 2^nd Lt. F.C. Steiger; 2^nd Lt. F.B. Massing; Flight Officer H.J. Lundberg; Staff Sgt. L.W. Habel; Staff Sgt. R. Hunter, Jr.; Corporal L.C. Hedlund; Sgt. R.N. Kuhns; Sgt. B.E. LaBlanc

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 36 x Mark-13 anti-ship mines

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES:

• One B-24 (#822) is lost to unknown causes and its crew (listed above) is declared missing in action.
• One B-24 (#833) is hit by three heavy-machine gun rounds, causing damage to #3 and #4 engines.

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).