31 Aug 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
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OBJECTIVE: Fly a series of staggered single-aircraft night raids to harass airbases at Canton and Hong Kong, which will prevent JAAF pilots from flying night bombing missions
RESULTS: Three B-25s bomb Tien Ho airbase, four B-25s bomb White Cloud airbase, one B-25 bombs Kai Tak airfield, and one B-25 bombs godowns on Pearl River south of Canton.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~8:14 to 10:25 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Nine B-25s from 491st Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Captain Blaha
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 48 x 100-pound fragmentation bomb clusters; 44 x 100-pound bombs; 24 x 250-pound bombs
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).
