14 Sep 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
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OBJECTIVE: Dive-bomb targets in town of Samshui near Canton and run fighter sweep over White Cloud airbase.
RESULTS: The P-40s and P-51s hit Samshui with high-explosive and incendiary bombs, causing numerous fires. After completing their bomb run, the P-51 pilots are ambushed by Japanese fighter pilots and a short dogfight ensues.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~4:00 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Ten P-51s and four P-40s from the 76th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Lt. Bees; Lt. Reeves; Lt. Perkins; Lt. Jerome F. Eisenman; Lt. Shull; Lt. E.E. Smith; (76th FS); Major Treacy (23rd FG); Lt. Bannon; Lt. Squires (93rd FS); Lt. Conant (529th FS); Lt. Meadows; Lt. Livergood; Lt. Lehman (25th FS); Lt. Foltz (89th FS). Though the pilots are from multiple units, the aircraft may all belong to the 76th FS.
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 4 x 250-pound bombs; 4 x 500-pound bombs; 16 x M-69 500-pound incendiary clusters
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: An estimated 10-14 Japanese fighter aircraft, probably Ki-44s from the 85th Sentai with perhaps a few Ki-43s as well.
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: One P-51 is shot down, though it is not clear if this resulted from antiaircraft fire or a Japanese fighter. The pilot, Lt. Shull, bails out safely and returns to his unit.
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).
