04 Oct 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Fly a series of staggered single-aircraft night raids to harass airbases at Canton and prevent JAAF pilots from flying night bombing missions against American airbases in China.

RESULTS: One B-25 bomb White Cloud airbase, three B-25 bomb Tien Ho airbase, and two B-25s bomb the designated alternate target of Wuchow.

TIME OVER TARGET: ~9:00 to 11:32 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Six B-25s from the 491^st Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• B-25H #43-4361: 1^st Lt. H.W. Fox; 2^nd Lt. J.L. Wolfe; Staff Sgt. S.E. Smith; Staff Sgt. A. Nemeth; Sgt. H.R. Lehmann
• B-25D #43-3291: Captain R.G. Hunt; 2^nd Lt. J.H. Wilson; 1^st Lt. W.P. Dougan; 1^st Lt. R.K. Shaw; Staff Sgt. W.S. Faulkner; Staff Sgt. J.B. Clark; Staff Sgt. W.R. Wahl; Major G.V. Selwyn
• B-25H #43-4319: 2^nd Lt. R.M. Howell; 2^nd Lt. R.V. Zaloudek; Staff Sgt. L.C. Jones; Tech Sgt. L.F. Doherty; Staff Sgt. E.E. Routon
• B-25D #43-3288: 1^st Lt. F.O. Cullen; 2^nd Lt. A.E. Armstrong; 2^nd Lt. R.M. Howard; 1^st Lt. H.R. Edelman; Tech Sgt. P. Mandich; Staff Sgt. G.A. Penney; Staff Sgt. L.J. Flanagan
• B-25H #43-4159: 1^st Lt. J.H. Shields; 2^nd Lt. T.F. Jordan; Staff Sgt. J.T. Young; Staff Sgt. C.E. Henderson; Staff Sgt. C.R. Bigelow
• B-25J #43-3926: 2^nd Lt. J.A. Madden; 1^st Lt. W.B. Guest; 2^nd Lt. S. Mazer; 2^nd Lt. L.J. Forrester; Staff Sgt. F. Norkus; Staff Sgt. S.W. McDonald; Staff Sgt. A.L. Matos

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 110 x 100-pound bombs; 8 x 250-pound bombs

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Three Japanese single-engine aircraft are spotted, but they do not engage the B-25s

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: No aircraft are lost during the mission, though one B-25 that returns from the mission is damaged later that night by a fragmentation bomb dropped during a Japanese night raid on the airfield at Liuchow.

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).