06 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 bombs aircraft revetments at White Cloud airbase and two B-25s bomb barracks at Tien Ho airbase. Two B-25s bomb and strafe small craft on the West River, sinking or setting on fire five small boats and sampans.  A sixth B-25 is unable to take off for the mission due to a Japanese air raid on the American airbase at Liuchow.

TIME OVER TARGET: ~7:45 p.m. on October 06 to 12:15 a.m. on October 07

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Five B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• B-25J #43-27807: Flight Officer Ronald E. Irwin; 2^nd Lt. Robert W. Burtner; 2^nd Lt. Maurice J. Freeman; 2^nd Lt. Edward Tempest; Sgt. Kenneth L. Henry; Corporal Oscar W. Lowe; Corporal Edward L. Naylor
• B-25J #43-4091: 1^st Lt. Marcus L. Shoat; 2^nd Lt. Boyd A. Shumway; 2^nd Lt. Clifford Dutton; 2^nd Lt. Philip J. Holman; Sgt. Donald E. Bell; Staff Sgt. Richard A. Smart; Sgt. Henry E. Krant
• B-25H #43-5072: 2^nd Lt. Arthur E. Thomas; Flight Officer John J. Hanley; Corporal Oscar G. Jones; Staff Sgt. Jerome J. Krasowitz; Sgt. Robert D. Jorgenson
• B-25J #43-28807: 2^nd Lt. John J. Wise; 2^nd Lt. William K. Mack; 2^nd Lt. Charles G. Frederick; Corporal Charles G. Edelman; Corporal Ralph M. Surber; Corporal Joseph C. Brucker
• B-25J #43-3949: 1^st Lt. Charles S. Nichols; 2^nd Lt. Floyd H. Woosley; 2^nd Lt. Elmo B. Hessler; Staff Sgt. Frederick J. Reyer; Staff Sgt. William C. Zimmerman; Staff Sgt. Merrill B. Hewitt

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 12 x 100-pound fragmentation bomb clusters; 36 x 100-pound bombs; 16 x 250-pound  bombs; 4,240 .50 caliber machine-gun rounds

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).