The Bombing of Hong Kong Harbor - The Kowloon Docks

...notice the tail gun barrels at bottom !

All photos courtesy of R.E. Mongell

 It is fitting that one of the last missions flown by the 11th Bomb Squadron in it's long and bitter fight to defend Southeast China should be not only the greatest in the history of the unit, but also perhaps the foremost single achievement of the 14th Air Force. This was the low level attack on October 16th enemy shipping in Honk Kong Harbor. The opportunity to strike this crippling blow at the Japanese merchant marine had been provided by the American Navy, whose task forces were then prowling in Formosa waters. Fleeing this menace, an enormous number of enemy ships of all types had sought refuge in Victoria Harbor at Hong Kong.

A breakdown of the results by type and tonnage :

• 4 B-25 escorted by 8 P-40's

• 24x500lb. demo's dropped.

Destroyed :

• (1) 350 and (1) 400 foot freighter, both hit and left afire

• (1) 350 foot merchant vessel

• (1) 200 foot merchant vessel.

Near Miss/Damaged :

• (1) 400 foot freighter.

Probable Damage :

• (2) 300 foot freighters.

Excellent photos were taken by Sgt. Arvid J. Johnson and T/Sgt. Robert E. Mongell who at the time operated tail turrets in their respective planes. The mission can best be described from a quote from the official mission report :

"The heaviness and accuracy of the strafing undoubtedly caused destruction which could not be observed, and in any case reduced the effectiveness of the AckAck* fire from the vessels. In one case pilot 1st Lt. Leander L. Smith, seeing the flashing of automatic weapons from a vessel slightly to the right of his path, kicked his rudder and with all nose guns firing, sprayed the decks off this vessel from stem to stern and the firing was seen to cease."

* AckAck - term used for Anti-Aircraft fire.