A live map showing the area around and approximate placements of the three-ship naval convoy encountered by the 345th Bomb Group on April 6, 1945. The orange outlined box is the area shown on page one of the after action report shown below. Imagery courtesy of Earthstar Geographics and Esri.
Microfilm reel B0300 contains part of the Unit History for the 345th Bomb Group during WW2. Within the pages of the April 1945 history, I found a ten page after action report that covered a successful, but costly, April 6, 1945 attack on a Japanese naval convoy in the Swatow-Amoy area off the China coast.
The convoy consisted of two frigates and one destroyer, all heavily armed with anti-aircraft guns. All four squadrons of the 345th were involved in the raid and two B-25s were lost to anti-aircraft fire: Captain Albin Johnson’s plane (498th) was observed to ditch in the water several miles beyond the target but only one survivor was observed in the water; the plane flown by 1Lt Joseph Herick (500th) was observed to blow up mid-air and crash into the sea just after passing the target.
The microfilm pages were quite faded and required some retouching to make the text more legible, but the finished product is a faithful representation of the originals. The ten pages of the report are presented below and provide an operational perspective on the raid.
The digitized microfilm document was provided by the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.