SUNDAY, 22 JULY 1945
Twentieth Air Force: A bombing and a mining mission are flown during the night
of 23/24 Jul; 1 B-29 is lost. Mission 282: 23 B-29s, staging through Iwo Jima, mine Shimonoseki Strait and
Najin, the longest B-29 combat mission of the war-and
in the Pusan-Masan, Korea area; 1 B-29 is lost. Mission 283: 72 B-29s bomb the
coal liquefaction company at the Imperial Fuel Industry Company at Ube. 100+ Iwo Jima based P-51s hit airfields, rail installations, and other tactical
targets at Itami, Hanshin, Sano, Tokushima, Takamatsu, and Minato, Japan.
7th Air Force: Twenty-four P-47N Thunderbolts from 414th FG with two aborting strike Moen Airfield in Truk based on reports that Japanese planes had arrived but none were spotted and proved to be erroneous. Lost is P-47N 44-88487 pilot 1st Lt George R. Jacobs (MIA).
CHINA THEATER (AAF, China Theater) Fourteenth Air Force: In China, 16 B-25s
and 8 fighter-bombers blast truck convoys moving supplies through the Siang
Chiang Valley, bomb railroad yards at Siaokan, and knock out 2 bridges S of
Sincheng and Lohochai. 50+ P-51s, P-47s, and P-38s continue the campaign to
disrupt enemy movement and withdrawal in French Indochina and S and E China,
pounding numerous rail, road, and river targets, supply dumps, and coastal shipping.
WESTERN PACIFIC [Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: In China, 22 B-24s from Okinawa
hit Chiang Wan and 1 hits Tinghai Airfield, 37 B-25s bomb an oil plant at Shanghai and a destroyer in the Whangpoo River, P-47s from Ie Shima join the B-25 attack
on the Shanghai area, hitting a destroyer, gunboat, and freighter in the Whangpoo
River, and factories and railroad shops, 34 P-51s from Okinawa also hit Whangpoo
shipping and 37 A-26s hit the airfield at Tachang. B-24s on a night shipping
search and weather mission bomb airfields at Tinghai and on Chusan Island, China; Pusan, Korea; and Yonago, Japan. On Luzon,
B-25s, P-51s, and P-38s, hampered by bad weather, fly 30+ ground support sorties
in the Gubano, Cervantes, and Mankayan areas. Unit moves: HQ 322d Troop Carrier
Wing from Hollandia to Manila; air echelon of 26th Photographic
Reconnaissance Squadron, 6th Reconnaissance Group from Lingayen Airfield to Clark
Field with F-5s (ground echelon at Lingayen Airfield); 311th Troop Carrier Squadron,
Seventh AF, begins a movement from Bellows Field to Okinawa with C-47s;
403d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 43d Bombardment Group (Heavy) moves from Clark
Field to Ie Shima with B-24s.
U.S. Navy: Task Force 93 (TF 93) under Rear Admiral John H. Brown, Jr. consisting of light cruisers Richmond (CL-9) and Concord (CL- 10) and five destroyers, conducts unopposed bombardment of installations at Suribachi, Paramushiro, Kurils
DesRon 61, on anti-shipping sweep in vicinity of Sagami Bay, picks up on its radar screens a four-ship Japanese convoy about five miles west of Nojima Zaki and engages it.
Japanese auxiliary minesweeper No.7 Toshi Maru is wrecked off Sata-Misaki, Japan, 31°00'N, 130°40'E.
Mines sink Japanese merchant cargo ship Katori Maru off Niigata; unnamed merchant motor sailer, 1.5 kilometers off Cape Motoyama; and damage auxiliary submarinechaser Cha 20 off Kobe, Japan; and merchant cargo ships Kojo Maru, off Niigata; Choyo Maru, off Najin; and Daikoku Maru, Hagi harbor; and merchant tanker Yuyo Maru, 1.6 kilometers off Mushima light.
Japanese merchant ship Hokko Go is sunk by aircraft, 35°10'N, 129°30'E.
Japanese merchant cargo ship No.3 Manei Maru is sunk by USAAF mine laid by B-29 (20th Air Force) ten kilometers west of Funagawa, Honshu, 39°53'N, 139°52'E.
Japanese merchant fishing boat No.58 Nanshin Maru is damaged by aircraft, 35°20'N, 130°00'E.
