May 20th, 1943
Ha Long Bay (Tonkin), around 02:00 - In the darkness, two large commercial junks each take on board about a hundred Vietminh, with a few machine guns and mortars. A third, smaller one, takes along about sixty men.
As the small flotilla approached the Norway Island lighthouse, it is targeted by the lighthouse guards, the Bach Mu Doan (or White Berets - a pro-Japanese nationalist militia). Under fire, one of the large junks lands on the island. The Vietminh land, quickly eliminate the defenders and set explosive charges to blow up the lighthouse, which collapses into the sea.
As the men reembark, the other two junks head for another objective, the Hòn Dau lighthouse. Together with the Norway lighthouse, it normally guides ships on the approaches of Haiphong. However, luck is to change. Sailing as close to the coast as possible, the light junk breaks up on a reef. The junk that blew up the lighthouse on Norway Island rescues some twenty survivors, while the other junk continues on its way. But the sea is getting rougher and on land, the explosion of the lighthouse gave the alarm. A 75 mm cannon opens fire and despite the darkness, the Japanese gunners succeed in surrounding the junk which heads towards Hòn Dau.
The ship approaches the shore while opening fire with three 12.7 mm and a heavy mortar to silence the cannon, but it runs aground on a sandbank. A second cannon starts to fire on the immobilized junk. The leader of the operation hesitates. Should he disembark his men to try to get rid of the artillery battery? But this one is probably covered by machine guns... Fortunately, the sea pulls the junk out of the sandbank's embrace. The shells continue to fall, raising phosphorescent sprays. On board, there are already six dead and ten wounded, but the worst is yet to come. A shell smashes the gunwale and explodes in the middle of the men, causing many victims, then another shell opens a large hole in the stern, at the level of the waterline, and a third one breaks the mainmast.
The junk starts to sink but, pushed by favorable currents, moves away from the shore and a promontory hides it from the view of the Japanese gunners. The last vessel of the small flotilla is able to recover about thirty survivors. The junk is overloaded, but it arrives not far from the lighthouse of Hòn Dau. The Vietnamese leader decides to try to destroy his second objective, although daybreak is approaching - losses are to be expected, but the mission is the mission, and the junk will be lighter to escape!
Despite the fire of the lighthouse garrison, more than a hundred men disembark, with a mortar and two machine guns.
The fight is much more violent than on Norway Island. The garrison is formed by the elite of the Noi Ung Nghia Bhinh (another pro-Japanese Vietnamese nationalist group). These men vigorously defend themselves, aware that they have nothing to hope for in case of defeat, because if the lighthouse is destroyed, those who had escaped the Vietminh would perish at the hands of the furious Japanese! They manage to hold out until dawn.
At that moment, two planes appear in the sky. They are Ki-36 "Ida", but their light bombs are enough to set the junk on fire. The planes come back then and clean the shore with machine guns, mercilessly sweeping away their enemies as well as their allies. Among the attackers, there are only ten survivors, who manage to swim back to the coast taking advantage of the confusion.
Hanoi, 11:00 - Today, twenty Liberators of the 308th BG decide to attack warehouses of Imperial Army supplies. Falling from 25,000 feet, the bombs completely destroy their target, but not only: many projectiles hit residential areas and about fifty civilians are killed.
This time, the Japanese fighters are present, but the Ki-43 "Oscar" which launch themselves to the four-engine planes have difficulty climbing to 25,000 feet and are pushed back by the crossfire of the .50 machine guns. On the other hand, the flak is more and more accurate and shoots down a B-24. Two others, seriously hit, ask for an emergency landing at Dien-Bien-Phu. It is the first time that Epervier is used as a rescue site.
"The first one (Betty-G, serial 41-24279, 375th BS) lined up correctly in spite of the fire which devours its engine 4, it remains only to reduce slightly, still fifty meters and it is in the pocket... Suddenly, the right wing breaks while he is only a few meters from the ground! Horrified, we watch helplessly as the Liberator falls and crashes on the threshold of the runway. Fortunately, it did not explode - out of a crew of ten men, four got off with minor injuries, but three were killed and three seriously injured.
Without waiting, the second (Dippy Dave, serial 41-24143, 373th BS) lines up. He seems less hit than his unfortunate companion and if his engine 2 is stopped, propeller feathered, it does not burn. After a flare that seemed to last forever, it touched the runway and a few moments later, its engines stop: pierced like a skimmer, the four-engine plane has lost almost all its fuel, it has just landed on its last drops of gasoline!
Once the holes plugged and the engine 2 repaired with parts taken on the rests of the poor Betty-G, Dippy Dave will be able to return in China. The crew has only three minor injuries." (Recollections of Captain John R. Alison, 75th FS)
