Enclosure No.2.
39
REPORT ON THE BOMBING OF BRITISH TERRITORY BY
JAPANESE AEROPLANES ON 21st FEBRUARY, 1939.
(Reference Map: SHAM CHUN River, 1/20,000.
At about 0945 hours on February 21st, 1939, nine Japanese aeroplanes, coming from the direction of West by North, bombed the village of SHAN CHUN (1483) in Chinese
territory about 1500 yards North of the Shan Chun River,
which forms the frontier between China and the New Territories.
After bombing Sham Chun, the whole formation circled round and
appeared to fly over the top of Crest Hill (1380) in British
Territory. One flight of three then attacked the Chinese
Customs Wireless Station. About ten bombs were dropped.
The attack was made from the South, and a glance at the map
will shew that it is not possible to attack this target from
the South without flying over British territory.
Another flight then made an attack on the British
Railway Station (1481) about 200 yards inside the frontier.
This attack was made by two machines only, and approached the
target from the South Test: four bombs were dropped, two
about 400 yards inside the frontier due Test of the Railway
Station between the railway and the river, and two on the
railay about 200 yards South of the bridge. The first two
fell in the mud and did no damage, the second two demolished
a blockhouse and did considerable material damage to buildings
and to rolling stock, besides killing 1 Sikh policeman and
7 Chinese. One of these two machines circled round again and opened machine-gun fire on to refugees going along the railway,
killing as far as is known three Chinese. There can be no
doubt of this machine-gun attack, not only does medical
evidence shew that three Chinese were killed and one wounded by bullets, but five empty cartridges were afterwards picked up.
The third machine of this flight detached itself when over Crest Hill and attacked a train standing on the railway
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