Jing Baos at Kweilin
After spending the summer of 1944 bombing Japanese facilities in Burma, personnel of the Chinese-American Composite Wing’s 3rd Bomb Squadron finally began the transfer to China. Chinese and American ground crews crossed “the Hump” and moved on to Kweilin (Guilin) in late August. No Japanese planes struck in the vicinity of Kweilin during the day but "they did keep us in the foxholes night after night," according to a service publication. Barracks boys shouted the warning jing bao! ("air raid") as they ran from room to room, turning off lights and banging on wash basins to wake anyone who may have slept through the warning siren. The threat soon became more dire. On September 8, as the squadron’s B-25s were completing the move, the Japanese 11th Army overran Lingling, only 125 miles farther to the northeast. Then began their advance toward Kweilin.