Kawasaki Ki-48 "Lily" - 16 Sentai - video

A short clip today from the NHK collection, dated May 25, 1944, featuring a bunch of Kawasaki Ki-48 "Lily" bombers of the 16 Sentai.

The commentator is talking about the bombing of the city of Luoyang, Henan Province and this, combined with the date of the video, lead us to conclude that this clip was taken during the massive Operation Ichi-Go.

There are not that many clips and photos of the biggest operation of the Japanese Army during the Sino-Japanese war and very few of "Lily" bombers. 

The 16 Sentai was equipped with 19 Ki-48s during the operation and according to Monograph #76:

"The 16th and 90th Bomber Units, using Anyang and Tungshan as their main bases of operation and Wuchang and Hankou as their staging bases, when the necessity arose carried out night bombings on enemy air bases. It was not possible to carry out daylight raids with the outmoded Type 99 light bombers with which these units were equipped. However, the highly trained pilots compensated to some degree for the inferiority of their planes and their night dive-bombing attacks achieved excellent results. These attacks were made on moonlight nights against enemy air bases which were thought to be the most threatening. Those bases most often attacked were Suichuan, Kanhsieng, Hengyang, Kweilin, Liuchowhsien, Chihkiang, Enshih, Liangshan and Laohokou. Although considerable damage was inflicted upon the enemy, continuous loss of planes and the tremendous build-up in enemy air strength, made it impossible to defeat them."