The Doolittle Raid, also known as Doolittle's Raid, as well as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japanese archipelago. Although the raid caused comparatively minor damage, it demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attacks. It served as an initial retaliation for the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was named after Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who planned and led the attack. It was one of six American carrier raids against Japan and Japanese-held territories conducted in the first half of 1942.
Under the final plan, 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, each with a crew of five, were launched from the US Navy aircraft carrier USSHornet, in the Pacific Ocean. There were no fighter escorts. After bombing the military and industrial targets, the crews were to continue westward to land in China.
On the ground, the raid killed around 50 people and injured 400. Damage to Japanese military and industrial targets was minimal, but the raid had major psychological effects. In the United States, it raised morale. In Japan, it raised fear and doubt about the ability of military leaders to defend the home islands, but the bombing and strafing of civilians created a desire for retribution—this was exploited for propaganda purposes.[4] The raid also pushed forward Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plans to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific—an attack that turned into a decisive defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the US Navy in the Battle of Midway. The consequences of the Doolittle Raid were most severely felt in China: in reprisal for the raid, the Japanese launched the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign, killing 250,000 civilians and 70,000 soldiers.[4][2]
Of the 16 crews involved, 14 returned to the United States or reached the safety of American forces, though one man was killed while bailing out.[5][6] Eight men were captured by Japanese forces in eastern China (the other two crew members having drowned in the sea), and three of them were later executed. All but one of the 16 B-25s were destroyed in crashes, while one of the planes landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union.
Because the Soviet Union was not officially at war with Japan, it was required, under international law, to intern the crew for the duration of the war, and their B-25 was confiscated. However, within a year, the crew was secretly allowed to leave the Soviet Union, under the guise of an escape—they returned to the United States or to American units elsewhere by way of Allied-occupied Iran and North Africa.
Doolittle initially believed that the loss of all of his aircraft would lead to his court-martial[7]—instead he received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two ranks to brigadier general.
Background
Doolittle Raid targets and landing fields
President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a meeting at the White House on 21 December 1941 and said that Japan should be bombed as soon as possible to boost public morale after Pearl Harbor.[8] Doolittle recounted in his autobiography that the raid was intended to bolster American morale and to cause the Japanese to begin doubting their leadership: "An attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders.... Americans badly needed a morale boost."[9]
The concept for the attack came from Navy Captain Francis S. Low, Assistant Chief of Staff for antisubmarine warfare. He reported to Admiral Ernest J. King on 10 January 1942 that he thought that twin-engined Army bombers could be launched from an aircraft carrier, after observing several at Naval Station Norfolk Chambers Field in Norfolk, where the runway was painted with the outline of a carrier deck for landing practice.[10] Doolittle, a famous military test pilot, civilian aviator, and aeronautical engineer before the war, was assigned to Army Air Forces Headquarters to plan the raid. The aircraft to be used would need a cruising range of 2,400 nautical miles (4,400km) with a 2,000-pound (910kg) bomb load, so Doolittle selected the B-25B Mitchell to carry out the mission. The range of the Mitchell was about 1,300 miles, so the bombers had to be modified to hold nearly twice the normal fuel reserves. Doolittle also considered the Martin B-26 Marauder, Douglas B-18 Bolo, and Douglas B-23 Dragon,[11] but the B-26 had questionable takeoff characteristics from a carrier deck and the B-23's wingspan was nearly 50-percent greater than the B-25's, reducing the number that could be taken aboard a carrier and posing risks to the ship's superstructure. The B-18 was one of the final two types that Doolittle considered, and he rejected it for the same reason.[12] The B-25 had yet to see combat,[note 1][13] but tests indicated that it could fulfill the mission's requirements.
Doolittle's first report on the plan suggested that the bombers might land in Vladivostok, shortening the flight by 600 nautical miles (1,100km) on the basis of turning over the B-25s as Lend-Lease.[14] Negotiations with the Soviet Union were fruitless for permission to land because it had signed a neutrality pact with Japan in April 1941.[15] China's Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the landing sites in China despite the concern of Japanese reprisals. Five possible airfields were selected. These sites would serve as refueling stops, allowing the crews to fly to Chongqing.[16] Bombers attacking defended targets often relied on a fighter escort to defend them from enemy fighters, but accompanying fighters were not possible.
Preparation
Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle wires a Japanese medal to a bomb, for "return" to its originators.
When planning indicated that the B-25 was the aircraft that best met all of the requirements of the mission, two were loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USSHornet at Norfolk and were flown off the deck without difficulty on 3 February 1942.[17] The raid was immediately approved and the 17th Bombardment Group (Medium) was chosen to provide the pool of crews from which volunteers would be recruited. The 17th BG had been the first group to receive B-25s, with all four of its squadrons equipped with the bomber by September 1941. The 17th not only was the first medium bomb group of the Army Air Corps, but in early 1942, also had the most experienced B-25 crews. Its first assignment following the entry of the United States into the war was to the U.S. Eighth Air Force.[18]
The 17th BG, then flying antisubmarine patrols from Pendleton, Oregon, was immediately moved cross-country to Columbia Army Air Base at West Columbia, South Carolina, ostensibly to fly similar patrols off the East Coast of the United States, but in actuality to prepare for the mission against Japan. The group officially transferred effective 9 February 1942 to Columbia, where its combat crews were offered the opportunity to volunteer for an "extremely hazardous", but unspecified mission. On 19 February, the group was detached from the Eighth Air Force and officially assigned to III Bomber Command.[19]
Initial planning called for 20 aircraft to fly the mission,[20] and 24 of the group's B-25B Mitchell bombers were diverted to the Mid-Continent Airlines modification center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With support provided by two senior airline managers, Wold-Chamberlain Field's maintenance hangar was the first modification center to become operational. From nearby Fort Snelling, the 710th Military Police Battalion provided tight security around this hangar. B-25B aircraft modifications included the following:
Mounting of steel blast plates on the fuselage around the upper turret.
Removal of the liaison radio set to save weight.
Installation of a 160-US-gallon (610L; 130impgal) collapsible neoprene auxiliary fuel tank, fixed to the top of the bomb bay, and installation of support mounts for additional fuel cells in the bomb bay, crawlway, and lower turret area, to increase fuel capacity from 646 to 1,141 U.S. gallons (538 to 950 imperial gallons, or 2,445 to 4,319 L).
Installation of mock gun barrels (broomsticks) in the tail cone.
Replacement of the Norden bombsight with a makeshift aiming sight devised by pilot Capt. C. Ross Greening that was dubbed the "Mark Twain". The materials for this bombsight cost only 20 cents.[18]
Two bombers also had cameras mounted to record the results of the bombing.[15]
The 24 crews were selected and picked up the modified bombers in Minneapolis and flew them to Eglin Field, Florida, beginning 1 March 1942. There, the crews received concentrated training for three weeks in simulated carrier deck takeoffs, low-level and night flying, low-altitude bombing, and over-water navigation, operating primarily out of Eglin Auxiliary Field #1, a more secluded site. Lieutenant Henry L. Miller, a U.S. Navy flight instructor from nearby Naval Air Station Pensacola, supervised their takeoff training and accompanied the crews to the launch. For his efforts, Miller is considered an honorary member of the Raider group.[21]
Doolittle stated in his after-action report that the crews reached a "safely operational" level of training, despite several days when flying was not possible because of rain and fog. One aircraft was written off in a landing accident on 10 March[22][23] and another was heavily damaged in a takeoff accident on 23 March,[22][23] while a third was removed from the mission because of a nose wheel shimmy that could not be repaired in time.[15]
On 25 March 1942, the remaining 22 B-25s took off from Eglin for McClellan Field, California. They arrived two days later at the Sacramento Air Depot for inspection and final modifications. According to notes written at the time, five crews did additional training on March 30 and 31 at the Willows-Glenn County Airport.[24] A total of 16 B-25s were flown to Naval Air Station Alameda on 31 March. Fifteen made up the mission force and the 16th, by last-minute agreement with the Navy, was loaded so that it could be launched shortly after departure from San Francisco to demonstrate to the Army pilots that there was sufficient deck space for a safe takeoff. Instead, that bomber was made part of the mission force.[note 2][26]
Participating aircraft
A B-25 Mitchell taking off from USSHornet for the raid
B-25 Mitchells aboard USS Hornet
Aft flight deck of USS Hornet
B-25 piloted by Capt. York after emergency landing in the Soviet Union
On 1 April 1942, the 16 modified bombers, their five-man crews, and Army maintenance personnel, totaling 71 officers and 130 enlisted men,[note 4][20][27] were loaded onto Hornet at Naval Air Station Alameda in California. Each aircraft carried four specially constructed 500-pound (225kg) bombs. Three of these were high-explosive munitions and one was a bundle of incendiaries. The incendiaries were long tubes, wrapped together to be carried in the bomb bay, but designed to separate and scatter over a wide area after release. Five bombs had Japanese "friendship" medals wired to them—medals awarded by the Japanese government to U.S. servicemen before the war.[29]
The bombers' armament was reduced to increase range by decreasing weight. Each bomber launched with two .50-caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns in an upper turret and a .30-caliber (7.62 mm) machine gun in the nose. The aircraft were clustered closely and tied down on Hornet's flight deck in the order of launch.
Hornet and Task Force 18 got underway from San Francisco Bay at 08:48 on 2 April with the 16 bombers in clear view.[30] At noon the next day, parts to complete modifications that had not been finished at McClellan were lowered to the forward deck of Hornet by Navy blimp L-8.[31] A few days later, the carrier met with Task Force 16, commanded by Vice AdmiralWilliam Halsey Jr.—the carrier USSEnterprise and her escort of cruisers and destroyers in the mid-Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. Enterprise's fighters and scout planes provided protection for the entire task force in the event of a Japanese air attack, since Hornet's fighters were stowed below decks to allow the B-25s to use the flight deck.
The combined force was two carriers (Hornet and Enterprise), three heavy cruisers (Salt Lake City, Northampton, Vincennes), one light cruiser (Nashville), eight destroyers (Balch, Fanning, Benham, Ellet, Gwin, Meredith, Grayson, Monssen), and two fleet oilers (Cimarron and Sabine). The ships proceeded in radio silence. On the afternoon of 17 April, the slow oilers refueled the task force, then withdrew with the destroyers to the east while the carriers and cruisers dashed west at 20 knots (37km/h; 23mph) toward their intended launch point in enemy-controlled waters east of Japan.[32]
Orders in hand, Navy Captain Marc Mitscher, skipper of USS Hornet, chats with Lt. Col. James Doolittle.
At 07:38 on the morning of 18 April, while the task force was still about 650 nautical miles (1,200km; 750mi) from Japan (around 35°N154°E / 35°N 154°E / 35; 154), it was sighted by the Japanese picket boat No. 23 Nittō Maru, a 70-ton patrol craft, which radioed an attack warning to Japan.[33] The boat was sunk by gunfire from Nashville.[note 5] The chief petty officer who captained the boat killed himself rather than be captured, but five of the 11 crew were picked up by Nashville.[35]
Doolittle and Hornet skipper Captain Marc Mitscher decided to launch the B-25s immediately—10 hours early and 170 nautical miles (310km; 200mi) farther from Japan than planned.[note 6] After respotting to allow for engine start and runups, Doolittle's aircraft had 467 feet (142m) of takeoff distance.[36] Although none of the B-25 pilots, including Doolittle, had ever taken off from a carrier before, all 16 aircraft launched safely between 08:20 and 09:19, though Doolittle's bomber was witnessed to have almost hit the water before pulling up at the last second. The B-25s then flew toward Japan, most in groups of two to four aircraft, before flying singly at wave-top level to avoid detection.[37]
The aircraft began arriving over Japan about noon Tokyo time, six hours after launch, climbed to 1,500 feet (460m) and bombed 10 military and industrial targets in Tokyo, two in Yokohama, and one each in Yokosuka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka. Although some B-25s encountered light antiaircraft fire and a few enemy fighters (made up of Ki-45s and prototype Ki-61s, the latter being mistaken for Bf 109s) over Japan, no bomber was shot down. Only the B-25 of 1st Lt. Richard O. Joyce received any battle damage, minor hits from antiaircraft fire.[36] B-25 No. 4, piloted by 1st Lt. Everett W. Holstrom, jettisoned its bombs before reaching its target when it came under attack by fighters after its gun turret malfunctioned.[38]
The Americans claimed to have shot down three Japanese fighters—one by the gunners of the Whirling Dervish, piloted by 1st Lt. Harold Watson, and two by the gunners of the Hari Kari-er, piloted by 1st Lt. Ross Greening. Many targets were strafed by the bombers' nose gunners. The subterfuge of the simulated gun barrels mounted in the tail cones was described afterwards by Doolittle as effective, in that no airplane was attacked directly from behind.[15]
One of the Doolittle raiders launching, 18 April 1942
Fifteen of the 16 aircraft then proceeded southwest off the southeastern coast of Japan and across the East China Sea toward eastern China. One B-25, piloted by Captain Edward J. York, was extremely low on fuel, and headed instead for the Soviet Union rather than be forced to ditch in the middle of the East China Sea. Several fields in Zhejiang province were supposed to be ready to guide them in using homing beacons, then recover and refuel them for continuing on to Chongqing, the wartime Kuomintang capital.[20] The primary base was at Zhuzhou, toward which all the aircraft navigated, but Halsey never sent the planned signal to alert them, apparently because of a possible threat to the task force.[note 7][39]
The raiders faced several unforeseen challenges during their flight to China: night was approaching, the aircraft were running low on fuel, and the weather was rapidly deteriorating. None would have reached China if not for a tail wind as they came off the target, which increased their ground speed by 25kn (46km/h; 29mph) for seven hours.[40] The crews realized they would probably not be able to reach their intended bases in China, leaving them the option of either bailing out over eastern China or crash-landing along the Chinese coast.[note 8][15]
All 15 aircraft reached the Chinese coast after 13 hours of flight and crash-landed or the crews bailed out. One crewman, 20-year-old Corporal Leland D. Faktor, flight engineer/gunner with 1st Lt. Robert M. Gray, was killed during his bailout attempt over China, the only man in that crew to be lost. Two crews (10 men) were missing.
The 16th aircraft, commanded by Capt. Edward York (eighth off – AC #40-2242) flew to the Soviet Union and landed 40 miles (64km) beyond Vladivostok at Vozdvizhenka. As the USSR was not at war with Japan, and the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was officially in force, the Soviet government was officially unable to immediately repatriate any Allied personnel involved in hostilities who entered Soviet territory. Furthermore, at the time, the Soviet Far East was vulnerable to military action by Japanese forces. Consequently, in accordance with international law, the crew members were interned, despite official US requests for their release, and the B-25 was impounded. York would later report that he and his crew had been treated well by the Soviet authorities. Several months later, they were relocated to Ashgabat (Ashkhabad), in what was then the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, 20 miles (32km) from the Soviet-Iranian border. In mid-1943, they were allowed to cross the border into Allied-occupied Iran. The Americans presented themselves to a British consulate on 11 May 1943.[5][6] A cover story was concocted that York had bribed a smuggler to assist them in escaping from Soviet custody. The fact that the "smuggling" had been staged by the NKVD was later confirmed by declassified Soviet archives.[41]
Doolittle and his crew, after parachuting into China, received assistance from Chinese soldiers and civilians, as well as John Birch, an American missionary in China. As did the others who participated in the mission, Doolittle had to bail out, but he landed in a heap of dung (saving a previously injured ankle from breaking) in a paddy in China near Quzhou. The mission was the longest ever flown in combat by the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, averaging about 2,250 nautical miles (4,170km).
Lt. Col. Doolittle with members of his flight crew and Chinese officials in China after the attack. From left to right: Staff Sgt. Fred A. Braemer, bombardier; Staff Sgt. Paul J. Leonard, flight engineer/gunner; Chao Foo Ki, secretary of the Western Chekiang Province Branch Government. 1st Lt. Richard E. Cole, copilot; Doolittle; Henry H. Shen, bank manager; Lt. Henry A. Potter, navigator; General Ho, director of the Branch Government of Western Chekiang Province.
Following the Doolittle Raid, most of the B-25 crews who had reached China eventually found safety with the help of Chinese civilians and soldiers. Of the 16 planes and 80 airmen who participated in the raid, all either crash-landed, were ditched, or crashed after their crews bailed out, with the single exception of Capt. York and his crew, who landed in the Soviet Union. Despite the loss of these 15 aircraft, 69 airmen escaped capture or death, with only three killed in action. When the Chinese helped the Americans escape, the grateful Americans, in turn, gave them whatever they had on hand.[clarification needed] The people who helped them paid dearly for sheltering the Americans. Most of them were tortured and executed for giving aid. During the search an estimated 250,000 Chinese lives were taken by the Japanese Imperial Army. Eight Raiders were captured, but their fate was only known in April 1943. Some of the men who crashed were aided by Patrick Cleary, the Irish Bishop of Nancheng. The Japanese troops retaliated by burning down the city.[42]
The crews of two aircraft (10 men in total) were unaccounted for: those of 1st Lt. Dean E. Hallmark (sixth off) and 1st Lt. William G. Farrow (last off). On 15 August 1942, the United States learned from the Swiss Consulate General in Shanghai that eight of the missing crew members were prisoners of the Japanese at the city's police headquarters. Two of the missing crewmen, bombardier S/Sgt.William J. Dieter and flight engineer Sgt. Donald E. Fitzmaurice of Hallmark's crew, were found to have drowned when their B-25 crashed into the sea. Both of their remains were recovered after the war and were buried with military honors at Golden Gate National Cemetery.
The other eight were captured: 1st Lt. Dean E. Hallmark, 1st Lt. William G. Farrow, 1st Lt. Robert J. Meder, 1st Lt. Chase Nielsen, 1st Lt. Robert L. Hite, 2nd Lt. George Barr, Cpl. Harold A. Spatz, and Cpl. Jacob DeShazer. All eight captured in Jiangxi were tried and sentenced to death at a military trial in China, and then transported to Tokyo. There the Army Ministry reviewed their case, with five of the sentences being commuted and the other three being executed (presumably also in Tokyo or nearby).[43] Out of the 80 crewmen, 3 died, 8 were captured (as seen here) and 3 were killed in captivity by the Japanese.
The surviving captured airmen remained in military confinement on a starvation diet, their health rapidly deteriorating. In April 1943, they were moved to Nanjing, where Meder died on 1 December 1943. The remaining men—Nielsen, Hite, Barr and DeShazer—eventually began receiving slightly better treatment and were given a copy of the Bible and a few other books. They were freed by American troops in August 1945. Four Japanese officers were tried for war crimes against the captured Doolittle Raiders, found guilty, and sentenced to hard labor, three for five years and one for nine years. Barr had been near death when liberated and remained behind in China recuperating until October, by which time he had begun to experience severe emotional problems. Untreated after transfer to Letterman Army Hospital and a military hospital in Clinton, Iowa, Barr became suicidal and was held virtually incommunicado until November, when Doolittle's personal intervention resulted in treatment that led to his recovery.[44] DeShazer graduated from Seattle Pacific University in 1948 and returned to Japan as a missionary, where he served for over 30 years.[45]
Total crew casualties: 3 KIA: 2 off the coast of China, 1 in China; 8 POW: 3 executed, 1 died in captivity, 4 repatriated.[46][47][48] In addition, seven crew members (including all five members of Lawson's crew) received injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. Of the surviving prisoners, Barr died of heart failure in 1967, Nielsen in 2007, DeShazer on 15 March 2008, and the last, Hite, died 29 March 2015.
Service of the returning crewmen
Doolittle receiving the Medal of Honor in 1942 from President Roosevelt in a ceremony attended by (standing, L–R) Lt. Gen. H. H. Arnold, Josephine Doolittle, and Gen. George C. Marshall
Immediately following the raid, Doolittle told his crew that he believed the loss of all 16 aircraft, coupled with the relatively minor damage to targets, had rendered the attack a failure, and that he expected a court-martial upon his return to the United States.[49] Instead, the raid bolstered American morale. Doolittle was promoted two grades to brigadier general on 28 April while still in China, skipping the rank of colonel, and was presented with the Medal of Honor by Roosevelt upon his return to the United States in June. When General Doolittle toured the growing Eglin Field facility in July 1942 with commanding officer Col. Grandison Gardner, the local paper of record (the Okaloosa News-Journal, Crestview, Florida), while reporting his presence, made no mention of his still-secret recent training at Eglin. He went on to command the Twelfth Air Force in North Africa, the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean, and the Eighth Air Force in England during the next three years.
An injured pilot receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross at Walter Reed Hospital from Maj. Gen. Millard F. Harmon in 1942
All 80 Raiders were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and those who were killed or wounded during the raid were awarded the Purple Heart. Every Doolittle Raider was also decorated by the Chinese government. In addition, Corporal David J. Thatcher (a flight engineer/gunner on Lawson's crew) and 1st Lt. Thomas R. White (flight surgeon/gunner with Smith) were awarded the Silver Star for helping the wounded crew members of Lt. Lawson's crew to evade Japanese troops in China. Finally, as Doolittle noted in his autobiography, he successfully insisted that all of the Raiders receive a promotion.[full citation needed]
Twenty-eight of the crewmen remained in the China Burma India theater, including the entire crews of planes 4, 10, and 13, flying missions, most for more than a year; five were killed in action.[note 9][50] Nineteen crew members flew combat missions in the Mediterranean theater after returning to the United States, four of whom were killed in action and four becoming prisoners of war.[note 10] Nine crew members served in the European Theater of Operations; one was killed in action, and one, David M. "Davy" Jones, was shot down and became a POW in Stalag Luft III at Sagan, where he played a part in The Great Escape.[51] Altogether, 12 of the survivors died in air crashes within 15 months of the raid. Two survivors were separated from the USAAF in 1944 due to the severity of their injuries.[5]
The 17th Bomb Group, from which the Doolittle Raiders had been recruited, received replacement crews and transferred to Barksdale Army Air Field in June 1942, where it converted to Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers. In November 1942, it deployed overseas to North Africa, where it operated in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations with the Twelfth Air Force for the remainder of the war.
After the raid, the Japanese Imperial Army began the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign (also known as Operation Sei-go) to prevent these eastern coastal provinces of China from being used again for an attack on Japan and to take revenge on the Chinese people. An area of some 20,000sqmi (50,000km2) was laid waste. "Like a swarm of locusts, they left behind nothing but destruction and chaos", eyewitness Father Wendelin Dunker wrote.[2] The Japanese killed an estimated 10,000 Chinese civilians during their search for Doolittle's men.[52] People who aided the airmen were tortured before they were killed. Father Dunker wrote of the destruction of the town of Ihwang: "They shot any man, woman, child, cow, hog, or just about anything that moved, They raped any woman from the ages of 10–65, and before burning the town they thoroughly looted it... None of the humans shot were buried either".[2] The Japanese entered Nancheng (Jiangxi), population 50,000 on June 11, "beginning a reign of terror so horrendous that missionaries would later dub it 'the Rape of Nancheng'", evoking memories of the infamous Rape of Nanjing five years before. Less than a month later, the Japanese forces put what remained of the city to the torch. "This planned burning was carried on for three days," one Chinese newspaper reported, "and the city of Nancheng became charred earth."[2]
When Japanese troops moved out of the Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas in mid-August, they left behind a trail of devastation. Chinese estimates put the civilian death toll at 250,000. The Imperial Japanese Army had also spread cholera, typhoid, plague infected fleas and dysentery pathogens. The Japanese biological warfare Unit 731 brought almost 300 pounds of paratyphoid and anthrax to be left in contaminated food and contaminated wells with the withdrawal of the army from areas around Yushan, Kinhwa and Futsin. Around 1,700 Japanese troops died out of a total 10,000 Japanese soldiers who fell ill with disease when their biological weapons attack rebounded on their own forces.[53][54]
Shunroku Hata, the commander of Japanese forces involved in the massacre of the 250,000 Chinese civilians, was sentenced in 1948 in part due to his "failure to prevent atrocities". He was given a life sentence but was paroled in 1954.[55]
Admiral Nimitz attempted to commit Enterprise and Hornet to support USSLexington and USSYorktown against Japanese forces involved in Operation Mo. However, the close timing between the Doolittle Raid and the eventual Battle of the Coral Sea prevented Enterprise and Hornet from being able to take part in the battle in early May 1942.[56]
Additional perspectives
Doolittle recounted in his autobiography that at the time he thought the mission was a failure and he would be demoted upon return to the US.[57]
This mission showed that a B-25 takeoff from a carrier was easier than previously thought, and night operations could be possible in the future. Shuttle bombing runs (taking off and landing at different air bases) were shown to be an effective carrier task force tactic since there was no need for the ships to wait for the returning aircraft.[57]
The American pilots, instead of landing as planned, were forced to bail out due to a lack of ground lighting to provide guidance. Chinese airfield crews recounted that due to the unexpected early arrival of the B-25s, homing beacon and runway torch lights were not on for fear of possible Japanese airstrikes (as had happened previously). If Claire Lee Chennault had been informed of the mission specifics, the outcome might have been very much better for the Americans: Chennault had built an effective air surveillance net in China that would have been able to provide updated arrival information about the raiders to the airfield crews, and could have confirmed that there was no risk of Japanese airstrikes, allowing the landing lights to be lit at the time necessary to allow safe landings.[57]
Chiang Kai-Shek awarded the raiders China's highest military decorations,[58] and predicted (in his diary) that Japan would alter its goals and strategy as a result of the disgrace.[note 11] Indeed, the raid was a shock to staff at Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. As a direct consequence, Japan attacked territories in China to prevent similar shuttle bombing runs. High command withdrew substantial air force resources from supporting offensive operations in order to defend the home islands. The Aleutian Islands campaign was launched to prevent the US from using the islands as bomber bases to attack Japan—this required two carriers that otherwise would have been used for the Battle of Midway. Thus, the raid's most significant strategic accomplishment was that it compelled the Japanese high command into ordering a very inefficient disposition of their forces, and poor decision-making due to fear of attack, for the rest of the war.[59]
Mitsuo Fuchida and Shigeyoshi Miwa considered the "one-way" raid "excellent strategy", with the bombers evading Army fighters by flying "much lower than anticipated". Kuroshima said the raid "passed like a shiver over Japan" and Miwa criticised the Army for claiming to have shot down nine aircraft rather than "not even one".[60]
Compared with the future devastating Boeing B-29 Superfortressattacks against Japan, the Doolittle raid did little material damage, and all of it was easily repaired. Preliminary reports stated 12 were killed and more than 100 were wounded.[61] Eight primary and five secondary targets were struck. In Tokyo, the targets included an oil tank farm, a steel mill, and several power plants. In Yokosuka, at least one bomb from the B-25 piloted by 1st Lt. Edgar E. McElroy struck the nearly completed light carrierRyūhō,[36] delaying her launch until November. Six schools and an army hospital were also hit. Japanese officials reported the two aircraft whose crews were captured had struck their targets.[62]
Letter of Gratitude to the Doolittle Raiders by the Government of the Republic of China and signed by Soong Mei-ling (1942)
Allied ambassadors and staff in Tokyo were still interned until agreement was reached about their repatriation via the neutral port of Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa in June–July 1942. When Joseph Grew (US) realized the low-flying planes overhead were American (not Japanese planes on maneuvers) he thought they may have flown from the Aleutian Islands. The Japanese press claimed that nine had been shot down, but there were no pictures of crashed planes. Embassy staff were "very happy and proud" and the British said that they "drank toasts all day to the American flyers".[63] Sir Robert Craigie, the interned British Ambassador to Japan who was under house arrest in Tokyo at the time, said that Japanese staff had been amused at the embassy's air raid precautions as the idea of an attack on Tokyo was "laughable" with the Allies in retreat, but the guards now showed "considerable excitement and perturbation". Several false alarms followed, and in poorer districts people rushed into the streets shouting and gesticulating, losing their normal "iron control" over their emotions and showing a "tendency to panic". The police guards on Allied and neutral missions were doubled to foil reprisal attacks; and the guard on the German mission was tripled.[64]
Despite the minimal damage inflicted, American morale, still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and Japan's subsequent territorial gains, soared when news of the raid was released.[65] The Japanese press was told to describe the attack as a cruel, indiscriminate bombing against civilians, including women and children. After the war, the casualty count was 87 dead, 151 serious injuries, and more than 311 minor injuries; children were among those killed, and newspapers asked their parents to share their opinion on how the captured raiders should be treated.[61]
The Japanese Navy attempted to locate and pursue the American task force. The Second Fleet, its main striking force, was near Formosa, returning from the Indian Ocean Raid to refit and replace its air losses. Spearheaded by five aircraft carriers and its best naval aircraft and aircrews, the Second Fleet was immediately ordered to locate and destroy the U.S. carrier force, but failed to do so, due to the American fleet choosing to head back to Hawaii (had they stayed after all, they would've found themselves attacked by the carriers Akagi, Sōryū and Hiryū).[66][67] Nagumo and his staff on Akagi heard that an American force was near Japan but expected an attack on the next day.
The Imperial Japanese Navy also bore a special responsibility for allowing an American aircraft carrier force to approach the Japanese Home Islands in a manner similar to the IJN fleet to Hawaii in 1941, and permitting it to escape undamaged.[note 12] The fact that medium, normally land-based bombers carried out the attack confused the IJN's high command. This confusion and the knowledge that Japan was now vulnerable to air attack strengthened Yamamoto's resolve to destroy the American carrier fleet, which was not present in the Pearl Harbor Attack, resulting in a decisive Japanese defeat several weeks later at the Battle of Midway.[69]
It was hoped that the damage done would be both material and psychological. Material damage was to be the destruction of specific targets with ensuing confusion and retardation of production. The psychological results, it was hoped, would be the recalling of combat equipment from other theaters for home defense thus effecting relief in those theaters, the development of a fear complex in Japan, improved relationships with our Allies, and a favorable reaction on the American people.
After the raid the Americans were worried in April about the "still very badly undermanned west coast" and Chief of Staff George Marshall discussed a "possible attack by the Japanese upon our plants in San Diego and then a flight by those Japs down into Mexico after they have made their attack". So Secretary Stimson asked State to "touch base with their people south of the border", and Marshall flew to the West Coast on 22 May.[71]
An unusual consequence of the raid came after when—in the interests of secrecy—President Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had been launched from "Shangri-La",[72][73] the fictional faraway land of the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon. The true details of the raid were revealed to the public one year later, in April 1943.[74] The Navy, in 1944, commissioned the Essex-class aircraft carrierUSSShangri-La, with Doolittle's wife Josephine as the sponsor.
After the war
Members of the Doolittle Raid at the 15th anniversary reunion at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in 1957WWII Army veteran George A. McCalpin (right) talking to Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole (seated) about McCalpin's cousin, raider Sgt. William 'Billy Jack' Dieter, at the 66th anniversary reunion at the University of Texas at Dallas in April 2008
The Doolittle Raiders held an annual reunion almost every year from the late 1940s to 2013. The high point of each reunion was a solemn, private ceremony in which the surviving Raiders performed a roll call, then toasted their fellow Raiders who had died during the previous year. Specially engraved silver goblets, one for each of the 80 Raiders, were used for this toast; the goblets of those who had died were inverted. Each Raider's name was engraved on his goblet both right side up and upside down. The Raiders drank a toast using a bottle of cognac that accompanied the goblets to each Raider reunion.[75] In 2013, the remaining Raiders decided to hold their last public reunion at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, not far from Eglin Air Force Base, where they trained for the original mission. The bottle and the goblets had been maintained by the United States Air Force Academy on display in Arnold Hall, the cadet social center, until 2006. On 19 April 2006, these memorabilia were transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.[76]
On 18 April 2013, a final reunion for the surviving Raiders was held at Eglin Air Force Base, with Robert Hite the only survivor unable to attend.[77]
The "final toast to fallen comrades" by the surviving raiders took place at the NMUSAF on 9 November 2013, preceded by a B-25 flyover, and was attended by Richard Cole, Edward Saylor, and David Thatcher.[78]
Seven other men, including Lt. Miller and raider historian Col. Carroll V. Glines, are considered honorary Raiders for their efforts for the mission.[5]
The Children of the Doolittle Raiders organization was founded on 18 April 2006, authorized by the Doolittle Raiders organization and the surviving members at the time. Descendants of the Doolittle Raiders organize fundraisers for a scholarship fund and continue to organize the Doolittle Raiders reunions. The 2019 reunion was held at Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole's memorial service.[79]
Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, the then-enlisted engineer/gunner of aircraft No. 15 during the raid, died 28 January 2015 of natural causes at his home in Sumner, Washington, at the age of 94.[82]
Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, co-pilot of aircraft No. 16, died at a nursing home in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 95 on 29 March 2015.[83][84] Hite was the last living prisoner of the Doolittle Raid.
S/Sgt. David J. Thatcher, gunner of aircraft No. 7, died on 22 June 2016 in Missoula, Montana, at the age of 94.
Lt Col. Richard E. Cole, Doolittle's copilot in aircraft No. 1, was the last surviving Doolittle Raider[85] and the only one to live to an older age than Doolittle, who died in 1993 at age 96.[note 13] Cole was the only Raider still alive when the wreckage of Hornet was found in late January 2019 by the research vesselPetrel at a depth of more than 17,000 feet (5,200m) off the Solomon Islands.[86] Cole died 9 April 2019, at the age of 103.[87]
Doolittle Raid exhibits
The most extensive display of Doolittle Raid memorabilia is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) in Dayton, Ohio. The centerpiece is a like-new B-25, which is painted and marked as Doolittle's aircraft, 40-2344, (rebuilt by North American Aviation to B-25B configuration from an F-10D photo reconnaissance version of the B-25D). The bomber, which North American Aviation presented to the Raiders in 1958, rests on a reproduction of Hornet's flight deck. Several authentically dressed mannequins surround the aircraft, including representations of Doolittle, Hornet Captain Marc Mitscher, and groups of Army and Navy men loading the bomber's bombs and ammunition. Also exhibited are the silver goblets used by the Raiders at each of their annual reunions, pieces of flight clothing and personal equipment, a parachute used by one of the Raiders in his bailout over China, and group photographs of all 16 crews, and other items.
The last B-25 to be retired from the U.S. Air Force inventory is displayed at the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin AFB, also in the markings of Gen. Doolittle's aircraft.[88]
A fragment of the wreckage of one of the aircraft, and the medals awarded to Doolittle, are on display at the SmithsonianNational Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
The interchange of Edmund Highway (South Carolina 302) and Interstate 26 nearest the former Columbia Army Air Base is designated the Doolittle Raiders Interchange.
In China, a memorial hall honoring the Doolittle Raiders and the Chinese who provided them with assistance in aftermath of the raid is located at the city of Jiangshan in Quzhou, Zhejiang.[90][91]
Doolittle Exhibit aboard USS Hornet Museum - August, 2015
A small exhibit about the Doolittle Raid exists (or used to?) at the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California.
Doolittle Raiders re-enactment
The restored World War II B-25 Heavenly Body taking off from the deck of Ranger
On 21 April 1992, in conjunction with other Department of Defense World War II 50th-Anniversary Commemorative Events, two B-25 Mitchell bombers, B-25J Heavenly Body and B-25J In The Mood, were hoisted aboard USSRanger. The bombers participated in a commemorative re-enactment of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, taking off from Ranger's flight deck before more than 1,500 guests.[92] The launch took place off the coast of San Diego.[93] Four B-25s were approved by the US Navy for the reenactment with two selected. The other two participants were B-25J Executive Sweet and B-25J Pacific Princess. Following the launch, eight B-25s flew up the coast where General Doolittle and his son John P. Doolittle watched as each B-25 came in for a low pass, dropping 250 red, white, and blue carnations into the surf, concluding the event.
Congressional Gold Medal
Doolittle Raiders Lt. Col. Richard Cole, co-pilot of Crew No. 1 (right), and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, engineer-gunner of Crew No. 7, with the Congressional Gold Medal (2015)
On 19 May 2014, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R.1209, to award the Doolittle Raiders a Congressional Gold Medal for "outstanding heroism, valor, skill, and service to the United States in conducting the bombings of Tokyo."[94][95] The award ceremony took place at the Capitol Building on 15 April 2015 with retired Air Force Lieutenant General John Hudson, the Director of the National Museum of the Air Force, accepting the award on behalf of the Doolittle Raiders.[96]
Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider
In September 2016, the Northrop Grumman B-21 was formally named "Raider" in honor of the Doolittle Raiders.[97] The last surviving Doolittle Raider, retired Lt Col Richard E. Cole, was present at the naming ceremony at the Air Force Association conference.[98] The name is fitting since the Doolittle Raiders flew such a long distance and the B-21 Raider is also intended to have an extremely long range. This is because it is designed for the Indo-Pacific theater, where ranges are very long.[99]
Many books have been written about the Doolittle Raid:
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1943), by Captain Ted W. Lawson – a pilot who participated in the raid, focuses on the experiences of himself and his crew. A popular film based on the book was released in 1944. Written while the war was still in progress, Lawson disguised the identities of the persons in China assisting the raiders and did not publish the story until after the USAAF had released an official communique on 20 April 1943 detailing most aspects of the mission, including the identities of the raiders and their fates.
Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders, by C. V. Glines (1964) – tells the complete story of the raid, including the unique experiences of each B-25 crew. He followed this with a second account, The Doolittle Raid: America's daring first strike against Japan (1988), incorporating information from first-hand accounts of the Raiders and from Japanese sources.[100]
Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor, by James M. Scott (2015) – based on scores of never-before-published records drawn from archives across four continents as well as new interviews with survivors.
Last Mission to Tokyo, by Michel Paradis (2020) – revealed the story of the two crews who were captured by the Japanese and the war crimes trials that followed based upon newly discovered records in the United States and Japan.
Raid of No Return, by Nathan Hale (2017) – a fictionalized account of the raid, presented in graphic novel format for early readers; the book is a part of the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series.
The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid – America's First World War II Victory, by Craig Nelson (2003)
Films
The raid inspired several films.
A highly fictionalized film in 1943, Destination Tokyo starring Cary Grant, tangentially involved the raid, concentrating on the fictional submarine USSCopperfin. The submarine's mission is to enter Tokyo Bay undetected and place a landing party ashore to obtain weather information vital to the upcoming Doolittle raid. The film suggests the raid did not launch until up-to-the-minute data were received. All the after-action reports indicated the raid launched without time for weather briefings because of the encounter with the picket ship.[15]
A 1944 film, The Purple Heart, was a highly fictionalized account of the torture and execution of Doolittle Raid prisoners.
The Doolittle Raid was the subject of another 1944 feature film, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, based on the book of the same title by Ted Lawson, who was seriously injured in a crash landing off the coast of China. Spencer Tracy played Doolittle and Van Johnson portrayed Lawson. Footage from the film was later used for the opening scenes of Midway and in the TV miniseries War and Remembrance.
The 2001 film Pearl Harbor (with Alec Baldwin playing Doolittle) presented a heavily fictionalized version of the raid. The film used the retired World War II aircraft carrier USSLexington in Corpus Christi, Texas, to stand in for a Japanese carrier, while the aircraft were launched from USSConstellation, standing in for Hornet from which the Doolittle Raid was launched. The film's portrayal of the planning of the raid, the air raid itself, and the raid's aftermath, is not historically accurate.[101][102]
The VHS videoDeShazer, including film footage of Doolittle and the flight preparations, along with the B-25s launching, is the story of missionary Sergeant Jake DeShazer of B-25 No. 16 (the last to launch from Hornet). The video is based on The Amazing Story of Sergeant Jacob De Shazer: The Doolittle Raider Who Turned Missionary by C. Hoyt Watson. At the end of both the video and the book, DeShazer after the war meets Mitsuo Fuchida, the commander and lead pilot of the Pearl Harbor attack.
Doolittle's Raiders: A Final Toast, a documentary by Tim Gray and the World War II Foundation, released in 2015, has interviews with the few surviving members of the raid.[103]
The 2018 film The Chinese Widow (aka The Hidden Soldier and In Harm's Way) presented a heavily fictionalized version of the raid with Emile Hirsch playing a fictional Captain Jack Turner who was hidden from the Japanese in China by a Chinese widow and her daughter, after he parachutes from his B-25 near her village. Vincent Riotta played Jimmy Doolittle.[104][bettersourceneeded]
The raid is depicted in the 2019 film Midway, with actor Aaron Eckhart portraying Jimmy Doolittle. Emperor Hirohito is seen being told to go to a shelter during this scene.
Television
The character of Harry Broderick in the 1979 television series Salvage 1 (played by Andy Griffith), was a fictional veteran of the raid.
Notes
↑ The first bombing mission by B-25s preceded the Doolittle Raid by only 12 days. On 6 April 1942, six Mitchells bombed Gasmata, New Britain. This was followed on 12 and 13 April by two days of attacks against Cebu City and Davao in the Philippines. All of these were conducted by the 3rd Bomb Group, which staged 10 Mitchells through Darwin, Australia to Mindanao.
↑ 1st Lt. Richard Joyce was to have flown this aircraft back to the mainland with Navy Lieut. Miller as his copilot. Instead, he flew the tenth bomber off Hornet and Miller remained aboard until the task force returned to port when Doolittle decided to increase the attacking force to all 16 aircraft.[25]
↑ York was born Edward Joseph Cichowski and was known as "Ski". He legally changed his name to York in early 1942 before the raid.
↑ Doolittle took along all 22 flight crews, both to provide spare flight personnel and as an additional security measure.[27] Lawson wrote that the copilot of one crew (Farrow's) was replaced on 17 April, the day before the mission, by one of the spare pilots.[28]
↑ The order to Nashville did not go out until 07:52. Heavy seas made hitting the picket boat difficult even with rapid fire, and it was not sunk until 08:23.[34]
↑ Doolittle, first off, was 610 nautical miles (1,130km; 702mi) from Tokyo at launch, while Farrow, last off, was 600 nautical miles (1,110km; 690mi) from landfall.[35]
↑ The carburetors of the B-25s had been carefully adjusted and bench-marked at Eglin Field for maximum fuel efficiency in low level flight. Without Doolittle's knowledge and in violation of his orders, both carburetors on York's plane had been replaced by depot workers in Sacramento. The change was not discovered until the raiders were at sea, and the extra flying distance caused by the premature launch meant that the B-25 had no chance of reaching the Chinese coast. York, Doolittle's operations officer and the only West Pointer among the raiders, made decision in flight to divert to the closer USSR.
↑ Doolittle's after-action report stated that some B-25s were heard overflying the bases, but because the Chinese had not been alerted to the attack, they assumed it was a Japanese air raid.
↑ 27 of the 28 flew B-25 combat missions with the 7th and 341st Bomb Groups. Three died on 3 June 1942 when their B-25s collided with a mountain in poor weather after bombing Lashio airfield in Burma, and two others on 18 October in the takeoff crash of their B-25 from Dinjan, India, on a bombing mission. 2nd Lt. Richard E. Cole, Doolittle's co-pilot, volunteered to fly air transport missions over the Hump, which he did until May 1943, earning a second DFC.
↑ Jones, pilot of plane 5, flew missions in both the CBI and the Mediterranean, and was one of the four POWs.
↑ The diaries are in the Hoover Institute of Stanford University.
↑ The Japanese, through a small amount of intercepted radio traffic between Halsey and Mitscher, were aware that an American carrier force was at large in the Western Pacific Ocean and could possibly attack Japan.[68]
↑ Frank Kappeler and Thomas Griffin also lived to age 96, but did not live as many months as Doolittle.
Related Research Articles
USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 American war film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson. Lawson was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan, four months after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid was planned, led by, and named after United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who was promoted two ranks, to Brigadier General, the day after the raid.
Major Ted William Lawson was an American officer in the United States Army Air Forces, who is known as the author of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, a memoir of his participation in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942. The book was subsequently adapted into the 1944 film of the same name starring Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum.
Robert John Meder was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who participated in the Doolittle Raid. In February 1942, he volunteered to participate in the raid, which took place on April 18 that year. Meder and his bomber crew was captured by the Japanese after the completion of his bombing mission. He died while in Japanese captivity in 1943.
The 17th Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The group was last stationed at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Jacob Daniel DeShazer participated in the Doolittle Raid as a staff sergeant and later became a Christian missionary in Japan.
Norman Francis Vandivier was a United States Navy aviator during World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for action during the Battle of Midway.
Chase Jay Nielsen was a career officer in the U.S. Air Force. He participated in the Doolittle Raid in 1942 and was one of the four surviving prisoners of war from that raid.
Robert Gabel Emmens was a Doolittle Raider and a career United States Air Force officer.
David M. Jones served with distinction as a pilot and general officer, first with the U.S. Army Air Corps and later with the United States Army Air Forces and, after September 18, 1947, the United States Air Force. His record during World War II includes being one of the Doolittle Raiders whose exploits in April 1942 were dramatized in the film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. He then flew combat missions over North Africa, where he was shot down. He was a German prisoner of war for two and a half years, helping with the April 1944 mass escape at Stalag Luft III, and was the inspiration for Steve McQueen's fictional character, USAAF Captain Virgil Hilts, which was dramatized in the 1963 movie The Great Escape.
Richard Eugene Cole was a United States Air Force colonel. During World War II, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan, on April 18, 1942. He served as the co-pilot to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the lead airplane of the raid by sixteen B-25 bombers, which for the first time took off from an aircraft carrier on a bombing mission.
Thomas Carson Griffin was a United States Army Air Forces navigator who served during World War II. He was one of the eighty Doolittle Raiders who bombed Japan in April 1942. After the Doolittle Raid, he was relocated to North Africa and was shot down during an air raid in 1943, spending time in a prisoner-of-war camp until he was rescued in early 1945.
Denver Vernon Truelove was a United States Army Air Forces bombardier who served during World War II. He was one of the eighty Doolittle Raiders who bombed Japan in April 1942. After the Doolittle Raid, Truelove was involved briefly in North Africa. His awards included the Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart.
The Enemy Airmen's Act was a law passed by Imperial Japan on 13 August 1942 which stated that Allied airmen participating in bombing raids against Japanese-held territory would be treated as "violators of the law of war" and subject to trial and punishment if captured by Japanese forces. This law contributed to the deaths of hundreds of Allied airmen throughout the Pacific and Asian theaters of World War II. Shortly after World War II, Japanese officers who carried out show trials and illegal executions under the Enemy Airmen's Act were found guilty of war crimes.
William Glover Farrow was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who participated in the Doolittle Raid. In February 1942, he volunteered to participate in the raid, which took place on April 18 that year. Farrow was captured by the Japanese after the completion of his bombing mission. He was tried, and along with two other crew members, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. His ashes were recovered and interred in the Arlington National Cemetery in 1946, and he posthumously received multiple awards.
William ‘Billy Jack’ Dieter was a sergeant in the United States Army Air Corps. Dieter was a bombardier on the Green Hornet, the sixth plane to take off from a US carrier as part of the Doolittle Raid, a bold long-range retaliatory air raid on the Japanese main islands, on April 18, 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack was a major morale booster for the United States. Dieter was one of only three airmen to die in the raid itself, when his B-25 Mitchell, 'Green Hornet', crashed on the coast of China, having run out of fuel.
Lieutenant Colonel Horace Ellis Crouch was an American military aviator whose career included service with the United States Army Air Corps and United States Air Force, he was a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War who served as one of the crewmembers on the Doolittle Raid.
John Allen Hilger was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Born in Sherman, Texas, Hilger graduated from Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas and was commissioned in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1934. He was assigned to the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron as commander in May 1940; flying North American B-25 Mitchell bombers on anti-submarine patrols from December 1941.
Everett Wayne Holstrom was a United States Army Air Forces bomber pilot and participant of the Doolittle Raid during World War II. He retired from the United States Air Force in 1969 at the rank of brigadier general.
Edward Joseph York was a United States Air Force colonel. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan, during World War II, on April 18, 1942. After bombing Japan during the raid and due to mechanical trouble with his bomber, he was forced to land in the Soviet Union, where he was interned with his crew for 14 months before escaping back to the United States. He retired from military service in 1966.
↑ "Camp David". National Archives - Prologue Magazine. Vol.40, no.4. Winter 2008. Archived from the original on 3 May 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020. Officially a U.S. Navy installation, the facility was originally built by the Works Progress Administration as a camp for government employees, opening in 1938. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took it over in a few years and named it 'Shangri-La', for the mountain kingdom in Lost Horizon, the 1933 novel by James Hilton. It was renamed in 1953 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in honor of his then-five-year-old grandson, Dwight David Eisenhower II.
↑ "One year later, Tokyo raid story told". UPI. 20 April 1943. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020. The aircraft carrier Hornet was the 'Shangri-La' from which 16 American bombers under Maj. Gen. James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle bombed Japan a year ago and all but one of the planes was wrecked on or off the China Coast after carrying out their mission 'with complete success', the first official story of the memorable raid revealed Tuesday night. A detailed War Department account of the raid said the only plane which came through unscathed was one which made a forced landing on Russian territory where its crew was interned.
↑ "B-25 Makes Last Flight During Ceremony at Eglin". Special. Playground Daily News. Vol.15, no.17 (actually No. 18). Fort Walton Beach, Florida. 26 May 1960. p.2.
↑ Ingalsbe, Torri (16 April 2015). "Doolittle Tokyo Raiders receive Congressional Gold Medal". U.S. Air Force. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020. ... Lt. Gen. John 'Jack' Hudson, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force director, accepted the medal on behalf of the Raiders. 'If here, the Raiders would tell you that they just wanted to help out with our nation's war effort,' Hudson said. 'The Doolittle Raiders' service model of excellence... is an inspiration for all of today's military.'
Craigie, Robert (1945). Behind the Japanese Mask. London: Hutchinson & Co. LCCN46003739.
Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea, eds. (1983) [First published in 1948]. "Chapter 12: Drawing the Battle Line in the Pacific". Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942(PDF). Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol.One (Air Force Historical Studies Office interneted.). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History. Archived(PDF) from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
Grew, Joseph C (1944). Ten Years in Japan. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Lawson, Ted W. (2002) [First published 1943]. Considine, Robert (ed.). Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. New York: Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star Books). ISBN978-0743474337.
Martin, Adrian R.; Stephenson, Larry W. (2008). Operation Plum: The Ill-fated 27th Bombardment Group and the Fight For the Western Pacific. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN978-1603440196.
Culbertson, Charles (2013). Forgotten Hero: The Story of Jack Manch, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo and the Self-Sacrifice of An American Warrior. Staunton, Virginia: Clarion Publishing. ISBN978-1493501847.
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Glines, Carroll V. (1995) [1966]. Four Came Home: The Gripping Story of the Survivors of Jimmy Doolittle's Two Lost Crews. New York; Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co, Van Nostrad Reinhold. ISBN978-1575100074.
Glover, Charles E. (18 April 1992). "Jimmy Doolittle's One Moment in Time". The Palm Beach Post.
Nelson, Craig (2002). The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid– America's First World War II Victory. London: Penguin Press. ISBN978-0142003411.
Oxford, Edward (March–April 1992). "Against All Odds: B-25 Bombers Strike Japan in 1942". American History Illustrated.
Tillman, Barrett (2012). Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped win World War II. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN978-1439190876.
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