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Doolittle Raiders April 18 1942
It just dawned on me this morning, that an important date in history is today, April 18th. The 75th anniversary of the Raid on Tokyo, lead by lt Col. Jimmy Doolittle. 16 B-25Bs, crewed by 80 men struck at the Japanese capital. It really didn't inflict alot of damage, but it brought serious moral boost to the folks back home. And more importantly. got the Japanese to withdraw units from the front to guard Japan. It also hastened Admiral Yamamoto to attack Midway Island in June of 42, this causing the destruction of a huge portion of the Japanese Carrier fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor.
Of the 16 planes, 15 reached China after bombing Japan and all crashed, the 16th landed at Vladivostok Russia and were interned a year. 8 airmen were captured by the Japanese in China, 3 were executed.
Of the 80 men that took part in the raid, only one, Richard Cole, 101 years old, was Doolittle's co-pilot , is left alive. And today, Cole drank a toast with the units silver drinking cup to his comrades at Wright/Patterson Air Force Museum.
I whipped this out to commemorate the historic and important day in history.
Of the 16 planes, 15 reached China after bombing Japan and all crashed, the 16th landed at Vladivostok Russia and were interned a year. 8 airmen were captured by the Japanese in China, 3 were executed.
Of the 80 men that took part in the raid, only one, Richard Cole, 101 years old, was Doolittle's co-pilot , is left alive. And today, Cole drank a toast with the units silver drinking cup to his comrades at Wright/Patterson Air Force Museum.
I whipped this out to commemorate the historic and important day in history.
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Listed in Folders
Only the tail guns were removed,replaced with painted broomsticks and fake travel lines. the twin fifties in the turret and single mount in the nose were retained. A few Japanese fighters were actually shot down in the raid by the B-25s. Including a couple of a experimental Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien 'Tony' fighters.
16 B-25 land bombers launched from Yorktown class carrier U.S.S. Hornet. An incredible, gutsy feat that demoralized the enemy & showed the Japanese that they were reachable. They had to launch earlier than expected, however, due to a patrol boat they encountered that one of the escorting destroyers & cruisers immediately sank. Unfortunately, intelligence intercepted a signal from it to the Japanese mainland from the patrol boat, messaging "Warships!!". Doolittle was forced to make a choice: Launch now & risk not making it or get closer & risk being attacked by enemy forces & having the hornet sunk as well as it's escorting sister, the U.S.S. Enterprise. Doolittle decides to go anyway. Just one of many hard choices the crews of the Pacific theatre had to make in order to survive & win.
I remember when the modern movie Pearl Harbor came out and critics were complaining about the utterly contrived and unrealistic ending depicting American bombers hitting Japan in some sort of fantasy scene. Those who choose to ignore history are doomed to look like total morons.
A few years ago, we were involved at one of the reunions as ushers, and one of our leaders got to talking with one of the guys and they told our group leader, there was some effort to try to get a screenplay done for a new movie about the Doolittle Raid, with the full cooperation of the participants. Unfortunately, Bay's Pearl Harbor put that project to rest.
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