Posted on 04/18/2016 6:54:01 PM PDT by Retain Mike
One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. The desire to bolster moral became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. These included victories in Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as sinking the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse.
Only improbable, audacious ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska. Captain Francis Low, a submariner, first broached to Admiral Ernest King the idea of flying Army Air Corps medium bombers from an aircraft carrier. King thought Low’s “foolish idea” might be have merit and ordered him to contact Captain Donald Duncan, King’s air operations officer. Duncan reviewed the specifications of all Army Air Corps bombers and decided the B-25B could do the job. King then sent Low and Duncan to General Hap Arnold who bought the idea and directed Colonel Jimmy Doolittle to make the raid happen.
By mid-January 1942 Doolittle began assembling the planes and crews. As one of the first MIT aeronautical engineering graduates, he agreed with Duncan’s assessment in choosing the B-25B, and he knew exactly how to turn a possibly into a reality. Few Army personnel underwent training or had experience for operations involving ocean navigation. Therefore, crews were chosen from the 17th Bombardment Group flying anti-submarine patrols from the newly build airfield at Pendleton Oregon.
Unaware of this pending mission, the 24 crews flew to Minneapolis where the bombers received extensive modifications. Installing auxiliary fuel tanks increased capacity over 70%. Range eventually increased from about 1,000 to 2,500 miles by also utilizing flying configurations and practices designed to conserve fuel. Increased fuel weight then required removing a 230 pound liaison radio. The lower twin 50cal. remote control turret was later removed at Eglin Field Valparaiso Florida saving 600 pounds. An armored 60 gal fuel tank was then inserted. Cameras were installed to record bombing results.
While in Minneapolis Captain David M. Jones told the officers their destination was not Columbia, South Carolina for anti-submarine patrol. They were asked to volunteer for a dangerous, important, and interesting mission for which no information could be given. Nearly everyone volunteered even though most were new to their trade. Of the 16 pilots Doolittle actually took on the raid, only five had won their wings before 1941 and all but one was less than a year out of flight school.
Jimmy Doolittle, now a Lieutenant Colonel, met all 140 of them in Eglin’s operation’s office. He said, “If you men have any idea that this isn’t the most dangerous thing you’ve ever been on, don’t start this training period…..This whole thing must be kept secret. I don’t want you to tell your wives…..Don’t even talk among yourselves about this thing. Now does anyone want to drop out?” Nobody dropped out.
The crews began training with Lieutenant Henry L. Miller, USN (who later became an “Honorary Tokyo Raider”) on Elgin Field 48 days before the raid. The crews used a remote runway flagged to mark available carrier deck length. In three weeks the crews learned to take off at near stalling speeds of 50-60 miles per hour, overloaded, and in just over a football field length. At Pendleton pilots had used a mile long runway to build up speed to 80-90 miles per hour.
As the mission armament officer, Captain Charles Ross Greening improvised substitutes after removal of the top secret Norden bombsight and the lower gun turret. At Elgin he and Tech Sergeant Edward Bain designed a substitute bomb sight with two pieces of aluminum. The “Mark Twain” device could be rapidly fabricated in the base metal shop and provided superior accuracy for this low-altitude bombing assignment. On board the Hornet Greening installed a pair of black-painted broom handles in each aircraft's tail cone to intimidate attacking enemies.
Twenty two bomber crews hedgehopped across country to San Francisco. The sixteen crews who reported no problems had their planes lifted aboard ship. Those who reported problems, however minor, were devastated when Doolittle excluded them from the mission.
The Hornet left the U.S. and joined the Enterprise at sea April 13, 1942. Admiral Chester Nimitz, in charge of the Pacific Fleet had now risked two of his four aircraft carriers in this venture along with 14 escorts and 10,000 total crew members. The task force steamed towards Japanese home islands just four and one half months after the Pearl Harbor disaster. From radio traffic analysis, the Japanese knew the carriers that had eluded their six carrier strike force on December 7 were underway somewhere in the Western Pacific. Unbeknownst to the Americans, along with other special measures, the Japanese patrolling picket boats were 650 miles, not 300 miles, offshore to provide the intelligence needed for an overwhelming counterattack.
The Army crews shared quarters with the navy squadrons. Edgar McElroy, pilot of #13 aircraft remembers bunking with two members of Torpedo Bomber Squadron Eight. He later learned that they along with all but one member of the squadron died at the Battle of Midway.
On April 18 the U.S. task force encountered this new picket line 170 miles before their planned launch. The pilots rushed to their planes as the ship plowed into the wind and 30 foot swells. Each aircraft received at this last minute 11 extra 5gal gas cans. A Navy officer twirled a flag, listened for the right tone from the revving engines, and felt for the precise moment to release them on the pitching deck. The pilots, who had never flown from a carrier, saw the ship’s bow reaching into a grey sky, and then plunging into a dark angry ocean sending salt spray across the deck. When released, they quivered down a bucking flight deck keeping the left wheel on a white line to just miss the superstructure by six feet. Every plane and 80 crewmen lifted safely from a rising deck into the stormy sky; even Ted Lawson who discovered he had launched with flaps up and initially fell towards the ocean.
The bombers proceeded independently to Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya and Kobe. While underway the industrial targets had been briefed by Lt Stephen Jurika who was naval attaché in Tokyo 1939-1941. He imparted information from not only his own travels, but from a Soviet counterpart who had spent several years researching possible bombing targets. The Soviet Union was long aware of Japan’s plans to attack both China and U.S.S.R. (strike north), or to attack colonial possessions of the U.S, Netherlands and Britain (strike south).
Colonel Doolittle considered the raid a failure. Doolittle saw the raid as secondary to the bombers safely arriving and providing Chennault’s air force an offensive capability. Every plane had been lost. One plane and crew was interred in the Soviet Union. Fifteen crashed in China resulting in three crewmen deaths.
Eight crew members were captured all of whom were condemned to death. Tojo asked Hirohito to commute all the sentences, but the Emperor allowed three to be executed. One later starved to death in Japanese prison camps.
However, the raid proved a crucial moral victory demonstrating Americans could do the impossible even if their battle fleet was blasted to wreckage, and they were losing an army in the Philippines. The Imperial Navy suffered a devastating loss of face, because Admiral Yamamoto had guaranteed the Emperor that the Americans would never attack their home islands.
I Could Never Be So Lucky Again by James H. Doolittle with Carroll V. Glines
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted Lawson
Hirohito: Behind the Myth by Edward Behr
Charles Ross Greening, Colonel United States Air Force http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/crgreening.htm
Greening, Colonel Charles Ross (1914-1957), HistoryLink.org Essay 10320 http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10320
Captain David M. Jones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Jones
The Navy Targets Tokyo http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2015-04/navy-targets-tokyo
Letters from the Precipice of War (Steven Jurika) http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2014-01/letters-precipice-war
Sorge: A Chronology (Excerpts 1942) http://richardsorge.com/excerpts/1942/index.html
The Official Website of The Doolittle Tokyo Raiders http://doolittleraider.com/
Doolittle Raiders 70th Anniversary: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=doolittle+raiders+70th+anniversary&qpvt=doolittle+raiders+70th+anniversary&FORM=IGRE http://doolittlereunion.com/
North American B-25 Mitchell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-25_Mitchell
Pendleton Field http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=C9A94F93-E10A-57A0-B694B0AFFE69184C
A final toast for the Doolittle Raiders http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/opinion/greene-doolittle-raiders
80 Brave Men the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Roster http://www.doolittleraider.com/80_brave_men.htm
Jonna Doolittle Hoppes "Jimmy Doolittle Raid" presentation at Historic Flight Foundation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgt8PMoRGG8
Doolittle Raiders: The Last Reunion (VIDEO) http://salem-news.com/articles/may302013/doolittle-raiders-rn.php
Doolittle Raider forum, etc. http://www.doolittleraider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=579 http://www.dontow.com/2012/03/the-doolittle-raid-mission-impossible-and-its-impact-on-the-u-s-and-china/ http://www.historynet.com/countdown-to-the-doolittle-raid.htm
I give Roosevelt credit for green-lighting what was realistically considered a suicide mission for the sake of homeland morale.
A few years ago got the opportunity to buy a ride on a B-25. What a thrill! The look of the plane, feel, smell and the sound. Wish I could do it every day.
Cool!
I saw a restored B25 at an air show many years back. I was amazed how loud the engines were when they fired that baby up. I can only imagine what it would be like inside the aircraft.
In one of the History Channel shows they had a pilot who owned a restored or maybe just carefully taken care of, B-25.
They marked out the same distance on an airfield which they had done at Eglin Field. He revved the engines and gave it his best try. He could not do it.
To explain he mentioned that Doolittle’s raiders had 115 octane gasoline. That is the first time I had ever heard of gas with such a high octane. Still it makes you appreciate what those guys did way back then.
I was surprised to read that the Japanese recovered most of their pilots despite them having to land in the sea.
Still all they lost were those pre war Navy pilots who were given the most extreme training of any of the world’s pilots.
thank you. I lived my whole life with a guy who was a decorated hump pilot. i never knew. Cecil Bailey. i think my dad knew at some point. who served on Haverfield WWII and Iowa Korea
repost of the original
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1817532/posts
listed as passenger
http://www.comcar.org/1st_comcar3rd_ccs_special_orders_223.htm
Eisenhower arrived in Gibraltar at the proverbial last minute. He was preceded by Mark Clark who was flown over from England earlier for a secret mission, Operation Flagpole, in a run up to Torch. Clark flew to Gibraltar on a B 17 called the Red Gremlin, piloted by Paul W. Tibbits. It was the first time a B 17 had ever landed on Gibraltar’s short runway. Eisenhower flew over in the Red Gremlin also, piloted by Paul Tibbits. Later,The Red Gremlin led the first 100 plane bombing raid on France.
Tibbets went on to pilot the Enola Gay, named after his mother,which dropped the first Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima.
Task Force 34, led by the Cruiser Augusta, was under Patton’s command. It crossed the Atlantic from
Amusingly, the State Department knew nothing about Operation Torch. Roosevelt had ordered them to be kept in the dark. he said,”The place is like a sieve,”
Seems times have not changed.
Fredenall was an excellent man who unfortuately was outmatched by Rommel at Kasserine Pass and was replaced by Patton. Nevertheless, he was a good commander.
Yes I grew up around the same type of men. The amazing thing is most did not really talk about what they did.
There was an old cowboy here that was a legend as a cowboy and a truly great person to know. We were really close to him and knew that he served in the Navy but he never said what he did. When he passed away his services were in a really small community in the absolute middle of no where. When we got there a full color guard was there and some Navy officer got up and told all about the old cowboy being in the Battle of Midway and what a hero he had been, saving others, etc. The whole packed church was stunned, we all knew him as a great cowboy, not even his own daughter knew what he had been a part of.
I served on the election board with a lady that was married to a man that retired from the Navy. She told us a story about him helping put out a fire on his ship after an attack and that he was credited with saving many lives. He walked in while she was telling the story and he was annoyed with her. He admonished her and told her he was no hero- if you are on a ship that is on fire you better fight the fire!
My father-in-law was with Patton in Europe, he told of the horrors of the concentration camp they found, and how he lost friends but never said much about what he did. He was asked once if he liked or hated Patton, and his answer was that depended on what day it was. He did say they would have followed Patton through hell and did.
My sister-in-law’s mother was a nurse at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked. She never said much about it either but there was a small picture of her in her uniform in their living room.
Amazing thing was they acted as though it was just part of life. I know many that have served recently and been deployed over and over. They have the same attitude. A neighbor kid came back from Iraq in the beginning and didn’t say anything to the rest of us but did sit out on the patio and talk to my husband (Vietnam Veteran) all night. That kid now has been to Iraq three times and to Afghanistan and all he will say is in both places the “people are all ate up” meaning they are a mess, such a different culture from ours no way can we understand it, certainly not change it.
I think that is an important piece of history this narrative is missing. I will see if there is a good place to add it.
Darn. Thanks
Another story of a soldier from my hometown who somehow escaped from a Japanese P.O.W. camp with some Pinoys in the Philippines. They had contacted thru a coast watcher somehow, and got down to the beach where a U.S. navy craft managed to get to the beach from a submarine and pick them up. The Navy guy who grabbed the POW into the boat was his best friend from high school. Figure that one out.
The raid certainly set the standard for what the Japanese would be up against.
I got Griffin’s autograph at an air show about 12 years ago. I treasure it because he’s an American legend. RIP T.G.
There was a post-Tokyo plan, if I recall. However their carrier, the Hornet, was spotted by a Japanese picket boat and the planes had to launch early. So a longer than planned flight meant less fuel to get to China after their run. It also did not help that the communications inside of free China of their mission was poor and a recovery plan was spotty.
Interesting about Tibbets flying Ike.
IIRC Fredendall is the only American general to have directly opposed Rommel. And a Rommel leading veteran troops.
My dad landed in North Africa shortly after Torch and his unit processed some of the German POWs. He said they were the best trained troops he saw in the entire war. One spoke perfect English and said “I feel sorry for you Americans. You have to fight the war, while we will be going to America”. Some German POWs worked on my grandparent’s farm in west Texas. Germans have long had a fascination with the American West so it couldn’t have been much better for them.
Task Force 34, led by the Cruiser Augusta, was under Patton’s command. It crossed the Atlantic from little Creek (Norfolk) Virginia.
>it was a strategic stroke that shook Japan’s military to it’s core. that the Home Islands were open to attack that early after Pearl Harbor was never considered possible and it forced a full re-allocation of valuable strategic resources it did not have.
>>There is something else the raid forced, and often overlooked. The Japs now realizing how vulnerable they were from attacks from the sea, decided they had to complete what they failed to do at Pearl Harbor. They decided to implement Admiral Yamamoto’s plan - finish off the US fleet in a large confrontation at Midway...first, then to Pearl Harbor again to finish off what was left of the US fleet.
We all know about the US Navy’s great victory at Midway. In hindsight, we can see that the courageous Halsey-Dolittle raid, in presaging the Midway victory, was a major contributor to the turning the war around in the Pacific, and ultimately the winning of the war.
You’re correct. We also had some German POW’s not far from my home area in Maryland. There was a camp in Somerset County, I believe.
I have long admired Rommel. I think his retreat from El Alamein is without a doubt one of the outstanding feats of a leader of any side in any war. The man was a genius and cared deeply for his troops. I have never heard any ill spoken of him by any veteran in Europe or here.
Montgomery, of course did not defeat Rommel at El Alamein. Thanks to the boys at Bletchley Park and the British RAF in the Mediterranean, Rommel’s supplies and fresh troops were sunk before reaching Africa. Rommel and Patton had similar styles.............rapid movement. Montgomery never moved until he had amassed overwhelming odds in his favor no matter how long it took. That was quite evident in Normandy.
I find it interesting how throughout the war, the same people keep cropping up. I’ve almost finished writing a book which has a lot about the runup to Torch. Nonfiction.
History is fascinating and all the tales should be preserved.
Rommel was a great man. IIRC Nazis had tried to pressure him to mistreat or kill prisoners and he would have nothing to do with Nazi evil. That was no small thing in the Third Reich.
He was a member of the plot to kill Hitler and paid for it with his life.
While stationed in Monterey, CA in 1985 I got the opportunity to talk to Gen Doolittle at his house in Carmel, CA. Talked to him for about an hour.
What a great guy. He must have told that raid story a thousand times but told us like it was his first time. :)
He had this picture hanging up in his house; getting his 4th star from President Reagan and Goldwater
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.