The Doolittle Raid

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.

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

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

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/

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

You’re right; the Japanese screen had seen the carrier and they launched early. Even those that reached “free China” had navigational issues in the dark, and the crews bailed out as they ran out of fuel. I don’t know how much those crews knew about their chances of getting back alive, but definitely one of the gutsiest missions...

Actually, he was not a member of the plot. He was approached by a leader of the plot, but declined and ordered the man out of his house. He was a soldier, not a politician. Knowing the war had been lost, he was interested in finding a way to surrender to the Allies that would stop the destruction of Germany and its people. He was denounced as a member of the plot by the very person he had sent packing. He agreed to suicide on the condition that his family would be untouched. I have often thought that if Rommel had been allowed to live and Patton had survived the accident, the two would have worked together to avoid many of the problems of post war Europe. Unfortunately, the IFS don’t count in reality.
You are absolutely correct in his refusal to follow the edict of Hitler to execute spies or POW’s. He also refused to sacrifice his men in Hitler’s order to stand to the last man at El Alamein. He was a great man and loved by his men, as was Patton. One of my good friends was a “Patton boy.”He says when Patton walked on water, all his men could walk on water too.

Your friend may have been 3rd Army, that’s the crew that loved Patton best. My dad served in the 7th Army under Patton in Sicily and Corsica until Patch replaced him. He much preferred Patch, Patton could be a little prickly. Dad later served in Vietnam with Patton’s son, and found him an excellent officer who didn’t trade on his name.

“I have often thought that if Rommel had been allowed to live and Patton had survived the accident, the two would have worked together to avoid many of the problems of post war Europe. “

As far as where the borders were established? Or German acceptance of the occupation? I’m not clear on your meaning.

McAuliffe of Bastogne fame was commander of the 7th Army in Heidelberg in the mid 50s. He became fluent in German and was a very popular speaker at German civic events. This helped heal the wounds of the war.

Patton hated the Russians as did the Germans. I don’t believe
Stalin would have gained such an upper hand had Rommel succeeded in his surrender attempt. He was loved by the German people and could have been the natural leader of Germany.
Allowing the Russians to take Berlin was a monstrous mistake. There were too many Communists and left wingers in our bureaucracy even then. Roosevelt himself had been a great admirer of “Uncle Joe.” Thank God he dumped his former vice president in favor of Truman because the Commie stink was getting to well known even for Roosevelt.
My friend was in the Third Army. He fought across Europe with Patton.
Patch was a great general. One of my favorites, yet Patton was, is, and always will be my pick.

Both the borders and German acceptance of the occupation would have improved. Patton insisted on using the Germans for the jobs the Germans knew how to do. He was criticized instead of applauded. Rommel would have concurred.
Thanks for the update on McAuliffe. “Nuts” is one of my favorite comments. I visited Bastogne last summer and also Patton’s grave in Luxembourg. One can still see the foxholes in the forest and the remains of defensive perimeters our men dug. Time has not erased all wounds to the earth.....just as the craters at Point du Hoc are still evident.
The two men who could have shortened the war and healed the wounds were both eliminated. And so history marches on.

The decision on postwar borders had been set at the Tehran Conference in December 1943 between Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. The blame for the Russian occupation of eastern and central Europe lies there. I don’t see how postwar survival of Rommel and Patton, while desirable, could have changed much.

When Germany surrendered we were still at war with Japan and had no idea that the atomic bombs would work. If defeating Japan was going to involve more years of fighting and a million casualties we wanted the USSR to bear some of the burden. If we had violated the Tehran agreement Russia would have reneged on helping us defeat Japan and might have used the opportunity to take even more territory in Europe.

And in what EFFECTIVE way did the Soviet Union help us defeat Japan? They played us for fools! The Soviet Union intercepted the message to Washington which confirmed their surrender. It was delayed and the Soviets moved into the picture at the veritable LAST MINUTE! WE were the suckers.
The Atomic Bomb worked at White Sands. Why wouldn’t it work at Hiroshima? OR are you suggesting the Japanese people wouldn’t have surrendered even after suffering the bomb’s devastation? Perhaps that was MacArthur’s thinking as he was all for invasion of the Japanese mainland.
Obviously, Truman’s decision to drop the bomb saved millions of lives.
Roosevelt’s turn toward Stalin and away from Churchill is one of the reasons I find him disgusting.
You are correct on the Tehran Conference, but there could and should have been changes made. As I said, we were played for suckers. The biggest sucker play was creating the United Nations.

Japan didn’t surrender until several days after the atomic bombs. Militarist fanatics among them were willing to have everyone die in a glorious fight for the homeland. They were overruled by Hirohito and those who believed that Japan could surrender without losing face. The bombs gave them cover.

If Japan had not surrendered, estimated US casualties for the first 90 days alone of Operation Downfall were over a half million. The American casualty estimates for fully conquering the home islands ranged from 2 to 4 million.

No one wanted to do that alone if we could share the burden.

I agree with everything you said except the bit about sharing the burden. We shared the WIN when Russia had done nothing to earn it against Japan. Where were Russian troops anywhere from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay?
Happily, Truman took the decision that he did. MacArthur favored the invasion which would have cost at least a half million of our boys.
Also happily, Hirohito wished to save what was left of his people.

“Unfortunately the Japs took revenge on the Chinese who helped the American fliers by murdering a couple hundred thousand”

I don’t doubt it, but the Rape of Nanking (1937) had already demonstrated their predilection for such things.

Thirty years ago or so I had a number of long conversations with an elderly Japanese man who was torn asunder by his service in China.

“They played us for fools!”

All day every day, right up until they collapsed.

And now, again, with Putin and the thousands of Russian agents in our government.

"You are correct on the Tehran Conference, but there could and should have been changes made. As I said, we were played for suckers. The biggest sucker play was creating the United Nations."

If I had been Eisenhower When Patton had said give me and army and I will give you a war with Uncle Joe I would have smiled at Patton and shook my finger at him and said don't you dare, then told him I am going to be out of contact for awhile here is your Third Army back George now (wink) stay out of trouble.

Your thought is great, however, Eisenhower was a politician more than he was a soldier. He didn’t have the balls.He was the beginning of political correctness and Brad took it to extremes. Ike became far too much of an anglophile for starters, and he ignored Patton’s good advice in order to play up to Montgomery—the spoiled brat of the war. Patton said Market Garden wouldn’t work, but Ike listened to Monty.
He and Omar Bradley, who owed every thing he knew to Patton, used Patton and tried to control his genius. I cannot tolerate false friends and Patton was used by Ike and Brad.
Monty never got the blame for the fiasco at Dieppe either. The entire plan was Monty’s. He was transferred to Nortth Africa before it was put into play, but nothing was changed from his planning. A MONSTROUS failure as the Canadians found out.
Ask anyone in France from Normandy to Lorraine who was the greatest American general of WWII. Patton wins hands down!
He wanted to take the German army and tech the Soviets a lesson. Too bad he never got the chance!

The bombers were stripped of everything nonessential. The rear gun was even replaced with a broom handle. They revved the engines to max before the brakes were released. They went through a special training program to learn all the tricks to do it. They took a B-25 out to sea off Norfolk, tried it and found out it damn well worked!

Doolittle took off in the first bomber so every man would see for himself that it could be done.

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