Posted on 04/18/2016 6:54:01 PM PDT by Retain Mike
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
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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
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