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Posted on 04/18/2003 12:09:46 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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April 18, 1942 In the wake of shock and anger following Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt pressed his military planners for a strike against Tokyo. Intended as revenge for Pearl Harbor, and an act of defiance in the face of a triumphant Japanese military, such a raid presented acute problems in execution. No working Allied air base was close enough to Japan. A carrier would have to approach within three hundred miles of the home islands for its planes to reach. Sending surface ships so close to Japan at that time would practically assure their destruction, if not from Japan's own surface forces, then from her ground-based planes or submarine forces.  The first piece of the puzzle fell into place in the second week of January 1942. Captain Francis Lowe, attached to the Admiral Ernest King's staff in Washington, paid a visit to Norfolk, Virginia, to inspect the new carrier USS Hornet CV-8. There, on a nearby airfield, was painted the outline of a carrier, inspiring Lowe to pursue the possibility of launching ground-based bombers - large planes, with far greater range than carrier-based bombers - from the deck of an aircraft carrier. By January 16, Lowe's air operations officer, Captain Donald Duncan, had developed a proposal: North American B-25 medium bombers, with capacity for a ton of bombs and capable of flying 2000 miles with additional fuel tanks, could take off in the short distance of a carrier deck, attack Japanese cities, and continue on to land on friendly airfields in mainland China. Under a heavy veil of secrecy, Duncan and Captain Marc Mitscher, Hornet's commanding officer, tested the concept off the Virginia coast in early February, discovering the B-25s could be airborne in as little as 500 feet of deck space. The plan now began to develop into action. On April 8, 1942, the same day that the Americans and Filipinos defending Bataan Peninsula surrendered, Enterprise steamed slowly out of Pearl Harbor. With her escorts - the cruisers Salt Lake City and Northampton, four destroyers and a tanker - she turned northwest and set course for a point in the north Pacific, well north of Midway, and squarely on the International Date Line.  Six days earlier, Enterprise's sister ship Hornet had sailed from San Francisco, also accompanied by a cruiser and destroyer screen. Ploughing westwards, Hornet carried a somewhat unusual cargo. Arrayed across her aft flight deck, in two parallel rows, sat 16 Mitchell B-25 bombers: Army Air Force medium bombers. By all appearances, the bombers were too large to possibly take off from a carrier deck. Certainly, this is what the men in Enterprise's task force thought when Hornet and her escorts hove into view early April 12. Rumors spread about the force's mission: some thought the bombers were being delivered to a base in the Aleutians, while others speculated they were destined for a Russian airfield on the Kamchatka peninsula. When the Task Force Commander, Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, announced "This force is bound for Tokyo" Enterprise rang with a roar of enthusiasm and disbelief. The plan was more daring than most could imagine. After refueling on April 17, Hornet, Enterprise - the force's Flagship - and four cruisers would leave the destroyers and tankers behind, to make a high speed dash west, towards the Japanese home islands. The next afternoon, Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle and his crew would take off alone, arrive over Tokyo at dusk, and drop incendiary bombs, setting fires to guide the remaining bombers to their targets. Three hours behind Doolittle, the remaining fifteen B-25s would be launched, just 500 miles from Tokyo. Navigating in darkness over open ocean, they'd be guided in by Doolittle's blazing incendiaries, and bomb selected military and industrial targets in Tokyo, as well as Osaka, Nagoya and Kobe.  Though the bombers could take off from a carrier deck, they couldn't land on a carrier. Instead of returning to Hornet, they'd escape to the southwest, flying over the Yellow Sea, then some 600 miles into China, to land at the friendly airfield at Chuchow (Zhuzhou). If all went well, the bombers would have a reserve of perhaps 20 minutes of fuel. Success depended on the carriers being able to approach within 500 miles of Japan undetected, and survival on the airmens' ability to evade the formidable air defenses expected near the target areas. Things went according to plan until early April 18. Shortly after 0300, Enterprise's radar made two surface contacts, just ten miles from the task force. As the force went to general quarters, Halsey turned his ships north to evade the contacts, resuming the course west an hour later. Then, a little past 0600, LT Osborne B. Wiseman of Bombing Six flew low over Enterprise's deck, his radioman dropping a weighted message: a Japanese picket ship had been spotted 42 miles ahead, and Wiseman suspected his own plane had been sighted. Halsey, however, forged ahead, the carriers and cruisers slamming through heavy seas at 23 knots. Still nearly two hundred miles short of the planned launching point, Halsey strove to give the Army pilots every possible advantage by carrying them as close to Tokyo as he dared.  Ninety minutes later, however, the gig was up. At 0738, Hornet lookouts spotted the masts of another Japanese picket. At the same time, radio operators intercepted broadcasts from the picket reporting the task force's presence. Halsey ordered the cruiser Nashville to dispose of the picket, and launched Doolittle's bombers into the air: GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS YOU - HALSEY
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Director(s):Mervyn LeRoy
Writer(s):Dalton Trumbo - based on the book by Capt. Ted W. Lawson, Robert Considine
Producer(s):Sam Zimbalist
Cinematography:Harold Rosson, Robert Surtees
Editing:Frank Sullivan
Music Composer:Herbert Stothart
Art Direction:Cedric Gibbons, Paul GroesseSet Direction:Edwin B. WillisRalph S. Hurst
Special Effects:A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe, Donald Jahraus
JAMES H. DOOLITTLE (1896-1993)
Portrayed by Spencer Tracy
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Text of Citation:
DOOLITTLE, JAMES H. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Brigadier General, U.S. Army. Air Corps. Place and date: Over Japan. Entered service at: Berkeley, Calif. Birth: Alameda, Calif. G.O. No.: 29, 9 June 1942. Citation: For conspicuous leadership above the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Gen. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland.
Remarks:
Doolittle led a special strike force of sixteen B-25 Mitchell medium bombers launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (a feat for which neither the bombers nor the carrier were designed) to strike the Japanese mainland in retaliation for Pearl Harbor. The plan was for the B-25s to land in friendly territory in China, but the carrier was spotted by a Japanese patrol boat while nearly half again farther from Japan than the intended launching point. Although the Japanese boat was promptly sunk by the Hornet's escorting destroyers, it was impossible to determine whether or not it had radioed any warning, and Doolittle decided to launch from the extra distance, realizing that they would not have the fuel to reach the airfields in China. Two bombers crashed in Japanese-held territory and their crews were captured, and one landed in Russia (then a neutral country in the war with Japan) and its crew interned for the duration of the war. The remaining thirteen crashed in friendly territory in China, with one crewman killed and the remaining sixty-four eventually rescued, including Doolittle himself. But the airstrikes on the Japanese homeland, including Doolittle's strike on Tokyo itself, provided a much needed boost to American morale. Although the damage inflicted was nominal, the psychological effect on the Japanese populace and the high command was so disruptive that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto redeployed his carrier fleet to defend the homeland against further raids, resulting in his defeat (and the sinking of four of the six Japanese carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor) at the Battle of Midway six weeks later. In addition to the Medal of Honor, Doolittle was jumped over the rank of full colonel and promoted directly to Brigadier General.
Doolittle was a flight instructor during the First World War, and remained in the reserves while attaining his Masters and PhD in aeronautical engineering at MIT and then flying for the aviation division of Shell Oil. He held several flight speed and endurance records when he returned to active duty a year before the US entered World War II. After the Tokyo raid, he rose to command the 8th Air Force, the only reservist to command a numbered air force in the war.
The film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was based on the autobiography, and shown through the perspective, of Captain Ted W. Lawson (played in the film by Van Johnson), an aircraft commander during the Doolittle Raid who lost a leg when his B-25 crashed in China. Although the film dwelt heavily on Lawson's relationship with his wife, Spencer Tracy's Doolittle was a major character in the film and it did cover the preparations, raid and aftermath with as much detail and accuracy as could be given considering that the war was still going on at the time. [After recently rereading Lawson's book and revisiting the film to compare and contrast it with Pearl Harbor, the authors have to rank this film as nearly up there with Gettysburg, in terms of both historical accuracy and faithfulness to the original book.]
Another film, The Purple Heart (1945) was a reconstructed account of the fate of one of the other B-25 crews of the Doolittle Raid who were captured by the Japanese, recounting their trial and execution for war crimes, but Doolittle himself was not depicted in that film.
Doolittle was also portrayed during the Tokyo mission by Alec Baldwin in Pearl Harbor (2001), but Baldwin's depiction of Doolittle as a foul-mouthed, condescending, arrogant egotist (which has drawn the wrath of just about everyone living who knew the real Jimmy Doolittle) is only one of the many historical distortions and inaccuracies which place this turkey in the Hollywood Abominations category.
The "Ruptured Duck"
OFFICERS AND ENLISTED MEN WHO RAIDED JAPAN - 18 APRIL 1942
LISTED BY PLANE CREWS IN ORDER OF TAKEOFF
Takeoff No.1 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 34th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle
Co-pilot Lt. Richard E. Cole (Surviving)
Navigator Lt. Henry A. Potter (Surviving)
Bombardier Sgt. Fred A. Braemer
*Gunner Sgt. Paul J. Leonard (Killed in bomb attack in Africa Jan. 5, 1943)
Takeoff No.2 (CRASH LANDING - China)
Crew from 37th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Lt. Travis Hoover (Surviving)
Co-pilot Lt. William N. Fitzhugh
Navigator Lt. Carl R. Wildner
*Bombardier Lt. Richard E. Miller (Killed in action in Africa Jan. 22, 1943)
Gunner Sgt. Douglas V. Radney
Takeoff No.3 (BAIL, OUT)
Crew from 95th Squadron, 17th Group
*Pilot Lt. Robert M. Gray (Killed in crash enroute to China from India Oct. 18, 1942)
*Co-pilot Lt. Jacob E. Manch (Killed bailing out of T-33, Las Vegas, Nevada, Mar. 24, 1958)
Navigator Lt. Charles J. Ozuk (Surviving)
Bombardier Sgt. Aden E. Jones
*Gunner Cpl. Leland D. Faktor (Killed bailing out in China after Tokyo Raid, April 18, 1942)
Takeoff No.4 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 95th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Lt. Everett W. Holstrom
*Co-pilot Lt. Lucien N. Youngblood (Killed in crash Feb. 28, 1949)
Navigator Lt. Harry C. McCool (Surviving)
*Bombardier Sgt. Robert J. Stephens (Died April 13, 1959)
Gunner Cpl. Bert M. Jordan
Takeoff No.5 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 95th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Capt. David M. Jones (P.O.W. Germany 2 1/2 years) (Surviving)
*Co-pilot Lt. Rodney R. Wilder (Died June 6, 1964)
*Navigator Lt. Eugene F. McGurl (Killed in crash after raid In Burma, June 8, 1942)
*Bombardier Lt. Denver V. Trulove (Killed in action in Sicily April 5, 1943)
Gunner Sgt. Joseph W. Manske
Takeoff No.6 (DITCHED OFF CHINA COAST)
Crew from 95th Squadron, 17th Group
*Pilot Lt. Dean E. Hallmark (Executed by Japanese Oct. 15, 1942)
*Co-pilot Lt. Robert J. Meder (Died in Japanese P.O.W. Camp Dec. 1, 1943)
Navigator Lt. Chase J. Nielsen (P.O.W. Japanese 31/2 years) (Surviving)
*Bombardier Sgt. William J. Dieter (Drowned after ditching following raid April 18, 1942)
*Gunner Sgt. Donald E. Fitzmaurice (Drowned after ditching following raid April 18, 1942)
Takeoff No.7 (CRASH LANDING CHINA COAST)
Crew from 95th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Lt. Ted W. Lawson
Co-pilot Lt. Dean Davenport
Navigator Lt. Charles L. McClure
*Bombardier Lt. Robert S. Clever (Killed in crash in U.S., Nov. 20, 1942)
Gunner Sgt. David J. Thatcher (Surviving)
Takeoff No.8 (LANDED IN RUSSIA) (INTERNED)
Crew from 95th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Capt. Edward J. York
Co-pilot Lt. Robert G. Emmens
Navigator/Bombardier Lt. Nolan A. Herndon (Surviving)
Engineer S/Sgt. Theodore H. Laban
Gunner Sgt. David W. Pohl
Takeoff No. 9 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 34th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Lt. Harold F. Watson
Co-pilot Lt. James N. Parker
Navigator Lt. Thomas C. Griffin (P.O.W. Germany 2 years) (Surviving)
Bombardier Sgt. Wayne M. Bissell
Gunner S/Sgt. Eldred V. Scott
Takeoff No.10 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 89th Recon Squadron
Pilot Lt. Richard 0. Joyce
Co-pilot Lt. J. Royden Stork (Surviving)
Navigtor/Baombardier Lt. Horace E. Crouch (Surviving)
*Bombardier Sgt. George E. Larkin, Jr. (Killed in crash on flight to China from India Oct. 18, 1942)
Gunner S/Sgt. Edwin W. Horton, Jr. (Surviving)
Takeoff No.11 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 89th Recon Squadron
*Pilot Capt. C. Ross Greening (P.O.W. Germany 2 years died March 29, 1957)
Co-pilot Lt. Kenneth E. Reddy (Killed in crash in U.S. Sept 3, 1942)
Navigator Lt. Frank A. Kappeler (Surviving)
Bombardier S/Sgt. William L. Birch (Surviving)
*Engineer Sgt Melvin J. Gardner (Killed in crash in Burma June 3, 1942)
Takeoff No.12 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 37th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Lt. William M. Bower (Surviving)
*Co-pilot Lt. Thadd H. Blanton (Died Sept. 26, 1961)
*Navigator Lt. William R. Pound (Died July 13, 1967)
Bombardier Sgt. Waldo J. Bither
*Gunner Sgt. Omer A. Duquette (Killed in crash in Burma June 3, 1942)
Takeoff No.13 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 37th Squadron, 17th Group
Pilot Lt. Edgar E. McElroy (Surviving)
Co-pilot Lt. Richard A. Knobloch
Navigator Lt. Clayton J. Campbell (Surviving)
Bombardier Sgt. Robert C. Bourgeois
Gunner Sgt. Adam R. Williams
Takeoff No.14 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 89th Recon. Squadron
Pilot Maj. John A. Hilger
Co-pilot Lt. Jack A. Sims (Surviving)
Navigator/Bombardier Lt. James H. Macia, Jr. (Surviving)
Engineer S/Sgt Jacob Eierman
*Gunner Sgt. Edwin V. Bain (Killed in action off Rome Italy, July 19, 1943)
Takeoff No.15 (CRASH LANDING - CHINA COAST)
Crew from 89th Recon. Squadron
*Pilot Lt. Donald G. Smith (Killed in crash in British Isles Nov. 12, 1942)
Co-pilot Lt. Griffith P. Williams (P.O.W. Germany 2 years)
Navigator/Bombardier Lt. Howard A. Sessler
Engineer Sgt. Edward J. Saylor (Surviving)
Gunner Lt. Thomas R. White (Medical Corps)
Takeoff No.16 (BAIL OUT)
Crew from 34th Squadron, 17th Group
*Pilot Lt. William G. Farrow (Executed by Japanese Oct. 15, 1942)
Co-pilot Lt. Robert L. Hite (Japanese P.O.W. 31/2 years) (Surviving)
Navigator Lt. George Barr (Japanese P.O.W. 31/2 years) (Died July 12, 1967)
Bombardier Cpl. Jacob D. DeShazer (Japanese P.O.W. 31/2 years) (Surviving)
*Engineer/Gunner Sgt. Harold A. Spatz (Executed by Japanese Oct. 15, 1942)
*Deceased
When asked where the bombers came from, President Roosevelt laughed and replied, "Shangri-La," referring to the mythical Asian kingdom in James Hilton's popular novel Lost Horizon. (The U.S. Navy promptly named an aircraft carrier under construction the SHANGRI-LA.)
Hey there PhilDragoo. What a great response, "Shangri-La".
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