[SAMWolf]

The sixteen bombers employed on the Doolittle Raid were all B-25B models, third production version of North American Aviation's B-25 "Mitchell" medium bomber design. Delivered in 1941, these aircraft were stripped of some of their defensive guns and given extra fuel tanks to extend their range. Two wooden dowels were placed in each plane's plastic tail cone, simulating extra machine guns that might hopefully persuade enemy fighters to keep their distance. Each B-25 carried four 500-pound bombs on the mission. One bomb was decorated with Japanese medals, donated by Navy Lieutenant Stephen Jurika, who had received them during pre-war naval attaché service and now wished to pointedly return them to a hostile government.



The planes were parked on USS Hornet's flight deck in the order they were to leave. There was no room to rearrange them, and their long, non-folding wings made it impossible to send them below. During the two week's outward passage, planes received regular maintenance and engine testing to ensure they would be ready. The leading bomber, piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle, had but a few hundred feet of deck run to reach flying speed, but every subsequent one had a little more. Each was helped off a Navy launching officer, who timed the start of each B-25's take-off roll to ensure that it reached the forward end of the flight deck as the ship pitched up in the heavy seas, thus giving extra lift at a critical instant.



Additional Sources:

www.history.navy.mil
www.brooksart.com

[SAMWolf]

'It (the Doolittle Raid) had three real purposes. One purpose was to give the folks at home the first good news that we'd had in World War II. It caused the Japanese to question their warlords. And from a tactical point of view, it caused the retention of aircraft in Japan for the defense of the home islands when we had no intention of hitting them again, seriously in the near future. Those airplanes would have been much more effective in the South Pacific where the war was going on.



A Navy Captain named Low, conceived the idea of taking Army medium bombers off of a Navy carrier and attacking Japan. The B-25 was selected because it was small, because it had the sufficient range to carry 2,000 lbs. of bombs, 2,000 miles, and because it took off and handled very well. First I found out what B-25 unit had had the most experience and then went to that crew, that organization and called for volunteers and the entire group, including the group commander, volunteered.'

-- General James "Jimmy" Doolittle
from an interview done in 1980.

[SkyPilot]

I read how (then) Lt Col Dolittle sat on his wreaked B-25 after the raid and almost cried, in shame. A comrade comforted him and said, "Do you know what they are going to do to you when you get back to Washington?"

DOLITTLE: "Yes, courtmartial me."

"No--I think they are going to make you a General and pin the Congressional Medal of Honor on you."*

_{*See article in WW II History magazine, Spring 2002}

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi everyone! Have a wonderful day everybody.

[U S Army EOD]

If you haven't seen the movie, staring Van Johnson "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" as an adult, I recommend all see it. The movie has a lot of B25 shots and actual footage from the mission. The way the movie is made, it is difficult to tell when the movie footage cuts to the actual footage. Great movie.