Member of famed 'Doolittle Raiders' dies

Air Force Link ^

[Sherman Logan]

the actual damage to Japan was minor.

Not entirely accurate. Physical damage was minor. Psychological damage was immense. The military had claimed for decades that the enemy would never be able to attack Japan. Demonstrating that this was false had huge political repercussions.

[truthguy]

I taped every episode of the series. Burns mentioned many less important events that had nothing to do with the characters from Mobile, Waterbury, Sacramento, and Luverne, Minnesota. If Burns could have found a way to work the race angle in the Doolitte Raid he would have dedicated 30 minutes to it.

[rlmorel]

Several things to note here that are admirably displayed on this cool graphic...I don't know who the author was.

1.) Look at the concentric circles around Tokyo. 250 miles out is probably the closest they could think of going...they planned to launch at 475 miles, but ended up launching at 650 instead, which as the graphic shows is outside the range of the mission as intended. But then they did it.

2.) Look at the second legs of the journey to Chuchow and Vladistovok...that is some extreme flying there for planes like that in those conditions.

Simply ballsy, audacious and just plain AGGRESSIVE. What someone like Halsey was best known for...fitting that he would lead the Naval effort.

[goarmy]

Thank you, Sergeant DeShazer, for letting the Empire know that they did, indeed, wake the Sleeping Giant.

[BigCinBigD]

Rest in peace Sargent DeShazer. the prayers of a grateful nation herald you in to heaven.

[truthguy]

{Not entirely accurate. Physical damage was minor. Psychological damage was immense. The military had claimed for decades that the enemy would never be able to attack Japan. Demonstrating that this was false had huge political repercussions}

Yes, you are correct. I was typing to fast and should have said physical damage was minor. The pyscological damage was huge!

[Army Air Corps]

Amen. A good man with cajones de brasso.

[SandRat]

Lt. Col. James Doolittle leads B-25s off the USS Hornet's deck on a 1942 mission to bomb Japan. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

[rlmorel]

Also notice in that graphic how much of the Japanese islands they had to fly over after the raid. I admit to never having paid much attention to the actual routes themselves, and somewhere in my mind, I pictured them bombing their targets and exiting to the opposite side of the main island then flying over all that water the rest of the way.

In reality, it looks like the flew over the entire southwestern axis of the country. Lots of places there must have been airfields with interceptors.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Are you sure that wasn't a B-29 the Russians copied?

In a related story, when the Soviet scientists were building their A bombs from plans and pictures stolen from us they were well aware of the fate of those scientists who built the plane. So when building their exact A bomb copy, they even reproduced every minute detail including “Made in the USA” wherever it appeared in and on our bombs. They knew it was useless to the working of the bomb but they didn’t want Stalin to show his “gratitude” the same as he did for the earlier group.

[rlmorel]

Great movie.

I am an aviation buff and this film has some of the best B-25 footage.

The most memorable part for me is when they are having their going away party with their wives and girlfriends.

They all sang and stomped their feet to the song “Deep in the Heart of Texas”, and if I recall correctly, people had tears streaming down their cheeks in the movie.

I know I did as I watched it.

[BigCinBigD]

I believe you are thinking of the “B-29” incident. The Doolittle raid used B-25’s a medium bomber.

[Bender2]

Re: Staff Sgt. Jacob DeShazer, a member of the famed Doolittle Raiders, was the bombardier of Crew No.16 flying the "Bat Out of Hell...

Not to take from this man' bravery, but it is my understanding all the Pilots, Navigators and Bombardiers in the Army Air Forces at that time, 1942, were officers.

[bmwcyle]

Hand Salute............................two

[SandRat]

Was mine too,.. oh well, copied the story as written at the Air Force site.

[tanknetter]

Are you sure that wasn't a B-29 the Russians copied?

Yes, the story that he's recounting is very similar to that of the three B-29s that landed in Siberia after being shot up during raids on Japan. Those three aircraft were reversed engineered into the Tu-4 "Bull".

There was no need for the Soviets to reverse engineer a Doolittle B-25, as they were slated to get B-25s under Lend-Lease. In "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", Ted Lawson recounts getting to take a Soviet pilot up for a test hop in a Mitchell. The Sov pilot flew the aircraft like a pursuit aircraft (fighter), and when they landed Lawson discovered that all sorts of rivets had been popped as a result.

[rlmorel]

Wow. I was so caught up in the concept of paying tribute to this man and his mates, finding the pictures and posting them, that I didn’t notice I was listening to Glen Miller music.

I have been since I logged on for several hours before I saw this thread. My iTunes was just going through all of my Glen Miller tunes and had crossed into them shortly after I started listening tonight. Long before I saw this.

Eerie. Very eerie.

[ErnBatavia]

Thirty-some years ago, I worked at a cold storage warehouse where one of the drivers who'd come in (he was kinda old then, and just drove the Milton's Express light delivery van) was a survivor from Wake Island -- he'd been captured, as a civilian, at an age much older than the Marine defenders.

He hated and despised the "Nippers" openly and to their faces (lots of Japanese seafood-types were in and out of that cold storage daily).

It was really kind of shocking, yet funny at the same time, how he'd blow off every time he'd see anyone that could even remotely be Japanese.

[Seruzawa]

That picture is my wallpaper at work. It defines courage. There’s no need to embellish what they did with Hollywood extravaganzas like the hideous “Pearl Harbor”. Just the sight of those planes flying off to Japan one at a time.... against an undefeated enemy.... knowing they didn’t have enough fuel to reach their destinations in China... words fail.

[rlmorel]

Check out the portrait at post 27...he is referred to as a Cpl...