Posted on 04/14/2009 10:50:55 AM PDT by Retain Mike
One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. Desires to bolster moral became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. Victories in Malaya, Philippines, Wake Island, and Dutch East Indies included sinking British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse as Japanese invested Singapore.
Only improbable ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea involved launching four engine heavy bombers from Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska. Captain Francis Law, a submariner, first broached the idea of flying Army Air Corps medium bombers from an aircraft carrier.
By mid-January Colonel Jimmy Doolittle began assembling the planes and crews. Few Army personnel possessed training and experience in ocean navigation, so crews were chosen from B-25 anti-submarine squadrons at Pendleton Oregon. Nearly everyone volunteered for an undisclosed extremely hazardous mission.
In Minneapolis 24 crews picked up bombers, which received extensive modifications. Auxiliary fuel tanks increased capacity over 70%. Increased fuel weight then required removing the lower twin .50 cal ball turret, and a 230 pound liaison radio. One auxiliary fuel tank required bomb rack modification. The planes lacked rear defense, so two blackened broom handles were installed in the tail cone. A special $.20 aluminum jig for low level bombing replaced the top secret Norden bomb sight. Cameras were installed to record bombing results.
Crews began training in Pensacola Florida 48 days before the raid using a runway flagged to mark available carrier deck length. In three weeks the crews learned to take off at near stalling speed, overloaded, and in just over a football field length. At Pendleton pilots used a mile long runway to build up speed.
Twenty two bomber crews hedgehopped across country to San Francisco. 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. Now two of four carriers in the Pacific with 14 escorts and 10,000 crew members steamed towards Japan. From radio intercepts, the Japanese knew the carriers that had eluded their six carrier strike force December 7 were underway in the Western Pacific. Unbeknownst to the Americans, Japanese patrolling picket boats were 650 miles, not 300 miles, offshore to provide intelligence for an overwhelming counterattack.
On April 18 the U.S. task force encountered this 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. A Navy officer twirled a flag and listened for the right pitch from the revving engines. The pilots, who had never flown from a carrier, saw the ship’s bow reaching into a grey sky, and then falling into a dark grey sea. 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 lifted safely from a rising deck into the grey morning; even Ted Lawson who discovered he had launched with flaps up.
The bombers proceeded independently to Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe. The industrial targets were first identified two years previously by a Soviet naval attaché in Japan, who imparted to his American counterpart several years of research. The Soviet Union had long noted Japan’s plans to attack both China and U.S.S.R. (strike north), or to attack colonial possessions of the U.S, Dutch and Britain (strike south).
Colonel Doolittle considered the raid a failure. Every plane had been lost; one interred in the Soviet Union, and fifteen crashed in China with eight crew members captured by the Japanese. He saw the raid as secondary to the bombers providing Chennault’s air force an offensive capability.
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 after Admiral Yamamoto guaranteed the Emperor that Americans would never attack their home islands.
Thanks! I went to school with Doolittle’s twin grandsons for a time.
Bookmarked. Thanks!
What Civil War era soldiers called "Quaker guns".
One practical result of the Doolittle raid was that it lead to the Battle of Midway. Yamamota correctly reasoned that with Midway in Japanese hands the U.S. Navy would not be in a position to attack the Japanese home islands. In the event Midway proved to be one of the most decisive strategic defeats ever suffered in the history of naval warfare.
To operate B25’s off a flight deck is a breathtaking act of courage in itself, but that whole mission highlights the best traditions of our military, and should serve as an inspiration to us all. We could sure use a few guys like that these days.
Judging by recent events, and the Iraq War and Afghanistan, we have lots of guys with smarts, skill and guts. What we lack is the public support and political leadership, as a result of the corruption of the American media and the academy of the past five decades.
“We could sure use a few guys like that these days.”
We have tons of folks like that serving today in Iraq, Afghanistan, and recently, off the coast of Somalia.
I hope that we can survive long enough for them to move in to leadership positions, like young Duncan Hunter has.
What a wonderful privilage!
I agree with you both, and I said as much when I mentioned the best traditions of our military. I intended to express that dearth of courage and leadership in our greater society, particularly in our elected officials. Those who serve in our military have my greatest admiration and respect. I often wonder though if we as a nation are still worthy of them.
You are so right! There truely a miracle at Midway.
A wonderful man by the name of Porter Ellis gave me the last job I had before I left for the Air Force in May of 1984. Porter had been a plank owner on Hornet. He was onboard with she launched the Doolittle Raid, and onboard when she went down in October of 1942.
Thank God for men like him.
Hopefully by the time they are a bit older and experienced to lead they will still be in the military and/or move into politics. Although I imagine the disillusion they will have after 4 years of Obama won't be good.
Plus, four years of Obama appointed military leaders...
What a wonderful heritage to follow!
Roger that! I remember how Speaker Jim Wright made me long for Tip O'Neil (don't get me started on our present one). I fear that BO staffing policies are capable of making us long for the likes of Wesley Clark (revolting as that thought is).
The U.S.Army does some pretty impressive stuff, from the biggest beach landings to the most famous carrier work.
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