Doolittle Raiders share memories of their exploits at EAA

Milwaukee Journal Sentinal ^ | 7-25-2012 | Meg Jones

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Oshkosh - As they flew over Tokyo, Richard Cole and David Thatcher realized with relief that Japanese anti-aircraft gunners had never before fired at enemy planes.

As the first Americans to strike Japan's home islands during World War II, Cole and Thatcher found that the ack-ack-ack of the flak guns did little damage to the 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers that achieved fame as the Doolittle Raiders.

It was only four months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and Japanese military commanders had promised their nation that it was invulnerable.

The American crews lost all their planes and their bombs did minimal damage, but the Doolittle Raid was considered a success, proving to be a big morale boost to Americans and a punch in the gut to Japan.

"When we were approaching Tokyo, there was a lot of anti-aircraft fire but it wasn't accurate because they didn't have much experience," Thatcher told a large crowd at EAA AirVenture Wednesday.

Thatcher and Cole are among the five surviving members of the Doolittle Raid. During their visit to Oshkosh, they talked about their experiences, posing for photos and signing autographs as part of AirVenture's salute to the Greatest Generation in the Air.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Amazing bravery. The drive to strike back at the Japanese must have been intense for these guys.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

[Snickering Hound]

Over 70 years ago now and only 5 of them left. Doolittle himself was 96 when he died in 1993.

[Kartographer]

[Kartographer]

A U.S. Army Air Force B-25B Mitchell medium bomber, one of sixteen involved in the mission, takes off from the flight deck of the USS Hornet for an air raid on the Japanese Home Islands, on April 18, 1942.

[Kartographer]

A U.S. Army Air Force B-25B bomber leaves the deck of the USS Hornet, for the historic raid on Tokyo under Maj. Gen. James Doolittle, on April 18, 1942. Each aircraft carried three 500-pound high-explosive bombs and one incendiary bomb.

[tanknetter]

Amazing bravery. The drive to strike back at the Japanese must have been intense for these guys.

Because the Enterprise/Hornet Task Group ran into a Japanese fishing vessel/patrol craft on the run into the launch point, the Raiders had to launch earlier and from several hundred miles further out than planned. They were given some extra gas (in 5-gallon cans), but not enough to account for the extra distance and would be attacking in daylight rather than night-time (as they planned) they pretty much figured that one way or another they weren't going to make it to China.

[wetgundog]

Son of a “Flying Tiger” salutes the the Dolittle Raiders. Welcome to Japanese Occupied China.

[IronJack]

What men these were ...

And I'll lay you odds that not one of them thinks of himself as a "hero."

[Tax-chick]

And I'll lay you odds that not one of them thinks of himself as a "hero."

None of the real ones do.

"Everyone wanted to go - I was glad they chose me."

"I was just doing what anyone would have done."

"My Marines needed ammo, Sir."

[SunkenCiv]

A bunch of things went wrong, but without benefit of GPS or planes engineered to take off from WWII carrier decks, and without enough fuel to get back, those pilots managed to arrive on target, drop their loads, and for the most part survived the war.

http://www.doolittletokyoraiders.com/
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/misc-42/dooltl.htm
http://www.doolittleraid.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid

[snip] Of the 80 airmen that participated in the raid, 67 escaped capture and death... The Chinese people who helped them, however, paid dearly... The Japanese killed an estimated 250,000 civilians while searching for Doolittle’s men. [/snip]

Y’know, if the US hadn’t forced Japan into Pearl Harbor with its racist anti-Japanese policies, none of those Chinese would have had to be killed. /s

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks GOP_Party_Animal. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

A few years back (probably more than a few) the pilot who took off right after Doolittle said he watched JD’s plane drop almost out of sight after it left the deck, then slowly gain altitude. He said he wasn’t scared, except about not wanting to do worse than the boss. What a great group!

http://www.youtube.com/results?q=doolittle+raid+pilot+interview&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=w1

http://www.google.com/search?q=doolittle+raid+pilot+interview

[Northern Yankee]

Great picture.

I was there yesterday with my daughter. We didn't see these heroes, but there are plenty of them out there at EAA's Airventure.

[SkyDancer]

Hi, thanks for that. Will answer email soonest ... L/Janey

[tanknetter]

A few years back (probably more than a few) the pilot who took off right after Doolittle said he watched JD’s plane drop almost out of sight after it left the deck, then slowly gain altitude. He said he wasn’t scared, except about not wanting to do worse than the boss. What a great group!

Look at this video, about 2 minutes in