One nice rthing about posting to Free Republic is that each year I get at least one comment about something I missed or mis-stated to improve it next year.
The fact that the Doolittle raid was really the first significant counter attack is important because it was essentially a suicide raid, signaling that there was no limit to what the US would do in war. 4 years later, every major city in Japan would be burned to the ground.
Now, as then, the big wars start when one side underestimates the others resolve.
as an interesting aside, Japan economy was roughly the same proposition in size the the US in 1941 that Russia is today to the US . think about that stat next time you hear why Russia would never start a war in the Ukraine because “it makes no sense”.
I have a friend that her father flew this mission. He eventually went across Russia on a train to get back home. He had wrestled in the 1934 Olympics. She swan in Mexico City in the Olympics. There are a lot of high achievers.
The B25B normally had a lower Sperry rand remote controlled and sighted turret..while the B25B had them and were removed for the raiders...it was very ineffective anyway and was remove early in the war from all B25
Also the B25B normally had no tail guns..the A had a manned tail gun...the B just had a clear tail cone with no room for a gunner
The later B25s model did get a tail gun portion again I believe staring with the G model
One minor point is it's "Eglin Field" where the Raiders trained.
A bit of trivia. When asked where the Raiders came from, Rooselvelt replied, "They came from our secret base at Shangri-La." This was a fictional place from the novel Lost Horizon. When the Essex Class carriers were being built the Navy departed from its custom at the time and named one U.S.S. Shangri-La. Beginning in September 1944, the Japanese will again be hit from Shangri-La.
I occcasionally see clips of the 'X Games' on the internet. Kids doing things nobody could imagine. We Americans still have the will to be audacious, but our government education has created a subservient attitude towards government. All people want to be free.
Great post. Thanks for sharing.
What the raid also did that was more than a moral victory, was make Japan even more determined that they need to destroy the American carriers. This made them take higher risks than they otherwise would have. This in turn led them into a plan to invade Midway and lure the American carriers to it so the Japanese could destroy them. Thanks to codebreakers and some good luck, the element of surprise was with the Americans, and instead it was the Japanese Navy that suffered the devestating loss of 4 carriers to only 1 American one. The Japanese Navy was always on the defensive after that. So the Doolittle raid was much more effective inthe grand scheme of things.
Thanks for posting this.
What’s not mentioned is that the decision to launch 170 miles earlier because of the Japanese picket ships was that every man jack on the carrier knew that there was scant chance to make it to the Chinese mainland as planned. Headwinds encountered further reduced the odds.
Doolittle spoke with the assembled crews and offered them the chance to decline the now almost suicidal mission stressing that no stigma would or could be attached under the new circumstances. Not a man hesitated.
Doolittle was the first off the deck as every member of the flight crew and ship’s deck crews held their breath. A great cheer went up as he cleared the deck and the bomber crews followed.
Flying through the squall ironically gave them cover from both Japanese ships and aircraft. And as if by some miracle the skies cleared as they approached the shores.
Doolittle’s Raiders flew so low that Japanese civilians thinking the squadron was theirs waved enthusiastically.
The Japanese were incensed by the attacked and complained long and loud to any that would listen in the international community.
The Raiders surely caused more than a few samurai wannabes to realize that they would need more than bushido to win against such men as these.
I very nice article, the only thing I think that needs fixing is I don’t believe there was a “Pentagon” in 1942. It was under construction, or in the planning stage. It was pretty much just called the “War Department” before the Pentagon came into use.
Thanks for the reminder — 72 years ago tomorrow.
ping.