Posted on 04/18/2013 9:21:27 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 the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse as the Japanese conquered Singapore.
Only improbable ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska. Captain Francis Law, a submariner, was the first to broach the idea of flying Army Air Corps medium bombers from an aircraft carrier. Jimmy Doolittle sold his boss at the Pentagon on the idea, with the proviso he would return to Washington for some real work.
By mid-January Doolittle began assembling the planes and crews. Few Army personnel underwent training or had experience for operations involving ocean navigation, so crews were chosen from the 17th Bombardment Group flying anti-submarine patrols from the newly build airfield at Pendleton Oregon.
Unaware of this pending mission, the 24 crews flew to Minneapolis where the bombers received extensive modifications. Installing auxiliary fuel tanks increased capacity over 70%. Increased fuel weight then required removing a 230 pound liaison radio and the lower twin 50cal. ball turret which was later accomplished at then Eglin air base in Florida. One auxiliary fuel tank required bomb rack modification. The planes lacked rear defense, so two blackened broom handles were installed in the tail cone after the planes boarded the Hornet aircraft carrier. A special aluminum jig for low level bombing replaced the top secret Norden bomb sight. Cameras were installed to record bombing results.
While in Minneapolis the officers were told their destination was not Columbia, South Carolina for anti-submarine patrol. They were asked to volunteer for a dangerous, important, and interesting mission for which no information could be given. Nearly everyone volunteered even though most were new to their trade. Of the 16 pilots Doolittle actually took on the raid only five had won their wings before 1941and all but one was less than a year out of flight school.
Jimmy Doolittle, now a Lieutenant Colonel, met them in Eglin’s operation’s office. He said, “If you men have any idea that this isn’t the most dangerous thing you’ve ever been on, don’t start this training period…..This whole thing must be kept secret. I don’t want you to tell your wives…..Don’t even talk among yourselves about this thing. Now does anyone want to drop out?” Nobody dropped out.
The crews began training in Pensacola Florida 48 days before the raid using a remote 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 had used a mile long runway to build up speed.
Twenty two bomber crews hedgehopped across country to San Francisco. The 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, 1942. Now two of the 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 on December 7 were underway somewhere in the Western Pacific. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Japanese patrolling picket boats were 650 miles, not 300 miles, offshore to provide intelligence needed 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 those several years of research. The Soviet Union were long aware of Japan’s plans to attack both China and U.S.S.R. (strike north), or to attack colonial possessions of the U.S, Netherlands 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 safely arriving and 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, because Admiral Yamamoto had guaranteed the Emperor that Americans would never attack their home islands.
Doolittle Raiders 70th Anniversary: http://www.washingtontimes.com/specials/doolittles-tokyo-raid/ http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=doolittle+raiders+70th+anniversary&qpvt=doolittle+raiders+70th+anniversary&FORM=IGRE http://doolittlereunion.com/
Pendleton Field http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=C9A94F93-E10A-57A0-B694B0AFFE69184C
This year I am reminded of Leon Panetta discussing Bengasi and saying, “The basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on, without having some real-time information about what’s taking place.” I think Von Moltke first said and others have repeated as there principle, “No plan ever survived collision with the enemy. “ We are now lead by small, pathetic creatures hardly recognizable as humans.
Every year I also seem to get one or two comments that help me to tweet the write up.
But, I'll just leave it in your thread.
I aspire to be that cool.
/johnny
So many great, daring raids and acts of courage and bravery during WW2. In my mind, the Doolitle Raid stands as perhaps the most definitive of the then American spirit. The words “can’t be done” were not in our national vocabulary.
The valor and personal sacrifice of Doolittle and every single crew member stand as a benchmark we Americans need to aspire again.
Thanks for posting, Mike. Lest we never forget!
I always though history should have noted the guy's name so he could be known as a meddling asshole the rest of his life. How many of the planes that ran dry might have made it, or reached a safer haven if not for this guy?
Never ascribe untoward actions to malice when key people don't know the full picture.
Heading west on a following wind....
Thanks guys.
Heading west on a following wind....
Thanks guys.
Tony Curtis(actor) was 18 when he saw “Destination Tokyo” which prompted him to join the Navy and the “sub service”
Tony Curtis(actor) was 18 when he saw “Destination Tokyo” which prompted him to join the Navy and the “sub service”
One minor correction to the article.
They did not train at Pensacola but at field 2 which was a remote airstrip at Eglin. They did have an officer from nearby Pensacola train them in short takeoffs.
They are going to have a reunion at Ft. Walton Beach sometime this year. This may well be the final one.
morale
discussing Bengasi(sic)
Benghazi
tweet(sic) the write up.
tweak
Yup, the greatest American generation was also the last.
I too like to watch old WWII footage just to remind me that, when I was a kid, my parents and I belonged to that generation.
Press 2 for English.
God Bless those men.
Didn’t appear Slump was accusing the meddler of malice, just boneheaded stupidity.
There never fails to be one of this same type meddler “who knows best” in every crowd or at every plant, every shop. Proves that a little information is dangerous.
Unfortunately he wasn't the last REMF to get people killed.
I believe I read that about the tweaks and fine tuning being messed up in "First Heroes" by Craig Nelson.
BTW - I just found it used in hardback on Amazon for 1 cent! (3.99 shipping) This time I'm not gonna loan it out!
There was an article several days ago about the last surviving member of the raid. Only one left.Those were men in those days, by God.
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