"The Bombing of Tokyo" Doolittle's Raiders and the Story of the USS HORNET

I had not known of this fascinating tidbit of US History. Thanks for the wonderful read.

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

btt for later reading

Doolittle and his men had Balls.

They planned to ditch their planes and swim back if needed.

The Hornet that took part in this mission was known as CV-8; it was sunk at the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The Hornet that is currently a museum docked at the former Alameda Naval Base in California is the CV-12 and was named in honor of CV-8

USS Hornet, a 19,800 ton Yorktown class aircraft carrier, was constructed at Newport News, Virginia. Commissioned in October 1941, she spent the next four months shaking down in the Atlantic.

Transferred to the Pacific in March 1942, Hornet was immediately employed on the Doolittle raid. On 18 April 1942, she launched 16 Army B-25 bombers to attack Japan, a strike that caused relatively little damage, but which had enormous strategic implications.

Hornet was then sent to the South Pacific to reinforce U.S. units there following the Battle of Coral Sea, but was recalled to Pearl Harbor in mid-May. She then took part in the Battle of Midway, on 4-6 June, during which her planes shared in the sinking of the Japanese cruiser Mikuma.

In August 1942, Hornet returned to the South Pacific to join in the fight for Guadalcanal. During much of September and October, she was the only operational U.S. aircraft carrier available to oppose the Japanese in that area. On 26 October 1942, during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, her planes attacked and badly damaged the Japanese carrier Shokaku.

In return, however, Hornet received heavy bomb and torpedo damage, necessitating her abandonment. Though accompanying U.S. destroyers attempted to scuttle her, she remained afloat until torpedoed and sunk by Japanese ships early in the morning of 27 October.

RETURN OF JAPANESE MEDALS

Several years prior to the war, medals of friendship and good relationship were awarded to several people of the United States by the Japanese government. In substance these medals were symbolic of the friendship and cooperation between the nations and were to represent the duration of this attitude. It was decided by the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Frank Knox, that the time was appropriate to have these medals returned. They had been awarded to Mr. Daniel J. Quigley, Mr. John D. Laurey, Mr. H. Vormstein and Lt. Stephen Jurkis.

After arrangements had been made and the medals secured, a ceremony was held on the deck of the Hornet during which the medals were wired to a 500 lb. bomb to be carried by Lt. Ted Lawson and returned to the Japanese government in an appropriate fashion. During the ceremony the bomb was inscribed by various crew members with various sentimental inscriptions such as, “I don’t want to set the world on fire – just Tokyo!” and similar phrases.

“The medals were subsequently delivered in small pieces to their donors in Tokyo by Lt. Ted Lawson at about noon, Saturday, April 18, 1942.” [5]

“Through the courtesy of the War Department your Japanese medal and similar medals, turned in for shipment, were returned to His Royal Highness, The Emperor of Japan on April 18, 1942.” [6]

Thank you for this additional information.

The USS Hornet. A valiant ship for her courageous crew and country. Her service was brief, but she went into the sea with honor.

>I had not known of this fascinating tidbit of US History. Thanks for the wonderful read.

Well, it took some doing for this raid to happen. However: 1) The raid shock and horrified Japan, rather than weakening their spirit to fight. 2) The raid convinced the Japanese that the US were monsters. The Pearl Harbor attack as at a serious military target. The Doolittle Raid targetted civilian targets. 3) The Pearl Harbor raid destroyed military targets and actually almost changed the course of the war. The Doolittle Raid accomplished nothing and killed almost only civilians.

When I was a young person, I thought the Doolittle Raid was great stuff, wonderful adventure. Over the years, I've come to reverse my thinking and now I see the raid as a horrible, pointless military exercise.

Mark W.

The Pearl Harbor raid destroyed military targets

Not exactly. One of my friends was there at the time as a civilian. He told me that many non-combatants were injured and killed by Japanese bombs which hit areas outside of the military installations. I beg to differ with your opinion about the raid. The Doolittle raid was quite a feat of tactics for those days; it demonstrated that the Japanese homeland was not immune from the war which the Japanese started.

I disagree. I think it rattled Yamamoto enough that he set up the Battle of Midway to finish off the American carriers.

Of course, thanks to Joe Rochefort and Edwin Layton, we were able to ambush Kido Butai and rip the heart out of Japanese naval aviation. Their intel was so good, that we managed to win the battle even though Frank Jack Fletcher was the guy in tactical command (eventually, Yorktown was hit, and he turned over command to Spruance).

Of course, a year after the Tokyo raid, Tom Lanphier managed to settle the score with the mastermind of Pearl Harbor.

See my post - #12.

The 25 knot winds and the speed of the carrier really saved them. Without the combination of those two things, they wouldn't have made it off the deck.

It didn't rattle Yamamoto--IIRC, he was already committed to the Midway operation (necessary to draw out the US carrier force) by the time the Doolittle Raid took place.

However, it DID evaporate a lot of opposition--the Army jumped on board because they (wrongly) believed that the bombers came from Midway, and the Navy because they recognized the need to extend the Japanese defense perimeter out as far as feasible, to prevent further raids from getting the free ride that the Hornet raid had.

Okay, I stand corrected on that front.

USS HORNET (CV12)

Photo by: Shirley SachsenClass: Essex Aircraft Carrier
Launched: August 30, 1943
At: Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Virginia
Commissioned: November 29, 1943
Modernized and re-Commissioned: September 11, 1953 at Brooklyn Navy Yard, Flushing, New York.
Length: 894 feet
Beam: 101 ft. at waterline, 192 ft. at angled deck
Draft: 30 ft.
Displacement: 41,200 tons fully loaded
Armament: WW II: 90 aircraft, 12 5"/38 cal, reduced postwar to 4 5"/38 cal., 8 3"/50 cal., 40 mm and 55 20 mm guns

Address:
Aircraft Carrier Hornet Museum
P.O. Box 460
Pier 3, Alameda Point
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 521-8448
Fax (510) 521-8327
Email: info@uss-hornet.org
Email (for overnight encampments): tours@uss-hornet.org
http://www.uss-hornet.org

The veteran Essex-class carrier USS Hornet (CV-12, CVA-12, CVS-12) is the eighth and most distinguished namesake in a long line of U.S. Navy warships with proud naval histories, beginning with the first Hornet in 1775. Second Hornet took the Marines "to the shores of Tripoli" in 1805. Third Hornet, under the legendary Captain Lawrence, sank the British warships Peacock and Penguin in the War of 1812. Seventh Hornet (CV-8) took the Doolittle Raiders to Tokyo, helped with the Battle of Midway, and was sunk in October 1942, defending Guadalcanal in the Battle of Santa Cruz.

The eighth Hornet (CV-12) had an extraordinary combat record in WW II, engaging the enemy in the Pacific in March 1944, just 21 months after the laying of her keel and the shortest shakedown cruise in Navy history (2 weeks). For eighteen months, she never touched land. She was constantly in the most forward areas of the Pacific war - sometimes within 40 miles of the Japanese home islands. Her pilots destroyed 1,410 enemy aircraft and over one million tons of enemy shipping. Her planes stopped the Japanese super-battleship Yamato and played the major part in sinking her. She launched the first strikes in the liberation of the Philippines, and in Feb. 1945, the first strikes on Japan since the Doolittle raid in 1942. The "Grey Ghost" participated in virtually all of the assault landings in the Pacific from March 1944 until the end of WW II, earning 9 battle stars and the Presidential Unit citation. In 1969, Hornet recovered the Apollo 11 space capsule containing astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin - the first men who walked on the moon - and Michael Collins. A short time later, she recovered Apollo 12 with the all-Navy crew of "moon walkers". The F/A 18 fighter plane is named after this distinguished ship.

USS Hornet is a National Historic Landmark and a State Historical Landmark. The ship is located on the east side of San Francisco Bay. A "Living Ship" demonstration is presented on the first Saturday of each month.

Return to the HNSA Guide.

Here's a poem I wrote about the raid last night:

Jimmy Doo Much

History trended against US from Pearl
even as record Old Glories would unfurl.
It was up to the U.S. Army Air Corps
to shift the balance of power and war.

It was Sixty great years ago today
an air raid was fought near Tokyo Bay.
Sixteen B-25’s soared through the skies:
the mission’s secret was kept under lie.

The bombing raid was determined to fail
and be recorded a terrible tale.
Yet, victory is known to the reader
for the mission had picked the right leader.

U.S. planes came so fast as bombs hit low.
The enemy’s fate blew out their window.
What was (four months) a war we all thought lost
became one won (albeit) at great cost.

And, as our foe Japan became aflame
the Irony truly was in a name:
"Jimmy Doolittle." The Colonel met Fate.
Jimmy did a lot. The Colonel was great!

Jimmy Doolittle, I know where you are.
You’re above us in the skies as a star.
So, I raise my glass filled past a Zero
to a great American Air Hero!

Thank You, Jimmy Doolittle and All Vets, for Defending My Freedom!

Thanks for the ping, Coteblanche.

Hark! The voice of the uninformed speaks!