Posted on 04/18/2022 10:45:28 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
There’s that famous film of Plane #16 about hitting the water in front of the “USS Hornet” before powering out. Allegedly that happened because Lt. Col. Doolittle wasn’t scheduled to fly but jumped into the pilot seat of Plane #1. Plane #1’s original pilot bumped the co-pilot from Plane #16. There was a problem with 2 command pilots running the same checklist and the flap position for Plane #16 did not get properly set for the takeoff. Not good. But there was just enough margin for error and the left-seat pilot kept his cool.
Thanks for posting this. However, after all this time, how does the WSJ allow little errors to creep into the article? Not nit-picking, but B-25’s are medium bombers (not heavies) and, it is pretty certain that the Japanese did NOT know of the attack before the planes were over Japan.
That doesn’t change the heroism and sacrifice of the crews, or the strategic effects of the raid. It’s just frustrating that journalism can be so careless.
America could Bomb the Japanese Home Islands anytime they wished.
That’s a shame; it was a real indication to the Japanese public that all was not as well as their government was telling them.
Yamamoto warned they’d have a short time to get into a bargaining position to encourage the US to end the war with a ceasefire; 6 months after Pearl Harbor they effectively lost the war at the battle of Midway. They could drag it out for a few years, but had no real hope of winning after June 1942 - they could kill Americans driving towards the home islands, but without any real hope of stopping them. Their victories on the Asian mainland were empty if they couldn’t stop the Americans’ progress through the Pacific, and they lost the war with millions of troops in Asia but no navy or air force left to defend Japan itself.
Not to diminish their feat, those were medium bombers, not heavy bombers. Typical of the type of journalists who call an LST a battleship or a marine a soldier.
Japan had to commit war machinery to the home islands as a result.
Said to advance Japan’s plans to become embroiled in the Battle of Midway, with results favorable to US and Allies.
Of the captured airmen, 4 became POWs, another 4 died in captivity, and three were executed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid
For the life of me I still do not understand why FReepers post articles that have a pay wall. Are you receiving a commission for every person that uses your link to subscribe, or are you just a naturally inconsiderate jerk?
Thank you for the assistance!
I did actually it post in reply #9.
The raid did have some very real effects because it lead to a mis-allocation of IJN surface vessels to guard the approach used by the Enterprise-Hornet battle group to prevent a repetition of the Doolittle Raid. There is also some evidence that it sparked Japanese planning for the seizure of Midway Island — and we know how that went.
Same reason they now have Kelly and Sinema. Sad situation.
More properly, this was a Publicity Victory, there was no Propaganda involved, only Factual Events.
—”the Japanese did NOT know of the attack before the planes were over Japan.”
At 07:38 on the morning of 18 April, while the task force was still about 650 nautical miles (1,200 km; 750 mi) from Japan (around 35°N 154°E), it was sighted by the Japanese picket boat No. 23 Nittō Maru, a 70-ton patrol craft, which radioed an attack warning to Japan.[31] The boat was sunk by gunfire from USS Nashville.[note 5] The chief petty officer who captained the boat killed himself rather than be captured, but five of the 11 crew were picked up by Nashville.[33]
Doolittle and Hornet skipper Captain Marc Mitscher decided to launch the B-25s immediately—10 hours early and 170 nautical miles (310 km; 200 mi) farther from Japan than planned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid
That nearly guaranteed the success of the Mission, ... Balls helped, and they had 'em, but they didn't get in the way of engineering, planning, training and practice.
What an EXCELLENT photo !
Fair point. I did not mean to demean the accomplishment in any way and it was publicity but we practiced the art as well to gloss over many of the early defeats we suffered at the hands of Japan.
We were ill-prepared for WWII and Japan rolled us pretty much across the board at the outset. My Uncle had a scrapbook of newspaper articles from WWII that was interesting and one of the first stories up front was from a major paper (I think LA Times but can’t remember) that said Doolittle and his raiders had bombed the Imperial Palace quoting unnamed sources.
The US govt and military carefully controlled the narrative in WWII to keep people buying bonds and promote the effort. The cause was “just” even if the facts were not always correct.
The most important thing they did was convince the Japanese that they needed to extend their defense perimeter. That led directly to the Battle of Midway......
Agreed. The Greatest Generation was a hard earned title.
I got to go to one of the last Raider Reunions about 10 years ago. I think only 5 were left that could attend. A great honor.
Risk/Reward was well Played by the US, Brilliant Command.
Not Demeaning the Incredible Sacrifices Offered by US Naval Airmen and Sailors at Midway.
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