James H Doolittle

For conspicuous leadership above the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Gen. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland.

Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle personally led the first U.S. air strike against the Japanese mainland in World War II. The “Thirty seconds over Tokyo” boosted American morale after the crushing defeat at Pearl Harbor and proved to the Japanese that their homeland, like ours, was not invulnerable to attack. On April 18, 1942, Doolittle took off from the deck of the Navy carrier ship Hornet with sixteen B-25 medium bombers. Personally leading the force of B-25s, Doolittle faced not only the challenge of getting his men close enough to Japan to successfully bomb their targets, but also the basic goal of making a plane light enough to take off from a Navy carrier ship. Doolittle knew it was possible, and by the time his men shipped out, the planes could successfully take off from the short carrier ship’s deck.

When the men set sail for Japan, they planned to take flight for their mission once the ship was 450 miles from the coast, but the Navy carrier ship was discovered by an enemy shipping boat 200 extra miles from the take-off point. Doolittle had to decide whether or not his men should take off this far from the target or push the airplanes into the ocean. Either way the deck of the Hornet had to be cleared in order for the ship to defend itself against the oncoming enemy fighters. Doolittle’s group took off for their targets, dumping everything they could spare in order to carry more fuel. The men reached their targets and bombed five Japanese strongholds, including Tokyo. Not one plane was lost in the air raid, fifteen headed for China and one for Russia. Because the men had to take off earlier than expected, most did not have the fuel to reach their destinations in China. Three men died bailing out over the ocean, four men were seriously injured bailing out over land, eight men were captured by the Japanese, three of those eight were later executed and one died of malnutrition, while the other four were recovered from prison camps after the war. As for the four who landed in Russia, they were interned but later released. The rest of Doolittle’s men, including himself, made it to China and survived their landings.

Initially Doolittle thought the air raid was a failure because America lost all the airplanes, but the boost “Doolittle’s Raid” gave American morale made this mission a success. America showed the world that it would strike back and that it could strike back against the enemies who wished to attack American soil.

Source: http://www.doolittletokyoraiders.com/doolittle_raid.htm