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Eighty years ago Lt Col James Doolittle and his group of sixteen B-25B medium bombers raided Tokyo and other cities.
This first air operation to bomb Japan caused little damage and all the bombers were lost in China except one in Russia. But this raid demonstrated that Japan was vulnerable to US air attacks and a big boost to American morale
I've flown in a B-25, and it made even more astonished that they managed to fly all those B-25's off a carrier in less than ideal weather conditions.....
The First Heroes for the U.S. in WWII.
Bob
Met his daughter when she came and gave a very moving account of the raid at The American Cemetery, at Madingley near Cambridge a few years ago, in front of a few hundred U.S Service men and women.
What a lovely lady who knew the value of her fathers leadership on that raid.
The survivors of the raid who made it through the war had a reunion on or about this date every year from 1946 to 2013. They are all gone now. Where would the world be today if not for their sacrifice knowing fully well this was a one way mission. Real men when they were really needed.
The day after the raid, Doolittle was utterly unaware of it's success. When shown the wreckage of his plane, he broke down in tears, thinking he would be cashiered when he got back to the States because the second half of the raid's goals was to deliver the planes to the Chinese. One of the guys who was captured ended up after the war in an overseas asylum with severe PTSD and mental illness from his mistreatment. He was eventually transferred to an asylum in Iowa where he trusted no-one. It took a trip to his cell by Doolittle to convince him that he freed from the POW camp. Doolittle got him treatment and he recovered.
Bob
Thank god PTSD is better understood today.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack
Bob,
When you see those aircraft taking off from the carrier, I was so surprised they managed it with their respective loads in that head wind. The took off from the end of the flight deck and seemed to struggle for a few moments, like slow motion.............brave men indeed.
Doolittle Raid Over Tokyo (Newsreel) - YouTube
Number seven in line, Ted Lawson, in the Ruptured Duck (serial No. 40-2261), got distracted and left his flaps up. In the complete reel you can see him drop below the level of the flight deck and then rear back up with water dripping from the plane. He went on to co-write the book, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, telling about the mission from his perspective.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil Boyd
Bob