Local Attorney and World War II Enthusiast Joe Roth presented a program on the Doolittle Raid for the Rotary Club of Livingston Thursday.
“The Doolittle Raid on April 18, 1942 during World War II was an U.S. Army Air Forces bombing raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Jimmy Doolittle led 16 B-25 bombers from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Hornet in a spectacular surprise attack that caused little physical damage but boosted Allied morale. The raid prompted the Japanese to retain fighter groups in Japan when they were badly needed in the South Pacific. The attack also compelled the Japanese to push beyond their originally planned defensive perimeter, thereby increasing the vulnerability of their supply lines.
“The first months of 1942 were a grim time for the Allies. The war machine of the United States had not fully mobilized after the shock of Pearl Harbor. Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps was running riot in North Africa. The German Luftwaffe was subjecting Britain’s cities to a sustained bombing campaign. On the Eastern Front, the German armies were poised to resume their offensive in the summer. The Allies were losing the Battle of the Atlantic, with German U-boats enjoying great success against Allied shipping. Japan’s armed forces had amassed a virtually uninterrupted string of victories.
“In the immediate wake of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted his military leaders to carry out a strike against Japan that would boost American morale. The damage done to the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor obviously limited the scope of the U.S. response, but American planners nevertheless conceived of an audacious threat against the heart of the Japanese empire. The U.S. would carry out an air attack on Tokyo itself.
“The primary purpose of the attack would be twofold: to cause material damage by destroying military targets and consequently hampering Japanese war production and to create fear in the Japanese population, thus making it necessary for military leaders to recall combat equipment from other theatres for home defense. It was also hoped that the raid would demonstrate American resolve to the other Allied powers, as well as give the American people a respite from the torrent of bad news from the fighting fronts.
“In January of 1942, just a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an idea materialized of launching U.S. Army Air Force Bombers from the deck of an aircraft carrier. It became a joint Army-Navy operation. Jimmy Doolittle was tapped to handle planning on the Army side.
“It was agreed that the only aircraft in the American arsenal that could possibly work would be the B-25. The feasibility of the plan was demonstrated when they launched two B-25 bombers from the deck of the carrier USS Hornet while it was at sea off the coast of Norfolk, Va. In the original plan for the raid, the bombers were to return to the carrier upon completion of the mission. However, in actual practice, it was found that while takeoff was feasible, landing a bomber on a moving carrier flight deck was extremely difficult. It was thus decided that, after the aircraft had dropped their bombs, they would head for inland China which was not occupied by the Japanese, or the Soviet city of Vladivostok. While the latter destination was much closer to Japan, negotiations with the Soviets about possible landings in their territory were unsuccessful, since at that time the Soviets had an uneasy truce with Japan that they didn’t want to jeopardize. This left inland China as the only alternative.
“Before training could begin, the B-25s were subjected to an initial round of modifications to make them lighter and to extend their range. The fuel capacity was almost doubled. Their radios were removed. Their belly turrets were replaced with an additional gas tank. To make up for the removal of the tail gun turret, a mock ‘tail gun’ was crafted out of painted broomsticks, to hopefully deter Japanese fighters from attacking from the rear.
“To evade Japanese radar, it was decided to fly at an extremely low altitude – treetop level – during the approach and departure, and only 1,500 feet during the bombing run. Because the B-25’s Norden bombsight was a heavily guarded secret and not especially effective at low altitudes, a simplified replacement bombsight was devised, called the ‘20-cent sight’ due to the low cost of the materials. It was significantly smaller and lighter than the bulky Norden.
In March 1942 some 140 men traveled to Eglin Field near Fort Walton Beach, Fla. to begin three weeks of intensive training. White lines simulating a carrier flight deck were drawn on two runways of an auxiliary field near Eglin, and pilots practiced getting the fully loaded bombers in the air in the required distance. Flights were scheduled over the Gulf of Mexico to permit pilots and navigators to become accustomed to flying without visual landmarks or radio guidance. The raiders departed for California at the end of March.
“On April 1, 1942, 16 modified B-25s were loaded onto the flight deck of the Hornet at Naval Air Station Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. The carrier steamed out of San Francisco under the cover of a heavy fog the following morning. Accompanying the Hornet was a flotilla of support ships. It was to rendezvous with the carrier USS Enterprise and ‘Bull’ Halsey’s task force and then proceed to the launch area some 400 miles off the coast of Japan. Aerial patrolling and reconnaissance were left to the aircraft of the Enterprise.
Enroute to the launch area, Jimmy Doolittle attached ‘Medals of Friendship’ to a bomb that would be used in the Doolittle Raid. The medals had been awarded to Americans by the Japanese government prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. As the naval force traveled west, however, events would reinforce the maxim about the best laid plans of mice and men going oft awry.
“At 3 a.m. on April 18, American radar operators detected a Japanese picket boat far outside the expected patrol area. As the task force proceeded, a series of Japanese vessels appeared on the radar screen. Finally, at about 7:38 a.m., lookouts on the Hornet spotted a Japanese patrol craft just a few miles from the carrier. Although the USS Nashville quickly sank the Japanese ship, the Hornet’s radio room intercepted an outgoing message alerting the Japanese military to the presence of the Americans. What do we do now? Doolittle had hoped to launch aircraft at a distance of 400-600 miles from the target, then proceed to inland China from there. But Halsey was unwilling to risk his valuable carriers by pushing deeper into the Japanese defensive perimeter. At this point the Hornet was more than 820 miles from Tokyo. Halsey dispatched an order to the Hornet ‘LAUNCH PLANES. TO COL. DOOLITTLE AND GALLANT COMMAND, GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS YOU.’ An order was announced over the loudspeaker of the Hornet: ‘Now hear this! Now hear this! Army pilots! Man your planes!’
“Guess what? They didn’t have enough gas to make it to inland China! And they took off knowing that they didn’t have enough gas to do this! Final instructions were given to the flight crews. If it proved impossible to make it to China coast, pilots were ordered NOT to divert to the Soviet Union, but to proceed as far west as possible, ditch their planes at sea, and make their way to shore in rubber boats. Doolittle’s plane was the first to lift off the deck of the Hornet at 8:20 a.m. The remaining B-25s took off without mishap.
“An estimated 14 tons of bombs were dropped on the Japanese mainland during the raid, and air crews claimed hits on virtually all of the assigned primary targets. Several of the planes reported seeing large fires as the result of incendiary bombs, while high explosive bombs did visible damage to factories, ammunition dumps, naval facilities, and military barracks. Antiaircraft fire by Japanese was intense but inaccurate. The raiders did not lose any aircraft or personnel to flak. And they were not attacked by any Japanese planes.
“After leaving Tokyo, most of the raiders turned south and headed out to sea, bound for the China coast. They were aided by a 25-mile-per-hour tailwind throughout the last part of their journey. But bad weather set in, visibility became almost zero, and the raiders were flying entirely on instruments. With his fuel almost gone, Doolittle ordered his crew to bail out. After setting his plane’s automatic pilot, Doolittle followed. It was 9:20 p.m., exactly 13 hours after he had taken off from the Hornet.
“Everyone in Doolittle’s plane landed safely in friendly Chinese territory, and they quickly made contact with local Chinese authorities. By the morning of April 20, four additional planes and crews had been located, and Doolittle wired from the American embassy in Chungking: “Tokyo successfully bombed. Due to bad weather on China coast, believe all airplanes wrecked. Five crews found safe in China so far.” Among the crews who reached China, there were three fatalities from accidents during bailouts or crash landings.
“Only 3 of the 16 crews failed to reach Chungking. Captain Edwin J. York was desperately short of fuel and diverted to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. He and his crew were interned by the Soviets in various locations for more than a year before they managed to ‘escape’ into British and Soviet-occupied Iran. Their so called ‘escape’ was actually a Soviet operation staged to repatriate the Americans but giving the Soviets plausible deniability with the Japanese, with whom they were still nonbelligerent.
“Two crews were captured by Japanese forces in coastal China after bailing out. Four of the raiders remained prisoners of the Japanese until the end of the war. One died of dysentery in captivity before the war ended. Three were executed by the Japanese. The crews that made it to Chungking could not have done so without the assistance of the friendly Chinese people. Japanese reprisals against the Chinese who were even suspected of helping the Americans were horrendous.
“The bombing did comparatively little physical damage, but it had an enormous psychological effect in both the United States and Japan. Doolittle was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Army Air Forces used the raid as an effective recruiting tool. Captain Ted Lawson, a pilot involved in the mission, would write Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, a best-selling account of the raid, which would be adapted as a feature film starring Spencer Tracy in the role of Doolittle. A little over a year later, American code breakers penetrated the Japanese naval code, and Pacific Fleet Commander Chester Nimitz had his carriers intercept the Japanese naval force at the battle of Midway. U.S. naval air power destroyed Japan’s first line carrier strength and reversed the tide of the war in the Pacific.
“In December 1946, Gen. James ‘Jimmy’ Doolittle and his fellow Raiders gathered to celebrate his birthday, and that event turned into an annual reunion. These reunions were wild affairs. In 1959 the city of Tucson, Ariz. presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of silver goblets, each bearing the name of one of the 80 men who flew on the mission. At every reunion, the surviving Raiders met privately to conduct their solemn ‘Goblet Ceremony.’ After toasting the Raiders who died since their last meeting, they turned the deceased men’s goblets upside down. Each goblet has the Raider’s name engraved twice – so that it can be read if the goblet is right side up or upside down.
“One of the Doolittle Raiders is buried in Livingston. James M. Parker, Jr., the co-pilot of the ‘Whirling Dervish’ is buried in Restland Cemetery, just across Highway 59 from Charley’s restaurant. A historical marker is on the site.
“For further reading, I would recommend Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor by James M. Scott,” Roth said.
