I have always had an interest in the Doolittle raid, I first learned about it this as a 10 year old reading comic books. When older and slighter more richer, I read up on it in more serious military books.
Essentially it took place in the dark days of early 1942, when Allied forces worldwide, but especially in the Pacific, were having a hard time at the hands of the Axis, It was deemed that a raid on the Japanese homeland would provide a much needed boost to Allied morale.
Jimmy Doolittle, a famous a pre war avatior, and a Colonel in the US Army Air Corps, trained a special strike force of Army B25 bombers to take off the deck of a Navy Aircraft carrier, The images of the tightly packed bombers on the carriers flight deck still impress me, with their pre 1942 insignia (red circles inside US white stars).
The Carrier task force sailed towards Japanese waters, where, once in attack range, the take offs began in choppy weather.
Doolittle himself piloted the first B25 from the heaving deck of the carrier- a true leader of fighting men, leading from the front, leading by example.
The raid itself was really a one way mission, the B25s could not land back on the Carrier, so would, after bombing several of Japans cities, fly on to China and Russia.
The military results of the bombings were miminal, but the propaganda and morale results were what was needed at this point of the war, they were truly dark days, with Allied victory by no means certain, The battles of Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad were still to come that very year, 1942, when the Axis advances would be stopped.
But the Doolittle raid was a unique military operation, at a time when it was needed.
Essentially it took place in the dark days of early 1942, when Allied forces worldwide, but especially in the Pacific, were having a hard time at the hands of the Axis, It was deemed that a raid on the Japanese homeland would provide a much needed boost to Allied morale.
Jimmy Doolittle, a famous a pre war avatior, and a Colonel in the US Army Air Corps, trained a special strike force of Army B25 bombers to take off the deck of a Navy Aircraft carrier, The images of the tightly packed bombers on the carriers flight deck still impress me, with their pre 1942 insignia (red circles inside US white stars).
The Carrier task force sailed towards Japanese waters, where, once in attack range, the take offs began in choppy weather.
Doolittle himself piloted the first B25 from the heaving deck of the carrier- a true leader of fighting men, leading from the front, leading by example.
The raid itself was really a one way mission, the B25s could not land back on the Carrier, so would, after bombing several of Japans cities, fly on to China and Russia.
The military results of the bombings were miminal, but the propaganda and morale results were what was needed at this point of the war, they were truly dark days, with Allied victory by no means certain, The battles of Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad were still to come that very year, 1942, when the Axis advances would be stopped.
But the Doolittle raid was a unique military operation, at a time when it was needed.
Comment