Doolittle’s Raid on Tokyo

- On 18 April 1942, the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo took place in response to the various, synchronized attacks on US military instillations across the Pacific—the largest and most well known attack being Pearl Harbor -- It took five months to show the Japanese what the US was made of -- January 1942 the decision was made to use medium range bombers taking off from aircraft carriers. USS Arizona explosion

- B-25 bomber was selected with some modifications such as two phony tail guns Phony tail guns

- The commanding officers chose Lt Col James H. Doolittle as leader -- Was a recipient of one of the first PhDs awarded in aeronautical engineering from MIT -- One of the top racing pilots prior to World War II

- A crew was chosen made up entirely from the 17th Bombardment Group -- B-25 had never taken off a runway in less than 500 feet, but in order to make it off the carrier the limit was 287 feet -- The pilots practiced taking off from a measured strip of runway in order to achieve this

- The decision was made to launch the bombers even thought they were 100 miles from the intended launching point -- Thirteen bombers attacked Tokyo, while the other three bombed Kobe and Nagoya -- The plan was to head for China when they were done but bad weather and a shortage of fuel forced nearly all of the planes to crash-land or be abandoned with only one landing safely and seven men killed

- The raid was small but it boosted the moral of the American troops, intimidated the Japanese, and encouraged the American people’s increasing hope for a US victory