Doolittle Raiders

[semperfi71]

Famed World War II aviators hold final reunion

I saw the movie when I was a kid on T.V. It started a life long interest in the bravery of the men who performed this mission as well as the Sailors and Marines who took them to were they departed.

I still consider the Doolittle Raid as one of the bravest missions of military history extant.

I have read that the Japanese Army was so embarrassed by the raid that they removed about 2/3 of their air force back into Japan proper to defend the country for the rest of the war. As such it required the Japanese Navy to utilize the majority of its air corps to fight the war in the Pacific. As such, they lost the lion's share of their pilots, and most of their "best" at Midway when the four carriers were sunk.

I managed to personally meet Hank Potter (Doolittle's navigator) and Robert Hite (one of the eight captured by the Japanese) at an airshow in San Marcos, Texas. It was an incredible event for me to meet two of these brave men.

God Bless Them Forever.

 

[chief38]

Thanks for posting this!

 

[Foodfuzz]

What courage it took for them to do this mission knowing they wouldn't have enough fuel to make it to safe territory. Heck, from what I've read and seen, launching a loaded B-25 from a WW-II aircraft carrier deck was an act of skill and bravery in and of itself. You were fortunate to meet two of these gentlemen.

 

[QuickDrawMcGraw]

True American Hero's.

----> http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/302065-another-doolittle-raider-passes.html




~ Joe

 

[cmort666]

The raid did negligible tangible physical damage.

What it DID was humiliate the Imperial Japanese Navy and goad them into ill-advised actions which led to their defeat at Midway.

The Doolittle raid was a red cape to a bull... held in front of a thousand foot cliff with jagged rocks at the bottom.

 

[jspick]

I am not down playing the effect of the Doolittle raid but, the raid didn't make it a slam dunk to win the war in the Pacific. It was one long and horrible fight in the Pacific. No matter how things went.

John

 

[Navarre]

Thanks for posting this! I wish I would have known sooner. Eglin AFB is just up the road & that would have been something to see.

Navarre

 

[foxeye]

I just read where one of the crew members of the raid was 97 years of age and got to pilot a B-25 again and they said he remembered everything there was to remember about flying them.

 

[shouldazagged]

Watch the film of those B-25s taking off from the carrier. It'll scare the polyester fiberfill out of you--looks impossible. And if you haven't already, read Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, by Ted Lawson (with Bob Considine). I long ago lost my copy somewhere, but I'd like to read it again. Lawson lost a leg after crashing on the China coast. He was rescued and cared for by the Chinese. Heck of a story.

 

[shouldazagged]

Also was made into a pretty good movie, with Spencer Tracy as Doolittle and Van Johnson as Lawson.

 

[rwsmith]

I have an confession to make

For a long time I considered the raid to be a military failure (who cares what I think anyway), because it did very little damage and lost planes, some very brave men and put some of those men in the hands of the enemy, which was a fate worse than death as well as a humiliation for the US. Doolittle felt this way himself. It wasn't until I realized what a blow it was to Japanese morale, as well as a boost to American morale that I saw the value of this mission. The Japanese expected their homeland to be bombed about as much as we expected Pearl Harbor. Anyway I'm now a reformed doubter and see the raid for what it was. A sock in the jaw to the Japanese who were so confident that they would win the war. Yay Doolittle and his Raiders!

 

[cmort666]

There's a story in the current issue of "WWII" magazine about a similar mission which occurred at almost the same time, only slightly earlier.

A unit of B-25s was flown in behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Over the next couple(?) of days they flew a series of missions which took the Japanese completely by surprise. They did a lot of damage, sank at least one ship and got back to Australia, having lost only one plane and no personnel.

An amusing element was that the planes used were stolen from the Dutch Netherlands East Indies Air Force (KNIL?) who weren't using them for anything. The Americans stole the planes, which got the Dutch up in arms, then the Norden bombsights which they missed the first time!

The famous "Pappy" Gunn was one of the participants.

 

[silentflyer]

True American hero's. We lose aout 1000 a day of the greatest generation.