Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942

The Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese home islands during World War II. The mission was notable in that it was the only operation in which United States Army Air Forces bombers were launched from a US Navy aircraft carrier. It was the longest combat mission ever flown by the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.

The Doolittle Raid demonstrated that the Japanese home islands were vulnerable to Allied air attack and it provided an expedient outlet for US retaliation for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941.

The April 1942 air attack on Japan, launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, was the most daring operation yet undertaken by the United States in the young Pacific War. Though conceived as a diversion that would also boost American and allied morale, the raid generated strategic benefits that far outweighed its limited goals.
The raid had its roots in a chance observation that it was possible to launch Army twin-engined bombers from an aircraft carrier, making feasible an early air attack on Japan. Appraised of the idea in January 1942, US Fleet commander Admiral Ernest J. King and Air Forces leader General Henry H. Arnold greeted it with enthusiasm. Arnold assigned the technically-astute Doolittle to organize and lead a suitable air group. The modern, but relatively well-tested B-25B “Mitchell” medium bomber was selected as the delivery vehicle and tests showed that it could fly off a carrier with a useful bomb load and enough fuel to hit Japan and continue on to airfields in China.
Gathering volunteer air crews for an unspecified, but admittedly dangerous mission, Doolittle embarked on a vigorous program of special training for his men and modifications to their planes. The new carrier Hornet was sent to the Pacific to undertake the Navy’s part of the mission. So secret was the operation that her Commanding Officer, Captain Marc A. Mitscher, had no idea of his ship’s upcoming employment until shortly before sixteen B-25s were loaded on her flight deck. On 2 April 1942 Hornet put to sea and headed west across the vast Pacific.
Joined in mid-ocean on 13 April by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey’s flagship Enterprise, which would provide air cover during the approach, Hornet steamed toward a planned 18 April afternoon launching point some 400 miles from Japan. However, before dawn on 18 April, enemy picket boats were encountered much further east than expected. These were evaded or sunk, but got off radio warnings, forcing the planes to take off around 8 AM, while still more than 600 miles out.
Most of the sixteen B-25s, each with a five-man crew, attacked the Tokyo area, with a few hitting Nagoya. Damage to the intended military targets was modest, and none of the planes reached the Chinese airfields (though all but a few of their crewmen survived). However, the Japanese high command was deeply embarrassed. Three of the eight American airmen they had captured were executed. Spurred by Combined Fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, they also resolved to eliminate the risk of any more such raids by the early destruction of America’s aircraft carriers, a decision that led them to disaster at the Battle of Midway a month and a half later.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 Some of the mission’s B-25B Mitchell bombers parked on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), while en route to the raid’s takeoff point. Note use of the flight deck tie-down strips to secure the aircraft.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 Crewmen work on a USAAF B-25B parked at the rear of USS Hornet’s (CV-8) flight deck, while en route to the mission’s launching point. USS Gwin (DD-433) is in the center, approaching the carrier from astern.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 Nose of one of the raiding force’s B-25B bombers, which is tied down on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8) while en route to the takeoff point. This aircraft is mission plane # 11 (USAAF serial # 40-2249), nicknamed “Hari Carrier” and decorated accordingly. The plane’s pilot was Capt. C. Ross Greening. It attacked targets in Yokohama. Note slippage mark on the nosewheel and tire, and inscription on the wheel cover : “Inflating instructions inside — check tire pressure daily”.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 USAAF B-25B bombers tied down on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), while the carrier was en route to the mission’s launching point. View looks aft from the rear of Hornet’s island. The plane in the foreground is tail # 40-2203 (mission plane # 9). Partially visible at far right is tail # 40-2250 (mission plane # 10). Piloted respectively by Second Lieutenants Harold F. Watson and Richard O. Joyce, these B-25s attacked targets in the Tokyo area.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 View looking aft from the island of USS Hornet (CV-8), while en route to the mission’s launching point. USS Nashville (CL-43) is in the distance. Eight of the mission’s sixteen B-25B bombers are visible on the carrier’s flight deck. Aircraft at right is tail # 40-2250, which was mission plane # 10, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Richard O. Joyce, which attacked targets in the Tokyo area.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 View looking aft and to port from the island of USS Hornet (CV-8), while en route to the mission’s launching point. USS Vincennes (CA-44) is in the distance. Several of the mission’s sixteen B-25B bombers are visible. That in the foreground is tail # 40-2261, which was mission plane # 7, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson. The next plane is tail # 40-2242, mission plane # 8, piloted by Captain Edward J. York. Both aircraft attacked targets in the Tokyo area. Lt. Lawson later wrote the book “Thirty Seconds over Tokyo”. Note searchlight at left.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 Two of the operation’s sixteen USAAF B-25B bombers, parked on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), while en route to the mission launching point. The plane at right has tail # 40-2282. It is mission plane # 4, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Everett W. Holstrom, Jr. during the raid, in which it attacked targets in Tokyo. Note protective cover over its gun turret, and wooden dummy guns mounted in its tail cone. The plane at left is warming up its engines, as was done periodically during the voyage.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 USAAF B-25B bombers tied down on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), while the carrier was en route to the mission’s launching point. The plane in the center (second from the camera) is tail # 40-2283. It was mission plane # 5, piloted by Captain David M. Jones, which attacked targets in the Tokyo area.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 USAAF B-25B bombers and Navy F4F-3 fighters on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), while she was en route to the mission’s launching point. Note wooden dummy machine guns in the tail cone of the B-25 at left.

Scramble ! Flying the raid

On April 1, 1942, following two months of intensive training, 16 highly modified North American Aviation B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, their five-man volunteer crews, and maintenance personnel were loaded onto the USS Hornet at Alameda, California. Each plane carried four 500-pound bombs (three high-explosive and one incendiary), two .50-caliber machine guns in an upper turret, a .30-caliber machine gun in the nose, and extra fuel tanks. Each B-25 was also “armed” with two dummy wooden machine gun barrels mounted in the tail cone to discourage Japanese air attacks from that direction.
The planes were arranged and tied down on the Hornet’s flight deck in the order of their expected launch. The Hornet left the port of Alameda on April 2, and a few days later joined up with the carrier USS Enterprise and its escort of cruisers and destroyers in the mid-Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii.
The Enterprise’s fighters and scout planes would provide protection for the entire task force in the event of a Japanese air attack, since the Hornet’s fighters were stowed below decks to allow the B-25’s to use the flight deck. The two carriers and their escorting ships then proceeded, in radio silence, towards their intended launch point in enemy-controlled waters east of Japan.

On the morning of April 18, at a distance of about 650 miles (1,050 km) from Japan, the task force was sighted by a Japanese picket boat which radioed an attack warning to Japan. Although the boat was quickly destroyed by gunfire from an American cruiser, Doolittle and Hornet skipper Captain Marc Mitscher decided to launch the B-25’s immediately a day early and about 200 miles (320 km) farther from Japan than planned.

Despite the fact that none of the B-25 pilots, including Doolittle, had ever taken off from a carrier before, all 16 planes made it off the Hornet safely. They then flew single-file towards Japan at wavetop level to avoid detection. The planes began arriving over Japan about noon and bombed military targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, and Nagoya. Although some B-25’s encountered light anti-aircraft fire and a few enemy fighters over Japan, no bomber was shot down or severely damaged. Fifteen of the 16 planes then proceeded southwest along the southern coast of Japan and across the East China Sea towards eastern China, where recovery bases supposedly awaited them. One B-25, extremely low on fuel, headed instead for the closer land mass of Russia.
The raiders faced several unforeseen challenges during their flight to China : night was approaching, the planes were running low on fuel, and the weather was rapidly deteriorating. As a result of these problems, the crews realized they would probably not be able to reach their intended bases in China, leaving them the option of either bailing out over eastern China or crash landing along the Chinese coast. Fifteen planes crash landed; the crew who flew to Russia landed near Vladivostok, where their B-25 was confiscated and the crew interned until they managed to escape through Iran in 1943.
Doolittle and his crew, after safely parachuting into China, received assistance from John Birch, an American missionary in China; Doolittle subsequently recommended Birch for intelligence work with General Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers.

B-25-01-40-2244-34th BS-Tokyo-Lt Col James H. Doolittle-crashed N Chuchow, China
B-25-02-40-2292-37th BS-Tokyo-Lt Travis Hoover-crashed-landed Ningpo, China
B-25-03-40-2270-95th BS-Tokyo-Lt Robert M. Gray-crashed SE Chuchow, China
B-25-04-40-2282-95th BS-Tokyo-Lt Everett W. Holstrom-crashed SE Shangjao, China
B-25-05-40-2283-95th BS-Tokyo-Capt David M. Jones-crashed SE Chuchow, China
B-25-06-40-2298-95th BS-Tokyo-Lt Dean E. Hallmark-ditched at sea Wenchu, China
B-25-07-40-2261-95th BS-Tokyo-Lt Ted W. Lawson-ditched at sea Shangchow, China
B-25-08-40-2242-95th BS-Tokyo-Capt Edward J. York-interned Primorskkai, Siberia
B-25-09-40-2203-34th BS-Tokyo-Lt Harold F. Watson-crashed S Nanchang, China
B-25-10-40-2250-89th RS-Tokyo-Lt Richard O. Joyce-crashed NE Chuchow, China
B-25-11-40-2249-89th RS-Yokohama-Capt C. Ross Greening-crashed NE Chuchow, China
B-25-12-40-2278-37th BS-Yokohama-Lt William M. Bower-crashed NE Chuchow, China
B-25-13-40-2247-37th BS-Yokosuka-Lt Edgar E. McElroy-crashed N Nanchang, China
B-25-14-40-2297-89th RS-Nagoya- Maj John A. Hilger-crashed SE Shangjao, China
B-25-15-40-2267-89th RS-Kobe-Lt Donald G. Smith-ditched at sea Shangchow, China
B-25-16-40-2268-34th BS-Nagoya- Lt William G. Farrow-crashed S Ningpo, China