May 24, 2021
This is a colorized photo of one of the 16 crews who participated in the Doolittle Raid in 1942. The photo was taken before takeoff on April 18, 1942 from the aircraft carrier, as the planes would not return.
Planning The Raid
After Pearl Harbor, on December 21, 1941, President Roosevelt spoke to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to argue that America should bomb Japan as soon as possible to boost American morale.
Francis S. Low, the Assistant Chief of Staff for antisubmarine warfare, developed the concept for the attack, reporting to Admiral Ernest J. King on January 10, 1942, that they could launch twin engine army bombers from an aircraft carrier. The original plan called for the bombers to return to the aircraft carrier after the raid was complete. Although tests revealed that the bombers could take off from the carrier, they were unable to land on it.
The Goal Of The Raid
To plan the raid, Jimmy Doolittle was assigned to Army Airforce Headquarters. Doolittle, who had earned a doctorate in aeronautics from MIT in 1925, was a flying instructor in WWI and a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps. Because of the distance the aircraft would need to fly carrying a 2,000-pound bomb load, Doolittle selected the B-25B Mitchell to complete the mission. They also needed a place for the bombers to land and refuel. China agreed to allow them to fly to Chungking, despite the possibility of Japanese retribution.
On April 18, 1942, 16 bombers, each carrying a crew of five men, were launched from the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet. They planned to bomb industrial targets in Japan, specifically targeting Tokyo and other places on Honshu, before continuing westward and landing in China. Their goal was not only to boost American morale, but to inflict “material and psychological” damage, and that there would be “ensuing confusion and retardation of production.” They also wanted Japan to recall “combat equipment from other theaters for home defense,” and to incite a “fear complex in Japan.”
Outcome Of The Raid
Prior to the raid, the Japanese, who had been monitoring radio traffic figured out that a raid was possible; therefore, they positioned parallel lines of picket boats to provide early warning. As part of the original plan, the USS Hornet was to get within 400 miles of Japan prior to take off to ensure maximum success but were afraid of the threat of Japanese air-assets, and they did have 80 medium bombers in the Kanto area. As a result of this concern, the 16 planes took off earlier than anticipated, approximately 650 miles away from Japan.
The bombing killed about 50 people, including civilians. Four hundred others were injured. After the bombing, 15 of the aircraft reached China. The airmen fared better than their planes -- all 15 of them either crash-landed or crashed after the crew bailed. Chinese civilians and soldiers assisted the B-25 crews who reached China. The airmen, in gratitude, gave the Chinese whatever they had with them, gifts which unfortunately marked the Chinese who had helped the airmen and they became the targets of the Japanese. The Japanese attacked the coastal areas of Japan, destroying towns in the process, as 250,000 citizens and 70,000 soldiers died as a result of Japanese reprisals. While most of the airmen made it to safety with the help of the Chinese, the fates of 10 crew members was unknown until 1942. Two had drowned after their plane had crashed in the ocean. On October 15, 1942, they found out from the Swiss Consulate General in Shanghai that the remaining eight were prisoners of the Japanese. The Japanese announced four days later that they had sentenced them all to death but commuted the sentences to life sentences. Three of those eight were executed, while the others were kept on a starvation diet, and one died in custody.
Mission Accomplished
The final aircraft landed at Vladivostok. The Soviets confiscated this B-25 and interned the crew for more than a year as the USSR was not at war with Japan, and under international law, was obligated to intern foreign combatants found on their soil. The crew was eventually assisted in an “escape” staged by the NKVD that got the crew to Iran, where they were able to reach the British consulate on May 11, 1943.
The raid did boost American morale, although it did not inflict much damage on Japan. It did anger Japan, where it was used for the purpose of propaganda, and did bolster Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s plan to attack Midway Island. This attack resulted in a defeat for the Imperial Japanese Army.
Doolittle thought that he would face a court-martial because of the loss of all of his aircraft. Instead, he was promoted two ranks to brigadier general and received the Medal of Honor.
The image at the top of this post was colorized by Mads Madsen, a lover of historical images who is based in Denmark. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page.