(the above link is provided to Doolittle Raiders, where I got info for a lot of this story. Also from "The Final Toast!" from His Light shining)
In April of this year, it will be the 73rd anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. The men who took part in that raid were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States. There were eighty of them who took to the air as Jimmy Doolittle's Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation’s history. The mere mention of their unit’s name back in the 1940s after the event was likely to bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.
After Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and wounded,
Something dramatic was needed to help turn the war effort around, and encourage Americans. It was only four moths since the surprise attack...and to that point, all of the news had been bad.
Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to launch a retaliation strike with its bombers, a daring plan was devised to retaliate just the same.
What if the US could use B-25 Mitchell bombers? What if the bombers could be taken aboard an aircraft carrier and launched? The thought seemed impossible.
Those bombers were too heavy. They took far too long to take-off and get into the air.
Enter one Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle.
He believed it could be done and he set about preparing to do it.
The nation's Commander in Chief, President Roosevelt, and its military leadership believed in him. They knew that the United states had to make a statement. They new they needed a victory, and they were willing to take an audacious risk to make it happen. And they chose Colonel Doolittle to lead the force.
In May 1921, as an engineering officer and pilot, when a US aircraft crash landed in a Mexican canyon on a tans-continental flight attempt, Doolittle was sent to retrieve it. His team reached the plane on May 3rd and found it serviceable. They returned on May 8th with a replacement motor and four mechanics. After installing, they found that the oil pressure of the new motor was inadequate, Using carrier pigeons, Doolittle requested two pressure gauges. The additional parts were dropped by air and installed, and Doolittle himself then flew the plane to Del Rio, Texas himself, taking off from a 400-yard airstrip hacked out of the canyon floor.
He was a pioneer in navigation, instrument flight and landing, aircraft fueling, and flight maneuvers. Some of the firsts he had accomplished included:
- 1st cross-country flight, in September 1922, from Pablo Beach (later renamed Jacksonville Beach), FL, to Rockwell Field, San Diego, CA, in 21 hours and 19 minutes, with just one refueling stop en route.
- 1st to perform an outside loop, which previously was thought to be a universally fatal maneuver, with a Curtiss fighter at Wright Field in Ohio in 1927.
- 1st pilot, in 1929, to take off, fly and land an airplane using instruments alone, without a view of the outside of the aircraft.
- 1st pilot to use artificial horizon and directional gyroscope, equipment.
- 1st quantities of 100 octane aviation gasoline produced with Doolittle's help for high performance aircraft.
- Set the world high speed record for land planes in 1932 at 296 miles per hour.
This is the man the President of the United states and the military leaders called on to lead the force in the audacious attempt to retaliate against Japan.
The 17th Bomb Group in the 8th Air Force was chosen to provide the pool of crews from which volunteers would be recruited. The 17th BG had been the first group to receive B-25s, with all of its squadrons equipped by September 1941. The 17th was the first medium bomb group of the U.S. Army Air Corps. In early 1942, it also had the most experienced B-25 crews flying antisubmarine patrols from Pendleton, Oregon.
As a result of the decision to use the B-25, and to use tis group, the 17th BG was immediately moved cross-country to Lexington County Army Air Base at Columbia, South Carolina to prepare for the mission against Japan. On February 9th, only two months after Pearl Harbor, ts combat crews were offered the opportunity to volunteer for an "extremely hazardous" but unspecified mission. By February 17th, they had their men and this group was detached from the Eighth Air Force.
Twenty bombers were diverted to the Mid-Continent Airlines modification center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 710th Military Police Battalion from Fort Snelling, provided tight security around the
modification process. Modifications to the aircraft included:
- Removal of the lower gun turret
- Remove tail guns.
- Installation of de-icers and anti-icers.
- New Steel blast plates mounted on the fuselage around the upper turret
- Removal of the liaison radio set.
- Install additional 160-gallon auxiliary fuel tank & support mounts for additional tanks to increase capacity to 1,141 gallons
- Install Mock gun barrels in the tail cone, and
- Replace Norden bombsight with a makeshift aiming sight so the top secret Norton bombsight would not fall into enemy hands
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