Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Yesterday marked the 64th anniversary of the famous Doolittle raids during World War 2 when American symbolically struck back against the Japanese homeland. Imagine, men risked everything (and some gave everything) on a one-way mission they new would have no more than propaganda value -- although it did have the practical effect of causing Japan to pull some of its forces back for homeland defense, that could hardly have been a major consideration at the time.
DoD: Doolittle Raids: Beginning of End For Imperial Japan
On April 18, 1942, 16 Army B-25 Mitchell airplanes containing 80 volunteer airmen from the U.S. Army Air Forces, led by Army Lt. Col. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, took off from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Hornet on a daring mission to strike at the heart of Imperial Japan. It was the first U.S. offensive action of World War II, just four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The plan called for the B-25s to take off from the carrier about 450 miles from the Japanese islands, bomb selected targets, and then fly another 1,200 miles to friendly airfields on mainland China. The plan took a detour when a Japanese patrol boat sighted the Hornet and its flotilla and radioed back to Japan about an impending attack. American commanders decided to launch their attack ahead of schedule and about 700 miles off shore.
All 16 planes, containing five crewmembers each, reached the Japanese islands and dropped their bombs on various targets, including oil stores, factories and military installations. They then proceeded across the East China Sea.
As darkness fell, the raiders were running low on fuel and a storm kicked up. The airmen were flying over Japanese-occupied Chinese territory when they realized they could not reach the safe harbor of the Chinese airfields. Eleven of the crews bailed out, and four crash-landed -- one offshore, one inland and two on the coastline. The 16th plane landed in Vladivostok in the Soviet Union, where the crew was held captive until they escaped through Iran in 1943.
Two of the crewmen drowned, and a third died while ditching his plane.
The Japanese captured eight of the Doolittle Raiders. These prisoners of war were tortured and starved, and the Japanese eventually executed three of the men. Another later died of malnutrition. The remaining four were freed by American troops in August 1945.
The crewmembers who were not captured or killed made their way to safety, many with the aid of Chinese citizens...
There are special pages here and here with lots of info and photos.
Effect on the course of the war?
Material: Damn all.
Psychological: A shit load.
The Japanese are insular and racist, but they do admire a people with balls.