There are still 5 Doolittle Raiders still alive.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Doolittle

Nothing like a B-25 Mitchell to brighten your day......Happy Anniversary...

When I think back to that era, and when one imagines what America had to do--and in basically starting from scratch--to fight back, and based on the status of "technology" back then versus now, the visage of Doolittle above "says it all" about what a magnificent generation of humans existed at the time to "save" humanity from itself.

The most famous native son of Alameda in history...

Jimmy Doolittle....

manus;738693 said:

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When I think back to that era, and when one imagines what America had to do--and in basically starting from scratch--to fight back, and based on the status of "technology" back then versus now, the visage of Doolittle above "says it all" about what a magnificent generation of humans existed at the time to "save" humanity from itself.

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What an awesome feat to have B-25's take off from an aircraft carrier! If the fleet hadn't been spotted by the Japanese picket boat that forced LtCol. Doolittle to launch the planes earlier, most if not all of the planes could have landed safely in China.

What a crazy little chapter in history.


What a crazy little F-U to the enemy.

Phantomfan;738722 said:

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What a crazy little chapter in history.


What a crazy little F-U to the enemy.

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Yeah....the big F-U came 2 months later at Midway when Vice Adm. Nagumo, the hero of Pearl Harbor, lost 3 of his best carriers within 15 minutes of each other..and the 4th carrier hours later....It was pretty much down hill for Yamamoto and Tojo after that....

Incredible. Thanks for the links!

Doolittle and the other guys on that incredible raid had major cajones to pull it off starting with taking off from an aircraft carrier. Plus they knew it was a one way trip. Heroes!

Here are links to two videos. The first is actual film of the Doolittle raid.



The second is from the movie 'Pearl harbor'. It's a 3 hour movie, but you could say it's 3 1 hour movies, the first hour is 'Yank in the RAF', the 2nd is 'Tora, Tora, Tora' and the 3rd is 'Thirty seconds over Tokyo'. Around the 7 minute mark, Kate Beckinsale tells how the Dolittle raid changed the war.

manus;738693 said:

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When I think back to that era, and when one imagines what America had to do--and in basically starting from scratch--to fight back, and based on the status of "technology" back then versus now, the visage of Doolittle above "says it all" about what a magnificent generation of humans existed at the time to "save" humanity from itself.

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Well said, Manus.

Cal_Fan2;738725 said:

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Yeah....the big F-U came 2 months later at Midway when Vice Adm. Nagumo, the hero of Pearl Harbor, lost 3 of his best carriers within 15 minutes of each other..and the 4th carrier hours later....It was pretty much down hill for Yamamoto and Tojo after that....

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Japan lost the war the moment they decided to attack us.

Here is another Bay Area connection to the raid:

The movie 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, which starred Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was filmed during the war, and the bombing run was filmed over Oakland. If you look closely, you see Yerba Buena Island, and then they run up the estuary, and you can see the old PG&E gasholder tank (near what is now the Coliseum) that was demolished not that long ago.

I learned this in an environmental case I was handling some years ago when an old guy who worked at the plant in question during the war told me about it. The footage turned out to be the earliest aerial photo of the site we could find.

GranadaHillsBear;738738 said:

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Doolittle and the other guys on that incredible raid had major cajones to pull it off starting with taking off from an aircraft carrier. Plus they knew it was a one way trip. Heroes!

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Well... not quite. Their attack plan called for landing/bailing out in China with forlorn hope of being picked up by Chinese allies. In the end, most of the crew survived, but yeah, they knew going in the odds were very steep. The airmen were definitely heros of the first order.

MSaviolives;738871 said:

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Here is another Bay Area connection to the raid:

The movie 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, which starred Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was filmed during the war, and the bombing run was filmed over Oakland. If you look closely, you see Yerba Buena Island, and then they run up the estuary, and you can see the old PG&E gasholder tank (near what is now the Coliseum) that was demolished not that long ago.

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Good knowledge.

Here is your clip. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo Part 10, at the one minute mark.

One of my patients was a navigator on the Doolittle raid and every time he came in I would ask him about it...he was one of the nicest people you could meet.

Cal_Fan2;738725 said:

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Yeah....the big F-U came 2 months later at Midway when Vice Adm. Nagumo, the hero of Pearl Harbor, lost 3 of his best carriers within 15 minutes of each other..and the 4th carrier hours later....It was pretty much down hill for Yamamoto and Tojo after that....

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Thanks for the history lesson. I didn't realize how soon after Pearl the message and then the transformational event happened.

FDR obtained a Navy commission for then Harvard history prof Samuel Elliot Morrison to write the official history of U S Naval operations in all WWII theaters. Morrison was shipboard on many operations (not sure about this particular one), and conducted extensive interviews during and after the war to flesh this history out. The result was a fifteen volume series covering every operation. The writing is not dry, not what might be stereotyped as military issue. They make fascinating reading, bears out the comments noted above regarding remarkable accomplishments by people under fire. This operation is included Volume three. Original editions began in the late 1940,s and continued into the early 60,s. Some reprinting in the 70,s. Likely out of print by now, best to look in used book sites online or used book stores.

Cal_Fan2;738725 said:

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Yeah....the big F-U came 2 months later at Midway when Vice Adm. Nagumo, the hero of Pearl Harbor, lost 3 of his best carriers within 15 minutes of each other..and the 4th carrier hours later....It was pretty much down hill for Yamamoto and Tojo after that....

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Interesting! My father watched the Tokyo raid planes take off while on the carrier Enterprise which provided air cover for the task force. Later he was at Midway with the Enterprise.