Carrie Rushman

U.S. History Block F

March 27, 2000

The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo

On April 18, 1942, the impossible happened. Tokyo was bombed by American land-based bombers flying as low as 300 feet at high noon. There was very little damage to Japan in military standards and the American loss of life and planes did not balance out with the damaged that Japan did suffer. Despite this, the raid was a success. Its three goals, stated by General Doolittle, were "to give the folks at home the first good news that we'd had in World War II," to cause the Japanese to "question their warlords," and cause "the retention of aircraft in Japan for the defense of the home islands." All these goals were met with flying colors. Not only that, but it was a brilliant military maneuver, both as it had been planned and as it was executed.

After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt realized that the American people wanted to see their country do something to retaliate on Japan. Roosevelt asked his military officials to draw up a plan of attack on Japan to show the American people, and Japan, that the attack on Pearl Harbor would not be ignored. There had been no success in finding such a plan until Captain Francis Low, a submarine commander, conceived the idea of launching land-based bombers from aircraft carriers. This had never been tried, because the nature of such planes did not led itself to the cramped quarters and short takeoff distance required on aircraft carriers. Low brought the idea to Captain Duncan, who found the idea promising, and Duncan passed it on to Admiral King. King was thrilled and told Duncan to give it to General Arnold, who then gave the whole project, the "Tokyo project," to Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle.

Doolittle was an amazing aviator. He had been the first to perform an "outside loop" and the first to fly instruments-only over a fifteen mile course in New York. He had flown across the U.S. in eleven hours and achieved speeds of almost 300 mph. He was an excellent candidate for the task of modifying B-25 bombers and training their pilots to be able to lift off in a less than 500 feet.

The B-25 bomber was one of the most widely used planes during WW II. It was chosen for the Tokyo raid for many reasons. The trip to Tokyo from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet would be about 500 miles and the trip to Chinese bases would be 600 miles, a total of 1100 miles if all went as planned, so the B-25's range of 2400 miles was ideal. The mission also demanded that each plane could carry 2000 pounds of bombs, and the B-25 could be modified to carry four 500 pound bombs. Another factor was size. Aircraft carrier planes must be compact enough to fit on deck, and the B-25 could. After all these considerations, the B-26 Maruder and the B-25 Mitchell were the only two possibilities. The Mitchell, however, was able to take off in a short distance with enough ease to be the preferred plane. It would be modified to carry extra fuel by adding a collapsible tank in the crawlspace above the bomb bay and another tank in place of the lower turret, bringing the total feul load to 1241 gallons. The secret Norden bombsight was replaced by a twenty-cent, two-piece bombsight invented by a gunnery and bombing officer named C. Ross Greening. Greening also attached two wooden sticks, painted black, to the back of each bomber to resemble guns and thus discourage the Japanese from attacking. Of the twenty-four B-25 Mitchells ready for use, only sixteen would go on to bomb Tokyo.

One major glitch in this whole plan was the question of recovery. Planes that are used on aircraft carriers have tail hooks that catch a cable attached to the deck that brings the plane to an abrupt halt. The B-25 did not have such a hook, and the structure of the tail prevented the addition of a hook that would be able to reach the cable. The bombers needed a place to land after they dropped their payloads on Japan. The US asked Russia for assistance, but Stalin refused on the basis that he was already being attacked by the Germans and could not risk an attack from an enraged Japan. The US turned to unoccupied China. There was an open airstrip in Chuchow, but the Chinese did not want to be attacked by the Japanese, either. So Marshall and Arnold did not tell Chiang Kai-shek the nature of the mission until a few hours before the planes were to land.

On April 2, 1942, the Hornet, with sixteen B-25s and eighteen crews, left Alameda Naval Air Station under the command of Captain Mitscher. After passing under the Golden Gate Bridge, Task Force 16-1 was told its destination was Tokyo. On April 8, The Enterprise under the command of Admiral Halsey left Pearl Harbor. April 13, the two groups met in the North Pacific and Task Force 16 was ready to move on towards Japan.

Now that Doolittle's men knew their target, they were allowed to choose their targets. The one target that was not open for attack was the Imperial Palace. Thirteen of the sixteen planes were to hit Tokyo itself. Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe would also be hit. The bombers were fueled, loaded, and checked over for mechanical problems. Doolittle's plane was to take off just after dusk and set afire the target to guide the other pilots who would follow three hours later. It was supposed to be a night raid. On April 14, Admiral King gave the president the first complete report on the Tokyo project.

Unfortunately, the Japanese had been aware of the American presence in the Pacific since the tenth. They had sixty-nine ground-based bombers ready to attack the Task Force 16 as soon as it came within a radius of 600 miles.

On the seventeenth, 12,000 miles from Japan, the task force refueled from the oilers that had traveled with them. The oilers stayed behind while the eight destroyers, four cruisers and two carriers continued on. The weather became so bad that by 2:40 P.M. the destroyers were unable to continue with the carriers, so they stayed behind with the oilers. Then, at 3 A.M. on the eighteenth, The Enterprise spotted two picket ships on their radar only eleven miles away. Halsey changed course to avoid them. Three hours later, a scout plane from the Enterprise dropped a message onto the deck of the Enterprise informing the Admiral that they had seen a Japanese patrol boat, and had been spotted. Then, at 7:38 A.M., the Hornet herself saw a patrol boat ten miles away. Halsey ordered the Nashville, one of the cruisers, to sink the patrol. Forty-five minutes later, the Nitto Maru was sunk, but they had enough time to send a message to the Japanese. There was a sudden burst in air traffic as the Japanese prepared to attack the carriers.

At 8:00 A.M. Halsey gave the signal for Doolittle and his flyers to leave. They were almost 200 miles and nine hours short of the planned position for take-off. The men knew that they were going to have severe fuel problems after bombing Japan. Fifteen minutes later, Doolittle's plane completed its takeoff from the 470-foot deck. He circled once over the Hornet to get his bearings (being so close to the Hornet had altered their compasses, which had to be reset according to the direction the ship was heading.) The other planes followed soon after, with only one mistake, that of the seventh plane, the "Ruptured Duck," whose pilot accidentally left his flaps up. The group did not get in formation because it would waste valuable fuel, so the line of planes extended for a mile. The compasses of all the planes had to be reset, so by the time some of the planes obtained accurate bearings, they had drifted off course.

That morning, Tokyo conducted an air raid drill. It was not taken very seriously because an attack on Tokyo was considered impossible. Just as the drill ended, Doolittle flew over and dropped the first bombs on Tokyo. Minutes later, Tokyo was being bombed again. B-25s came in from all directions because of the problem with the compasses, but this became an asset, because the Japanese had no idea where the planes were coming from. Four planes hit their primary targets, and all but two of the remaining planes hit their secondary targets. One plane found a target to hit that was not planned as such, and one crew had to dump their bombs in the water due to engine problems. One plane was attacked by two Zeros, but after one was shot down, the other fled.

After Tokyo was successfully bombed, the bombers were not so lucky. The Chinese did not have the beacons ready to guide the planes to the air base. This was partly because Marshall had waited to tell the Chinese what was really going on, and in part because bad weather caused the plane transporting the beacons to crash. Still, twelve of the sixteen crews bailed out and were safe in the hands of friendly Chinese people. The "Ruptured Duck" had engine problems right before landing. The crew crashed into six feet of water at 110 mph. The pilot, Ted Lawson, the co-pilot, and navigator crashed through the top of the cockpit. Lawson and co-pilot Davenport regained consciousness underwater, strapped to their seats. They managed to get free, but Lawson was badly damaged. When he finally found the doctor who had signed on as a gunner, his leg had become gangrenous and was amputated. Plane No. 16, "Bat Out of Hell," landed in Japanese-occupied territory, and all five were captured. The "Green Hornet" crashed in the sea just short of China. Two men died and the other three were captured. Only one crew actually landed on an airstrip. Plane Number Eight realized that it would not be able to reach China and instead turned towards the Soviet Union, where it landed in Vladivostok.

There was an effect of the Doolittle Raid that had a tremendous effect on the the war. After the bombing of Tokyo, the Japanese military leaders who had opposed Yamamoto's plan for attacking Midway no longer opposed him. They decided that Japan was not as safe as they had thought, so more offensive measures needed to be taken. This decision would lead to the turning point of the war.

"Doolittle Tokyo Raid." 26 March 2000. <http://www.b25.net/>.