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A Small Strike With Huge Consequences: The Doolittle Raid That Changed WWII in the Pacific

Khalid Elhassan March 12, 2025 14 min

Doolittle - A B-25 takes off from the USS Hornet, en route to Tokyo — A B-25 takes off from the USS Hornet, en route to Tokyo. US Army

4. Aboard the USS Hornet, Doolittle and His Men Went From Zeroes to Heroes

Doolittle - Jimmy Doolittle's B-25 takes off from the USS Hornet on April 18th, 1942 — Jimmy Doolittle’s B-25 takes off from the USS Hornet on April 18th, 1942. United States Navy Archives

At first, the Hornet’s crew had resented their USAAF passengers, assuming that they were just ferrying them and their bombers. However, when Halsey finally informed the task forces that they were headed to Tokyo, the sailors’ cheering shook the deck, and the airmen immediately went from zeroes to heroes. On the morning of April 18^th, 1942, the task force was sighted by an enemy picket boat 750 miles from Japan. It was quickly sunk, but not before sending a radio message. That created a problem. Fearing loss of the element of the surprise, the decision was made to launch the bombers immediately, 10 hours earlier and 170 miles further from Japan than initially planned. At 08:20, Doolittle flew the first B-25B off the Hornet’s deck. By 09:19, the other 15 bombers had followed him into the air. The raiders flew low to avoid detection, and winged their way to Japan.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.