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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

9. Picking the Right Bomber

A flight of Douglas B-18 Bolos, one of the bomber types considered for the Doolittle Raid. Flickr

Doolittle had some strikes against him, however. Not only was he a reservist instead of an active duty officer, Doolittle had no combat experience: in World War I, he had been kept behind in the US as a flight instructor. That Hap Arnold selected him to organize such a vital mission despite such perceived drawbacks bespoke high confidence in the man. Doolittle immediately set out to demonstrate that the trust of the USAAF’s commanding general in him was not misplaced. The first task was to pick the right bomber for the job. It needed to have a range of roughly 2400 nautical miles, while carrying a 2000-pound bomb load. Among tested airplanes, the options included the Douglas B-18 Bolo, the Douglas B-23 Dragon, and the Martin B-26 Marauder.

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.