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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

7. Finding the Men to Fly an Exceptionally Dangerous Mission

Insignia of the 17th Bombardment Group. Goodfellow Air Force Base

B-25s first flew in 1940, and entered service in 1941. They had not been tried in combat, but on paper, they seemed like they just might suit Doolittle’s needs. So he set out to test the bomber and see whether it was as good in practice for the mission as it seemed to be in theory. Two B-25s were loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, and flew off its deck on February 3^rd, 1942, with no problem. With proof of concept out of the way, Doolittle next had to find and train aircrews for the raid. He found them in the 17^th Bombardment Group, which was flying B-25Bs on antisubmarine patrols off Oregon’s coast. The 17^th was transferred to South Carolina, under cover of flying similar missions on the East Coast. When they arrived, Doolittle asked for volunteers for an “extremely hazardous” mission. Nearly the entire Group stepped forward.

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.