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The Most Dramatic Aerial Attacks That Changed Military History

Khalid Elhassan January 31, 2023 35 min

The Raid on Tokyo

Jimmy Doolittle aboard his Curtis RC32 racing airplane, in which he won the Schneider Cup Trophy in 1925. Disciples of Flight

The top brass of the Navy and the USAAF liked Low’s idea. To organize the raid Lieutenant Colonel James Harold “Jimmy” Doolittle, a famous prewar airplane racer, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer, was selected. He chose the B-25 Mitchell, a twin-engine bomber that could carry a bombload of 3000 pounds to a range of 1350 miles. Two B-25s were loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, and flew off its deck on February 3^rd, 1942, without a problem.

Doolittle selected 24 volunteer crews, and two dozen B-25s were sent for modifications in Minneapolis. When the planes were ready, the crews were sent to pick them up and fly to Eglin Field in western Florida. There, starting on March 1^st, 1942, Doolittle gave the volunteers an intense three week crash course to prepare them for the raid.

Raid - One of Jimmy Doolittle's B-25s undergoing modifications in Minneapolis — One of Jimmy Doolittle’s B-25s undergoing modifications in Minneapolis. NWA History

That done, sixteen B-25s and crews were loaded aboard the Hornet, and sailed out. They rendezvoused with the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise on April 12^th, 1942, and the combined task force set course for Japan. A problem arose on the morning of April 18^th, 1942, when 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.

Fearing loss of the element of the surprise, it was decided 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-25 off the Hornet’s deck. By 09:19, the other 15 bombers had followed him into the air. Flying low to avoid detection, they winged their way to Japan. They arrived around noon, and bombed targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, and Yokosuka.

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.