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Cooley Hurd

(26,877 posts)
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 10:48 AM Oct 2016

Last living Doolittle Raider recalls America's revenge attack

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/30/us/doolittle-raid-japan-us-bomber-attack-b-25-mitchell-dick-cole/index.html



<snip>

At Georgia's Perry-Houston County Airport on Friday a B-25 named Show Me sat at the end of Runway 36. Its powerful propeller twin engines shook the seats as the bomber waited to takeoff -- a little bit like Jimmy Doolittle and his raiders did in 1942 aboard the USS Hornet.

Eighty men volunteered for that mission -- what turned out to be a one-way air attack -- vengeance for Japan's strike on Hawaii that crippled the US Navy fleet and left 2,403 dead.
For them, Pearl Harbor was their 9/11.

After four months, it was time for payback.

<snip>

On April 18, 1942, Doolittle and co-pilot Richard E. "Dick" Cole sat in the cockpit of their B-25 going over a preflight check list with the engines running.

"I was setting the engine cowl flaps and watching to make sure the engines didn't overheat," said Cole, now 101 years old and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

"It was a bit hectic," he said, because crews were scrambling. The mission launch was moved up by 12 hours because of fears that Tokyo had been tipped off.

<snip>

A typical B-25 takeoff uses about 2,000 feet of runway. But the Hornet's deck allowed the planes as little as 300 feet to get airborne — otherwise they'd drop off the edge and crash into the ocean.

Amazingly, the mission pilots had been trained to be able to take off as slowly as 75 mph with as little as 250 feet of runway.

<snip>

With the natural winds, combined with speed from the moving ship, the B-25s only needed to get up to about 23 mph to fly off the Hornet, Cole said. Japan was about 650 miles away.

A flag on the deck green-lighted the takeoff. It was time.

</snip>


MUCH more at link.
8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Last living Doolittle Raider recalls America's revenge attack (Original Post) Cooley Hurd Oct 2016 OP
Ted Lawson forgot to put down his flaps, too. sofa king Oct 2016 #1
Great clip! Thank you! Cooley Hurd Oct 2016 #2
Ted Lawson, author of "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo" longship Oct 2016 #7
Revenge attack? Not in the least. FogerRox Oct 2016 #3
It was a revenge attack in the sense of a morale boost... Cooley Hurd Oct 2016 #4
Yes it had immeasurable psychological impact exboyfil Oct 2016 #5
All wars are both offense and defense. Igel Oct 2016 #6
The Japanese Army refused to send more than FogerRox Oct 2016 #8

sofa king

(10,857 posts)
1. Ted Lawson forgot to put down his flaps, too.
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 11:00 AM
Oct 2016

I think this is his takeoff at 1:09:



My friend's father was a crewman on a B-25. He told us that one day a hot new pilot wanted to show off and did a loop with the bomber while coming down from "the Hump" route out of the Himalayas. The rest of the crew nearly killed him once on the ground.
 

Cooley Hurd

(26,877 posts)
2. Great clip! Thank you!
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 11:10 AM
Oct 2016

Looping a Mitchell might've been possible, but doing so after coming off such a grueling "Hump" flight might not have been wise.

longship

(40,416 posts)
7. Ted Lawson, author of "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo"
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 12:15 PM
Oct 2016

He lost a leg on that flight. It's a great story. And yes, he did not put his flaps down on take off.

A book that I read in my youth. A good read.


FogerRox

(13,211 posts)
3. Revenge attack? Not in the least.
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 11:10 AM
Oct 2016

This raid showed we could bomb Japan's capital city, and there was nothing Japan could do to Washington DC. It was about making Japan play defense for the duration of the war.

 

Cooley Hurd

(26,877 posts)
4. It was a revenge attack in the sense of a morale boost...
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 11:16 AM
Oct 2016

Tactically, you are correct that it put the Japanese Empire into a defensive stance.

exboyfil

(17,857 posts)
5. Yes it had immeasurable psychological impact
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 11:18 AM
Oct 2016

on the Japanese. It was also a light for the U.S. during a very dark time.

I don't know about the Japanese playing defense though. They were still the aggressor and in the better strategic position until Midway. Definitely after that they lost all hope of even the stalemate they were trying for.

Igel

(35,194 posts)
6. All wars are both offense and defense.
Sat Oct 1, 2016, 11:55 AM
Oct 2016

Resources for defense, strikes against public moral, all contribute to weakening the offense in the long run (although they can create fury if the assumption is that a country has a right to unimpeded victory and "how dare those inferior foreigners dare to fight back." That last bit usually has a strong ideological or religious basis, and is the grounds for a lot of protests we see--"They killed the person who was killing them, how dare they, the _____ scum! We'll get revenge for our martyr's death!&quot

FogerRox

(13,211 posts)
8. The Japanese Army refused to send more than
Wed Oct 12, 2016, 08:08 PM
Oct 2016

about 1500 troops to Midway. Redeployment of 5 divisions from the occupied islands in the east, back to Japan or to China is a significant defensive move.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_military_strategies_in_1942#Redeployment_in_China

Port Moresby, we were the agressor.
Coral Sea, Fletcher used radar to seek out the IJN task force and closed to engage.

Sure by Midway Admiral Fletcher had sunk 5 of 10 carriers the IJN had on Dec 7.

After the Doolittle raid, defence of Japan's home islands from attack by the United States Navy would also be given the highest priority by Japan's military leadership.
http://www.pacificwar.org.au/carrierwarfare/Halsey_Doolittle.html

Of course its often written that Yamamoto's move on Midway was motivated by the need to expand the Japanese defensive perimeter. The question then of course becomes did Dolittles Raid prompt Yamamoto?

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