75th anniversary of Doolittle Raid - April 18

You are correct.

I saw Norfolk in Wiki and ran with it. They made sure that those 2 planes could take off from a carrier before they went any further.

Another source confirmed 'Alameda'.

Norfolk is the wrong ocean... I wondered.

 

I suspect they really didn't want to be seen driving around a carrier with a bunch of bombers strapped to the flight deck. Might raise some questions. Movie shows them doing it in the day. I bet it was at night and they were in blue water before daylight.

 

The Hornet (CV-8) could steam at 35+ mph, don't know what a B-25 needs to get airborne, but...

If you look at the pics, the planes are airborne long before reaching the end of the deck, so the headwind was significant.

BTW, that Hornet was sunk, and another carrier was built soon after, also named Hornet (CV-12).



FWIW, my HS in Albuquerque used the Hornet's mascot (Highland Hornets) as theirs. Used the same artwork.

 

Some dispute over how many miles the carrier was from Japan, at the time of the launch.

 

^ Interesting. Thank you for posting. I came across this URL...

In 1992, Doolittle Raid Revisited | The Sextant

“Our speed was about 25 knots and I think the wind was about the same,” said Nelson of the original launch. “That gave us about 50 knots of wind across the deck, which the pilots needed because it was a short take off. We didn’t really know how important the raid was going to be."

So, 50 knots ~ 60 mph.

Thanks to your post, I stumbled upon this URL (Doolittle Raiders - First Joint Action) which seems exceptionally detailed. I'm just starting my reading, but noted this...

"The first take off runs were made with the airplane light. The distance used amounted to 800 feet but as new tricks were learned the distance decreased and the shortest take off run was that made by Lt. Don Smith in a measured 287 feet. A close observation was made on take off speeds and the lowest indicated air speed observed was 68 miles per hour. This is considered extremely slow as the normal take off speed of the B-25, at that time, was between 105 and 110 miles per hour."

Every new facet I uncover makes this mission even more extraordinary, the crews more heroic. If it were a movie, people probably wouldn't believe it could happen!

T

 

Site I quoted has the following for launch coordinates...

"Report of Navigator attached to Col. Doolittle’s report:


1. Take off 35 degrees 40 minutes North – 153 degrees 40 minutes East."

T

 

I went to the Doolittle Raider anniversary event at the Air Force Museum. It was awesome. Many great people there to talk to and ofcourse, Dick Cole showed up. Plus they had 11 B-25's doa couple flyovers. It is absolutely awesome to hear all those planes thundering by overhead.

Then there was also a flyover by a couple B-1's that were from the same squadron that the Doolittle Raiders belonged too.

It was an awesome day.

 

All the bombers, plus a P-51 and some other awesome planes gathered the weekend before at Grimes Field in Urbana, OH. They were all flying arouns giving rides and all that. Awesome to see, hear, and smell the b-25's doing thier run-ups, while another is coming in on final, and a p-51 doing an overhead break to come in next.

Great way to spend a weekend

 

Oh. And I got the pleasure of standing next to a couple WW2 veterans. They were both B-17 nose gunners, on the same plane. One was the belly gunner and the other was in the top gun. And thier pilot was Jimmy Stewart.

I thought that was pretty cool. They were both in thier 90's.

 

Very cool!
T

 

Have see several B-25's fly, close up.

They have to be the loudest bomber twin ever. LOUD! Open stacks????

I've also heard that it was kind of a handful to fly, not the most stable platform. Just what I've heard.

 

My late brother-in -law flew both the Martin B-26 and NA B-25 in New Guinea during the war. he said that if you liked to fly a nice airplane, it would be the B-25. And if you wanted to survive a mission, it would be the B-26. He really liked the B-25 and flew it often after the war and he often flew it down to Sarasota from Washington D.C. when I was working at the airport there. He also liked the Douglas B-26 and flew them in the Korean action. He also flew the T-6 in the spotter function there. When asked how close he came to getting shot down in the T-6 he said," It could take a lot of punishment". He never said much about what he did but he did admit to the fun in low level B-25 missions just above the trees with the gun nose and side package weapons when they strafed the Japanese positions. They started firing long before the Japanese could hear them coming and destroyed a lot of aircraft.

 

Incredible to me that we still have this...
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Bob you should write a book of your adventures and stories. I love reading your posts.

 

Funny that you mentioned that. I done writ one already and I'm working on another.

 

Well then, smother my belly in jelly and tie me to an ant hill... What's the title I could look up?

 

As Trump would say, " The greatest book ever!" But it really isn't. The title at Amazon is "From A Crystal Set to High Speed Jets". Story about some things that I did over 85 years. Better then jelly on your belly.

 

...and way, way better than an ant hill...

 

Lots of us can recommend it.

 

Thank you, Taz.

 

Thank you, Mr.TCar

 

In the excellent book Shattered Sword by Parshall and Tully, the authors directly link the Doolittle Raid to the Japanese debacle at Midway. After the shock of the air raid, the near-panicked Japanese High Command felt the urgent need to extend Japan's defensive perimeter further east into the Pacific. The lynchpin of this extension was to have been Midway Island. This would have been a risky move at best, but with the Americans' deciphering of their codes, the Imperial Navy sailed directly into a trap. The loss of four carriers was a blow from which the Japanese could not recover, and it turned the Pacific Theater into a grinding war of attrition that they had no chance of winning. The 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway will be June 4-7 of this year.

 

Well sir Amazon is working it's magic, I look forward to reading it. Thank you !

 

I've also read that several additional Japanese carriers may have participated in the Midway engagement if not for the Doolittle Raid. The Raid led the High Command to spread their carrier fleet out to maintain their defensive shield. As it as, Midway was 4 on 4 carriers IIRC...T

 

Great thread! They were brave men and put country and duty first.

Here's a B-25 pic I took at Nut Tree in 2012.
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