Doolittle Raid---79 Years Ago Today

[Alstep]

These guys had guts!

https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/04/18/the-doolittle-raiders-the-mission/

[wch]

It would be difficult to put into words the admiration I feel for these men.

[StuBach]

Wch had it right. No level of gratitude and admiration would be enough for what those men did.

[richhodg66]

The bravest of the brave. That kind of collective courage does not exist in society anymore.

[buckwheatpaul]

I am always so proud of those men that volunteered for that mission. They knew they could die yet they went to prove to JAPAN that we were not going to lose to them. Striking them on their own soil proved our reserve....

[sharps4590]

Resolve...but yeah, they proved it.

Good thing we fought that war when we did. Today, the east would be speaking German and the west Japanese

[square butte]

We stand on the shoulders of these men and men like them - We owe them so much.

[sharps4590]

We stand on the shoulders of these men and men like them - We owe them so much.

Incredibly so.

And all much of the last two generations can do....and the current administration in Washington....is urinate on everything they stood for and did.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

It was a lesson in supreme courage. It took brave men to volunteer for the mission to begin with, to fly clear across Japan and land in China; but when the presence of their aircraft carrier was discovered by the Japanese far from their intended launch point, the real test of their courage came with the decision to launch the raid anyway, despite the fact that they would run out of fuel. But, they went anyway, some crashing in Japan and being taken prisoner, some later murdered, some crashing into the sea between Japan and China. A few made it to China, were returned home, and continued to fight the war. We shall not see their likes again.

DG

[popper]

the real test of their courage came with the decision to launch the raid anyway
YES. And the resolve to fly a stripped down bomber off a carrier deck! Basically a 'human' 1940's 'cruise missile.

[green mountain boy]

i had the pleasure to meet jimmy doolittle in the early 70s in omaha nebraska at SAC HQ, what a class act and a fine gentleman.

[country gent]

The Doolittle raid was and is impressive doing that took true courage and fortitude. They planned practiced and trained for a mission that had never been done before. Knowing that they would have to ditch in a foreign country behind enemy lines.

But alo lets not forget all the island landings and Normandy and all the other assaults attacks that brought about the end. And the troops that accomplished them.

[rjathon]

The Japanese killed over a quarter million Chinese in retribution for having helped the Doolittle raiders who made it to China.

Jimmy Doolittle’s autobiography “I Could Never Be so Lucky Again” is a great read. He was pretty much responsible for the production of both high octane gasoline and the high compression aircraft engines that used it before the war.

[bedbugbilly]

A piece of history that should never be forgotten. What these men did, as well as all of those involved in the top secret project who helped make it a reality, are all owed a deep debt of gratitude. Our parent's generation truly was the greatest . . . and when the chips were down, Americans stepped up to the plate to meet the challenge . . men, women and children . . . and sacrificed so much for this country.

I have no doubt that in today's service . . there are many such young men and women who would step across the line and volunteer their lives had then been there at that time.

It is so unfortunate that we now have the problems in this country that we do. The Greatest Generation is almost a memory now . . . but if they were still here, NONE of what is going om ow would have been tolerated.

[Winger Ed.]

The Japanese killed over a quarter million Chinese in retribution for having helped the Doolittle raiders who made it to China.
.

What the Japanese did in China is beyond horrific.

As they hunted down the surviving raiders, they killed every living thing that had helped or had any contact with them.
Even entire nearby villages that might have been able to ever hear about the raid on Tokyo.
They tried to wipe out the collective memory of it in China.

[Electrod47]

Capt. Ted Lawson wrote of his experience flying a B-25 in that raid Titled "30 Seconds over Tokyo" the movie followed the events accurately.
My Dad was in the Army Air Corp and spent 3 years in the Philippines bouncing around helping supply air groups like the "Jolly Rogers" He always said their depiction of the aircraft was spot on in the movie. Nothing made his blood boil more than Japanese atrocities.

[bigwagon]

30 Seconds over Tokyo was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. Re-read it a few years ago and it's still a great story.