Jimmy Doolittle

9 Pages 2175 Words

ng spot but Stalin was already dealing with the Germans and didn’t want to PO the Japanese so Marshall and Arnold forcefully ask Chiang Kai-shek for landing permission, Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly agrees
B-25s med range bombers w/5 man crew and could carry 1 ton of bombs at close to 300 mph w/a 2000 mile range
Take-off tested on Hornet barely missed ‘island’ structure but made it
24 aircraft and 140 volunteers (pilots, co-pilots, navigators, bombardiers and flight engineers/gunners)
only told this would be a top secret and hazardous mission, would take them out of the US for a few weeks then told they could now bow out – no one did
practiced short field take-offs coached by Navy flight instructor, Doolittle also trained, flights over Gulf of Mx to experience open water flying and low level bombing runs across TX, NM and Ks; flew so low ducked under power lines
a flight surgeon won an assignment as a gunner/surgeon
to extend range 225 gallon aux fuel tanks installed in bomb bays and bottom turret replaced w/60 gal tank, a 160 gal collapsible tank designed for use in crawlway over bomb bay
Gunnery and bombing officer C. Ross Greening came up w/2 homemade innovations 1 to take the place of the Norden bombsight which turned out to be a 2 piece gadget at the cost of 20 cents the 2nd were 2 broomsticks painted black and mounted in each bombers tail cone which resembled gun barrels
March 22, 42 cranes hoisted 16 B-25s into aboard the Hornet docked in Oakland Ca
April 2nd the Hornet sets sail escorted by 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers and an oiler; as the Hornet clears the Golden Gate the Capt announced over the PA that “the target of this task force is Tokyo!” The ship’s crew broke out in cheers
They were met by Halsey and the USS Enterprise slong with the rest of Task Force 16 in the Pacific.
Halsey was in overall command of the mission and hoped to get w/in 400 miles of Tokyo before...