From Shangri-La to Tokyo: The Doolittle Raid that stopped Japan

Doolittle Raid on Japan 78 Years Ago Buoyed American Spirits

APRIL 18, 2020 | BY DAVID VERGUN, DOD NEWS

The April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid on Japan early in World War II bolstered American spirits just months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the loss of the U.S. territories of Guam and the Philippines. 

The other goals of the mission were to bomb Japanese war industries and to lower the morale of the Japanese people.

The problem was that the U.S. didn’t have long-range strategic bombers that could take off from Hawaii on their bombing run to Japan and then return. So with the help of the Navy, a plan was hatched.

The Army Air Force’s North American B-25B Mitchell was selected as the best bomber available that could take off from an aircraft carrier. The commander of the raid, Army Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, planned to fly his squadron from a carrier to the Soviet city of Vladivostok after the bombing run.

But they would not return to the carrier. B-25B tests showed that it had difficulty landing on the deck of a carrier, as it was meant to be a land-based runway aircraft. Also, the carrier group could get out of harm’s way quickly enough, as enemy planes and ships were anticipating such an attack and had positioned vessels at sea to spot U.S. warships. The bombers also lacked radar.

Although the Soviet Union was a U.S. ally against Germany, it had signed a nonaggression pact with Japan, so it declined an offer to participate.

To get within range of Japan, the plan was to sail the carrier USS Hornet within 400 miles of mainland Japan, launch the 16 aircraft with a crew of 80 airmen and quickly sail out of harm’s way, along with the carrier Enterprise; a cruiser; eight destroyers and two oilers.

However, when the task force was 750 miles from Japan, they were spotted by a Japanese patrol vessel, which the cruiser USS Nashville, promptly sank. However, the patrol vessel had time to radio a warning to the Japanese military, so the decision was made to launch the 16 B-25B’s immediately and get out of the area as quickly as possible.

Six hours after launch, the aircraft bombed military and industrial targets in Tokyo and other large cities on the main island of Honshu.

Of the 16 planes, 15 crash-landed in China and one aircraft, which was low on fuel, landed in the Soviet Union, which was closer. Crew members from that plane were detained because the rules of neutrality were such that the men couldn’t be returned. However, they all managed to escape.

In total, three crew members were killed in action. Another three were executed by the Japanese, and one died in captivity. This was considered a relatively low fatality rate for such a risky mission.

One of the survivors, Doolittle, received the Medal of Honor in 1942 from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

One of those who was captured by the Japanese, Army 2nd Lt. George Barr, was treated horribly while in custody, and at one point was near death. After the war and after recovery, he returned to Japan as a missionary, serving there for 30 years.

The Doolittle Raid, while doing relatively minor damage to Japan, did serve to greatly boost the morale of the American people, which was the primary aim.

2019, A legendary chapter in Air Force history has come to a close.

Lt Col Dick Cole, last surviving Doolittle Raider, passes away at age 103

By Master Sgt. Andrew Stephens, 

On April 18, 1942, the U.S. Army Air Forces and the Doolittle Raiders attacked Tokyo in retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which boosted American morale in the early months of World War II.

“There’s another hole in our formation,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein. “Our last remaining Doolittle Raider has slipped the surly bonds of Earth, and has reunited with his fellow Raiders. And what a reunion they must be having. Seventy-seven years ago this Saturday, 80 intrepid Airmen changed the course of history as they executed a one-way mission without hesitation against enormous odds. We are so proud to carry the torch he and his fellow Raiders handed us.”

Cole was born Sept. 7, 1915, in Dayton, Ohio. In 1938, he graduated from Steele High School in Dayton and attended two years of college at Ohio University before enlisting as an aviation cadet on Nov. 22, 1940. Soon after he enlisted, Cole received orders to report to Parks Air College in East St. Louis, Illinois, for training before arriving at Randolph Field, Texas and later, Kelly Field, Texas. He completed pilot training and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1941.

While Cole was on a training mission with the 17th Bombardment Group at Pendleton, Oregon, word came that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

The 17th BG flew anti-submarine patrols until February 1942, when Cole was told he would be transferred to Columbia, South Carolina. While there, he and his group volunteered for a mission with no known details. Cole would later say that he thought his unit was heading to North Africa.

For weeks, Cole practiced flying maneuvers on the B-25 Mitchell, a U.S. Army Air Corps twin-engine propeller-driven bomber with a crew of five that could take off from an aircraft carrier at sea, in what some would call the first joint action that tested the Army and Navy’s ability to operate together. When the carrier finally went to sea to bring 16 bombers closer to maximize their reach, it wasn’t until two days into the voyage that the Airmen and Sailors on the mission were told that their carrier, the U.S.S. Hornet, and all of its bombers, were heading in the direction of Tokyo.

In an age-before mid-air refueling and GPS, the U.S.S. Hornet weighed less than a quarter of today’s fortress-like aircraft carriers. With Cole as the copilot to then-Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, the B-25 Mitchell bomber #40-2344, would take off with only 467 feet of takeoff distance.

What made the mission all the more challenging was a sighting by a Japanese patrol boat that spurred the task force commander, U.S. Navy Adm. William F. “Bull” Halsey, to launch the mission more than 650 nautical miles from Japan – 10 hours early and 170 nautical miles farther than originally planned. Originally, the Mitchells were supposed to land, refuel and proceed on to western China, thereby giving the Army Air Corps a squadron of B-25s and a commander. But now the aircrews faced increasing odds against them, in their attempt to reach the airfields of non-occupied China. Still, Cole and his peers continued with their mission.

Flying at wave-top level around 200 feet and with their radios turned off, Cole and the Raiders avoided detection for as much of the distance as possible. In groups of two to four aircraft, the bombers targeted dry docks, armories, oil refineries and aircraft factories in Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe as well as Tokyo itself. The Japanese air defense was so caught off guard by the Raiders that little anti-aircraft fire was volleyed and only one Japanese Zero followed in pursuit. With their bombs delivered, the Raiders flew towards safety in China.

Many Airmen had to parachute out into the night, Cole himself jumping out at around 9,000 feet. All aircraft were considered lost with Cole’s own aircraft landing in a rice paddy full of night soil. Of the 80 Airmen committed to the raid, eight were captured by Japanese forces with five executed and three sent to prison (where one died of malnutrition). All of the 72 other Airmen found their way to safety with the help of Chinese farmers and guerrillas and continued to serve for the remainder of World War II.

The attack was a psychological blow for the Japanese, who moved four fighter groups and recalled top officers from the front lines of the Pacific to protect the cities in the event American bomber forces returned.

After the Doolittle Raid, Cole remained in the China-Burma-India Theater supporting the 5318th Provisional Air Unit as a C-47 pilot flying “The Hump,” a treacherous airway through the Himalayan Mountains. The USAAF created the 5318th PAU to support the Chindits, the long-range penetration groups that were special operations units of the British and Indian armies, with Cole as one of the first members of the U.S. special operations community. On March 25, 1944, the 5318th PAU was designated as the 1st Air Commando Group by USAAF commander Gen. Henry H. Arnold, who felt that an Air Force supporting a commando unit in the jungles of Burma should properly be called “air commandos.” Cole’s piloting skills blended well with the unconventional aerial tactics of Flying Tiger veterans as they provided fighter cover, bombing runs, airdrops and landing of troops, food and equipment as well as evacuation of casualties.

Cole retired from the Air Force on Dec. 31, 1966, as a command pilot with more than 5,000 flight hours in 30 different aircraft, more than 250 combat missions and more than 500 combat hours. His decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters; Air Medal with oak leaf cluster; Bronze Star Medal; Air Force Commendation Medal; and Chinese Army, Navy, Air Corps Medal, Class A, First Grade. All Doolittle Raiders were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in May 2014.

In his final years, he remained a familiar face at Air Force events in the San Antonio area and toured Air Force schoolhouses and installations to promote the spirit of service among new generations of Airmen. On Sept. 19, 2016, Cole was present during the naming ceremony for the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, named in honor of the Doolittle Raiders.

From Shangri-La to Tokyo: The Doolittle Raid, April 18, 1942

By Jay Graybeal, Army Heritage Museum

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, led to a declaration of war and President Franklin Roosevelt’s insistence on a retaliatory attack on the Japanese homeland. With much of the Pacific Fleet sunk or severely damaged, offensive options were greatly limited. An enterprising Navy officer, Captain Francis Lowe, envisioned a plan that made the best of the military assets at hand. Fortunately, the NavyAca,!a,,cs carriers had been at sea and escaped destruction at Pearl Harbor; however, the Navy had no long-range bombers. The Army had the bombers but no bases from which to launch the attack. LoweAca,!a,,cs concept was to use aircraft carriers to transport land based bombers to within striking distance. Army Air Forces commander General Henry Arnold and U.S. Fleet commander Admiral Ernest J. King supported the plan, and training began. General Arnold selected Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle to organize and lead the mission. With no carrier to spare for training, the Army pilots practiced take-offs from a field marked with the size of a flight deck.

The raid plan called for the Navy to deliver the bombers to a point about 400 miles from Japan on April 18. This would leave them with sufficient fuel to land in friendly airfields on mainland China. Task Force 16 consisted of carriers USS Hornet, commanded by Captain Marc A. Mitscher, with sixteen Army bombers, and USS Enterprise, commanded by Admiral William F. Halsey, with Navy aircraft for security, and auxiliary vessels. At approximately 600 miles out, the Americans encountered Japanese picket boats which were quickly sunk; however, radio intercepts confirmed that the American fleet had been reported. Admiral Halsey ordered: “Launch planes. To Colonel Doolittle and gallant command, good luck and God bless you.” The aircrews knew they probably had insufficient fuel to reach the Chinese airfields, and the early launch also prevented them from forming up into formation.

The string of thirteen American bombers began arriving over Tokyo at noon, and the aircrews were quite relieved when they encountered little opposition. They attacked military and industrial targets, inflicting minor damage but also hitting some civilians, and then winged toward China. The remaining bombers hit targets in Yokohama and Yokosuka. One-by-one, the aircraft ran low on fuel, and crews bailed out or crash landed along the Chinese coast; three airmen were killed. One aircraft landed safely in Russia, where the crew was interned for over a year. The Japanese captured eight and soon executed three. A fourth airman died as a prisoner of war. The heaviest toll was paid by the Chinese civilians living in the area where the raiders landed. Perhaps a quarter of a million were killed in retaliation.

The joint Army-Navy operation achieved limited tactical success but delivered a much needed morale boost to the American military and public. There was intense public interest in how the attack was launched. President Roosevelt facetiously said the raiders had come from Shangri-La, the name for his Western Maryland mountain retreat known today as Camp David. That name Shangri-La, in turn, derived from the popular 1937 movie Aca,!A”Lost Horizons,Aca,!A? set in a mythical mountain kingdom in central Asia, somewhat similar to Tibet. Wherever the raid supposedly originated, it greatly embarrassed the Japanese high command, and contributed to the motivation for the naval operation which led to their decisive defeat in June of 1942 at the Battle of Midway, a turning point in the Pacific War. The raid was also portent of the massive incendiary and nuclear bombing raids that brought Japan to surrender in August of 1945.

Doolittle expected to be court-martialed for having lost all his aircraft but instead received the Medal of Honor and promotion to brigadier general. He later earned his second and third stars and commanded the 12th, 15th and 8th Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1959.

The Raid that stopped Japan: Doolittle’s Co-Pilot’s Experience of the Doolittle Raid
By Sgt. 1st Class Joshua S Brandenburg (FORSCOM)

‘Battle stations’, ‘battle stations’, reverberated off the bulkheads and through portholes of the ship. A young 2nd lieutenant jumped out of his bunk and ran down a corridor toward the upper deck alongside other aviators, bombardiers and navigators. They all believed this was another drill. Then, as they reached the upper deck they heard the concussion of a destroyer’s 5-inch guns as it fired into the distance.

This was it. There was no turning back. They all knew they had to make their current mission happen, but it was a day early, and they were 600 miles farther away from their earliest departure point than they were supposed to be.

All the worries of their already stretched fuel supplies – replacing their tail guns with painted broomsticks to reduce weight, knowing the mission was a one-way trip and launching a medium bomber from sea – were pushed to the back of their minds as they scrambled into their B-25 Mitchells.

The 80 raiders of what is now known as the Doolittle Raid didn’t know then the significance of their mission or the impact it would have on either the United States or Japan. All they knew was that it was time to go and bomb an empire.

Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle, then a lieutenant colonel, as a desperate attempt to show the Japanese Empire that they were not untouchable, concocted the secret high-risk mission in response to the day that shall live in infamy, Dec. 7, 1941. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor crippled the U.S. Navy, and Japan seemed all but unstoppable in the Pacific, capturing island after island.

“The Pacific was a Japanese lake,” stated Col. Richard E. Cole, retired, raider and co-pilot of Doolittle’s plane.

Cole, who was a second lieutenant at the time of the mission’s birth, was at Columbia, S.C.

“Every squadron had a bulletin board that you were required to read once a day, at least once a day, and as I remember it, there was just an order sign on the board with a place for you to sign your name,” added Cole. “And I signed my name.”

The Raiders received 45 days of extensive training for the mission at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

“We didn’t think it was grueling, it was trying to develop a technique,” he said. “Just learning to get the knack of it.”

They were kept in the dark about the mission while training to launch their bombers on a 300-foot runway but some of the raiders had a guess about its objective. None, however, at the time could guess its destination or impact on the war.

“It was pretty apparent that we were going to be taking-off from a carrier, because the runways that we were using had the carrier marking on them. Additionally, they [the Navy] sent a young Navy lieutenant from Pensacola,” Cole added. “From that, most of us, being second lieutenants and not knowing much at all, figured we were going to be taken to the Pacific, close to some land area… and start fighting the war from there.”

With their training complete in Florida, they began loading their birds on the USS Hornet, and it wasn’t until the 10,000-man carrier taskforce was underway that they were told the details of their mission.

“My reaction was about the same as everybody’s; when they first announced it, there was a lot of jubilation and so forth, but after awhile it got kind of quiet when people began to realize what they had gotten themselves into,” said Cole, with that same mixture of jubilation and dread in his eyes. “But as far as I know, nobody jumped ship or backed out.”

The mission, which could bring so much euphoria and trepidation to the eyes of a 98-year-old man from Dayton, Ohio, even after so long? Launch a medium bomber from an aircraft carrier and fly it north at 500 feet to bomb the capital of Japan, then west to land in Japanese occupied China with just enough fuel for the 2,000-mile trip. No return flight. No way to come home. Once in China, each crew or man was on their own. Hoping to run into the Chinese locals, not the occupying Japanese, and that they had received word of their coming and would give aid.

The hum of 32 radial engines resonated off the deck of the USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean. Sixteen bombers lined up waiting for the queue to launch. The first plane, piloted by Doolittle and co-piloted by Cole, had the shortest runway so the sailors on the Hornet waited and timed the launch perfectly with the rocking of the ship in the rough sea so Doolittle?’s plane launched at exactly the same time as the ship’s bow was angled toward the sky.

“It took an hour for all 16 planes to get off the Hornet, so I figured they would be about 5-minutes apart,” Cole quickly calculated.

Of course, this meant all the flight crews in the other 15 bombers were burning precious fuel sitting on the Hornet’s deck. Sailors feverishly handed extra cans of fuel to the bomber crews until the last plane had taken off. One Sailor lost an arm in the process after he wandered to close to one of the bird’s props.

Fuel was such a concern that once airborne each plane headed straight for Tokyo, not waiting to establish a formation, as was the standard procedure of the war. Thus, Cole?’s plane took the capital by surprise.

“It was a nice bright sunny day at noon, and they had just completed an air raid exercise, and they had a bomber that looked something like the B-25 called the Nell,” he recalled. “And as we flew across Japan, I?’m pretty sure people thought we were one of their airplanes because they waved, and we saw people swimming on the beach.

“I was impressed with the beauty of Japan.”

After Cole?’s bombing run on Tokyo proper, they veered toward China, all hoping they had the fuel to make landfall. A few of the later planes encountered minor fighter interceptor numbers and anti-aircraft fire, but not a single plane was shot down or even significantly damaged during the raid.

The clear day gave way to strong overcast causing them to pull up to 9,000 feet; Doolittle and Cole had to rely strictly on instruments, according to Doolittle?’s notes of the mission. They reached China under the cover of darkness and heavy rain.

On the indication of fuel warning lights, the crew bailed-out of what may be the most famous B-25 to have ever flown, in the order of gunner, Staff Sgt. Paul J. Leonard, bombardier, Staff Sgt. Fred A. Braemer and, navigator, 2nd Lt. Henry A. Potter.

Cole was next in line and moved to the hatch toward the rear of the aircraft. He paused for a moment as he looked into the dark abyss, heavy rain stinging his face.

“For me, it was probably the scariest time of the whole trip, you’re at 9,000 feet looking down at that black hole that you’re going to have to jump out of, and you have no idea what the terrain is like that you?’re going to hit… but thankfully logic overruled, and we bailed-out.”

Doolittle quickly followed Cole, but at 166 mph the spread of the entire crew was enough to scatter their landings.

“I was very lucky, my chute drifted over a pine tree, and I ended up about 12 feet off the ground. So, I just spent the night in the tree.”

Dawn broke over the horizon the next morning, and Cole, who didn’t sleep much that night, found himself on the side of a steep hill with rough terrain.

“I was happy with the way things had worked out.”

After he climbed down, Cole oriented his compass and began to head west, trying to put as much distance between him and occupied China. He walked until late afternoon before coming upon a small clearing. He spied a small camp of Chinese Nationalist guerillas from a ridge and after being “dubious at first” made contact. He learned that Doolittle had arrived there sometime earlier and was taken to another outpost. He too was soon taken to the second outpost. The rest of their crew were rescued and brought to the same assembly point by the end of the next day.

Despite the crew’s good fortune, the overall mission was not without its share of losses. One man died after bailout, two more drowned off the China coast. The Japanese executed three and captured five. Only one plane landed safely in China — all others were lost.

The losses coupled with the fact that the bombing did inconsequential damage to Japan would have defined this mission as a massive failure; however, the raid is credited as one of the most successful missions of the Pacific war. Why?

“They never did extend their forces any farther after the raid.”

The raid is widely recognized to have boosted the low morale of allied forces in the Pacific. However, it also gave a large shock to the people and commanders of Japan. Their emperor had been telling his people that the island of Japan was untouchable. The raid proved their beloved emperor wrong, and for an honor society, this was an insult as well.

As a direct result of the raid, the emperor pulled many top commanders from the fronts to Japan. It was also the first time that Japan took a more defensive stance. This allowed the allies desperately needed breathing room in the Pacific. If the Battle of Midway was the turning point for the war; the Doolittle Raid was the turning point to allow Midway.

All 80 raiders were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The five imprisoned raiders were awarded the Purple Heart. Three received the Silver Star for gallantry and all received decorations from the Chinese government. Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor from President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was promoted two ranks to brigadier general.

ABOUT THIS STORY: Many of the sources presented in this article are among 400,000 books, 1.7 million photos and 12.5 million manuscripts available for study through the U.S. Army Military History Institute (MHI). The artifacts shown are among nearly 50,000 items of the Army Heritage Museum (AHM) collections. MHI and AHM are part of the: Army Heritage and Education Center, 950 Soldiers Drive, Carlisle, PA, 17013-5021. 

Video Audie Murphy American Legend 

From the Pare Lorentz Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. MP 71-8:99 Castle Films Newsreel 09:37 Col. Jimmy Doolittle prepares for the raid over Tokyo. Pilots and planes are shown on board the carrier. The planes take off in choppy seas and successfully bomb targets. It’s the first time Tokyo is bombed. Crew members also share an interview together. Doolittle received the Congressional Medal of Honor for the mission.

Video Courtesy: Castle Films (Public Domain)