The Doolittle Raid

A pictorial history of America’s response to Pearl Harbor, with “hundreds of photos of the various stages of the raid” (ModelingMadness).

On April 1, 1942, less than four months after the world was stunned by the attack on Pearl Harbor, sixteen US aircraft took to the skies to exact retribution. Their objective was not merely to attack Japan, but to bomb its capital. The people of Tokyo, who had been told that their city was invulnerable from the air, would be bombed and strafed—and the shock waves from the raid would extend far beyond the explosions of the bombs.

The raid had first been suggested in January 1942 as the US was still reeling from Japan’s preemptive strike against the US Pacific Fleet. The Americans were determined to fight back—as quickly as possible. The 17th Bomb Group (Medium) was chosen to provide the volunteers who would crew the sixteen specially modified North American B-25 bombers. As it was not possible to reach Tokyo from any US land bases, the bombers would have to fly from aircraft carriers, but it was impossible for such large aircraft to land on a carrier; the men had to volunteer for a one-way ticket.

Led by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the seventy-one officers and 130 enlisted men embarked on the USS Hornet, which was shielded by a large naval task force—and set out on their mission, which would ultimately jolt the Japanese out of their complacency. This is the full story of this remarkable operation and the men and machines involved, told through a fascinating collection of photographic images.