Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1981. First paperback edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Trade paperback. xiv, 449, [1] pages. Foreword by General Curtis LeMay. Illustrations. Map. Chapter Notes. Six Appendices, including Bibliography. Index. Cover has some wear, creasing and soiling. Retired Air Force Colonel Carroll V. Glines is the author of 36 books and more than 700 magazine articles on aviation and military subjects. Three of his books are about the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan. He was also the co-author of General Jimmy Doolittle’s autobiography entitled I Could Never Be So Lucky Again. He was formerly the editor of Air Cargo, Air Line Pilot, and Professional Pilot magazines, and then became the curator of the Doolittle Library at the University of Texas, Dallas, and historian for the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders. Derived from a Kirkus review: Because the range of the B-25 bomber was only 300 miles, a plan was conceived in January 1942 by which the bombers could be launched against the Japanese homeland from an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based bombers had never been tried before. The famed Doolittle Tokyo raid was part of an American master plan to build up our power in the Far East and to aid China. B-25's had to be modified, the carrier Hornet readied, crews trained for the radical take-off procedure, arrangements made to receive the planes in either China or Russia, -- all in secrecy. Doolittle, perhaps the most widely known pilot in the world, was given charge of the operation and a target date. When the mission finally comes the story is told by Doolittle himself and fifteen of his participating officers, plus excerpted testimony from a Japanese war crimes trial relating to treatment of prisoners. James Harold Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer. He made early coast-to-coast flights, won many flying races, and helped develop instrument flying. Doolittle earned a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925. He was a flying instructor during World War I and a Reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps, but he was recalled to active duty during World War II. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for personal valor and leadership as commander of the Doolittle Raid. The raid was a major morale booster for the United States and Doolittle was celebrated as a hero. Doolittle was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Twelfth Air Force over North America, the Fifteenth Air Force over the Mediterranean, and the Eighth Air Force over Europe. After World War II, he retired and left the Air Force but remained active in many technical fields, and was eventually promoted to general 26 years after retirement. The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first air operation to strike the Japanese archipelago. It demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was planned, led by, and named after Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, later a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army Air Forces and the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to bomb military targets in Japan and to continue westward to land in China. Fifteen aircraft reached China but all crashed, while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. Of the 80 crew members, 77 survived the mission. Eight airmen were captured by Imperial Japanese Army troops in Eastern China; three were later executed. The B-25 that landed in the Soviet Union was confiscated and its crew interned for more than a year before being allowed to "escape" via Anglo-Soviet-occupied Iran with the help of the NKVD. Fourteen complete crews of five returned to the United States or to American forces, except for one crewman who was killed in action. The raid had major psychological effects. In the United States, it raised morale. In Japan, it raised doubt about the ability of military leaders to defend the home islands. It also pushed forward Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plans to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific, an attack that turned into a decisive defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the U.S. Navy in the Battle of Midway. The consequences were most severely felt in China, where Japanese reprisals caused the deaths of 250,000 civilians and 70,000 soldiers. Condition: Good.
Keywords: WWII, Aviation, Doolittle, Bombing, Tokyo, Army Air Forces, USS Hornet, B-25, War Crimes Trial, Prisoners of War, William Farrow, John Hilger, Ted Lawson, Chase Neilson, Harold Spatz, Thomas White
ISBN: 0442219253
[Book #562]
Price: $37.50