18 April 1942

[Ribbon]

All we need in il2 in single pic?

 

[Feldgrun]

 

[MajorMagee]

Let us never forget that History is created by the combination of three key elements Mission, Men (and Women), and Machines.

 

 

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official holder of the Doolittle Memorial collection. The toasting cups will be temporarily removed from the display this coming Friday evening so they may be presented at a ceremony by the Raiders of the present to honor the Raiders of the past.

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by MajorMagee

[MisterSmith]

Also rigorous planning, training, and a bit of luck.

[MajorMagee]

From inside the cockpit.

 

Restored and on display at NMUSAF

 

The restoration of a RB-25D back to an exact copy of the commander's B model was done at the Inglewood, CA plant in 1958 using the original production tooling.

Edited April 19, 2022 by MajorMagee

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "From a safe house in Chuchow (Quzhou), China, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle manages to get a message out to Washington, D.C. on 21 April 1942. In the message, he tells his superior officer, General "Hap" Arnold, that:

 

[The] mission to bomb Tokyo has been accomplished. On entering China, we ran into bad weather and it is feared that all planes crashed. Up to the present five fliers are safe.

 

Chinese civilians helping downed airmen of the Doolittle raid ca. 21 April 1942.

 

In China, the Japanese occupation forces carry out a retaliatory action for the Doolittle Raid known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign. This leads to the deaths of an estimated 250,000 Chinese people over the course of the next month."

 

[While I laud the bravery of the flyers, the cost in Chinese lives for the raid was much higher than any results could have achieved. The Chinese felt ill used after the fact, and they were as they had no input on an operation that ended up costing them more than a quarter million people, mostly civilians, more than the US lost in the entire Pacific theater during the war.]

[Missionbug]

I finally watched the film 'Midway' the other night and this mission was shown as part of the overall story, it was quite a feat especially when they were by necessity forced to launch early, sadly for the Chinese, some of who who hid the flyers, the retribution was appalling but it should not detract from the courage of the crews in undertaking such a mission, they could not have known that then, it showed Japan they were far from invincible.

 

The film 'Midway' overall was quite good I thought, many had trashed it in reviews but I think it must be very difficult to try and reconstruct such a epic moment in history even in Hollywood, you need to take in the story I think and not go rivet counting.  Even in our most modern of simulators aircraft movement is never fully convincing to me, they always seem to be far less stable than they should be so trying to replicate combat scenes such as the attacks on carriers must have presented many difficulties, they can never really be truly convincing, just lose yourself in the story and effects me thinks and you should enjoy it.

 

Take care and be safe.

 

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Heliopause]

A Dutch legation were kept prisoned in Tokio after the outbreak of hostilities in December '41. The interpreter of the legation later wrote about the April 18th action:

[MajorMagee]

You can see a painting along the right edge of the second picture I posted above. It's called "Sending US Pilot To Hospital." The scene depicts carrying Maj Ted Lawson. He was rescued by SSG David Thatcher, the only crew member of #7, The Ruptured Duck, that was not seriously injured when they crashed just off the beach of an island near Shangchow, Sanmen County, Zhejiang Province. 

 

Local villagers took the five US crew to Haiyou Town to have their wounds simply dressed. Four of the five, who were seriously wounded, were rushed in sedan chairs to the Linhai Enze Medical Bureau, where better medical facilities were available. Chen Shenyan, a medical doctor, and US military medical doctor Lt. Thomas R. White, who rushed there when told the news, succeeded in performing a leg amputation on Ted W. Lawson. Two British nuns were invited to be his interpreters and cook Western food for him. Dr. Chen Shenyan then escorted the four other US wounded crewmen to Guilin in Guangxi.

 

Upon his return home Lawson authored the first story of the raid in the book Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.

 

SSG Thatcher received the Silver Star for his part in helping the rest of the crew survive. His son, along with the toasting cups seen inside the blue case in the picture above, attended the Raider Ball with us last evening. Children Of The Doolittle Raiders Organization It was an amazing night, where we were privileged to carry on their heritage of being Bold, Innovative, and Courageous as today's Raiders.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by MajorMagee