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Doolittle Raid Launch Footage - 1942
About this film
The Doolittle Raid, April 18, 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese home island of Honshu during World War II. The mission was notable since it was the only time in U.S. Military history that United States Army Air Forces bombers (16 modified B-25B bombers) were launched from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on a combat mission. The raid demonstrated that the Japanese home islands were vulnerable to Allied air attack, and it provided an expedient means for U.S. retaliation for Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. The bombers were carried by the USS Hornet (CV-8) from Alameda, California to their launch point in the Pacific. At a distance of about 650 miles from Japan, the task force encountered a Japanese picket boat, which radioed an attack warning to Japan. Although the boat was destroyed by gunfire from the cruiser USS Nashville, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle and Hornet skipper Captain Marc Mitscher decided to launch the B-25s immediately – ten hours earlier and 170 miles farther from Japan than planned. The footage shows some of the men rescued from the picket boat (and I believe the boats destruction), although the shot of the Japanes…
Subjects
World War II, B-25, Doolittle Raid, Japan