Doolittle Raiders

[QRTRHRS]

Found a very interesting article written by Bob Greeneabout an effort to award the medal of honor to all 80 members of that effort. Now, the article does get political at the end but let's disregard that part.

Rather, I want to point out as the article reinterates what many already know. And that is, these men knew that this could very well be their last mission period. That there was a good chance that they would not come back. And many did not. Yet they chose to do so for the greater good.

I believe that we have men (and women) today that would readily step up to the task however different in scope due to our time but just as risky as that of Doolittle's Raiders.

Anyway, I thought the story was worthy of passing on.

 

[zzvyb6]

Read the book: "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" by Capt. Ted W. Lawson. You'll get the full picture. This raid was not about bombing Japanese cities. It was to force the Japanese home defense forces back to home shores instead of advancing to Alaska, California and the rest of our West coast. They were flying 'gas cans' instead of 'bombers' with very little hope of return. None turned down Doolittle's offer to back out.

 

[bcp]

Launch movie:

https://archive.org/details/Doolittle_Raid_Launch_Footage_1942

Bruce

 

[300UGUY]

A lot of guys did that. Look at the B17 crews - needed to have 25 missions. The command was willing to take casuality rates of at least 10%. Somwtimes raids lost 40 or 50%. That's why they had the highest casuality rates of any branch of service.

 

[cqaigy2]

A lot of guys did that. Look at the B17 crews - needed to have 25 missions. The command was willing to take casuality rates of at least 10%. Somwtimes raids lost 40 or 50%. That's why they had the highest casuality rates of any branch of service.

My Dad was a bomber pilot in WWII so i don't mean to take away from any heros in that war, but seems i remember reading that the merchant marines took highest casualty rate.

 

[Rock knocker]

Even Dugout Doug got a MoH

 

[powerpace]

8th Air Force Combat Losses in World War II ETO Against the AXIS Powers

 

[dmccarty]

Read the book: "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" by Capt. Ted W. Lawson. You'll get the full picture. This raid was not about bombing Japanese cities. It was to force the Japanese home defense forces back to home shores instead of advancing to Alaska, California and the rest of our West coast. They were flying 'gas cans' instead of 'bombers' with very little hope of return. None turned down Doolittle's offer to back out.

Lawson's book is very good. Especially about what he had to endure after crashing.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

My Dad was a bomber pilot in WWII so i don't mean to take away from any heros in that war, but seems i remember reading that the merchant marines took highest casualty rate.

I think it depends on how the numbers are crunched. The casualty rate will be different if one includes every soldier serving in the Army Air Corps vs only flight crews. I think it is more applicable to only include the flight crews since the ground crew and support units, while critical to the unit, were almost certainly not going to take casualties. Where as everyone in the Merchant Marine had some chance of people a casualty.

A B17 flew into an airport near us a year or two back and I was able to get on board the plane. I should have paid to ride in the plane as well though it was very expensive. I really regret not paying for a ride. Anyway, I have spent most of my life reading about history and especially WWII but getting on that B17 was an education in itself. I KNOW that the planes were just thin aluminum but seeing HOW thin is something else. Thinking that only a little bit of metal is between you and empty sky is interesting. The men also were MUCH smaller than today. There were many men would could not move to the nose of the plane because they were too FAT. I knew the space was TIGHT but seeing it was something else. How those men managed to bail out of the plane wearing all of their gear was difficult and some did not make it. Seeing the tight space was an eye opener. I am surprised many men made it out at all.

No way in heck would I have been a ball gunner. One, I am too tall. :laughing: Two, there would be no way I would have crawled into that ball and hoped I would be able to get back out... Ball gunners were either the Super Brave or clueless and I don't think they were clueless..

Later,
Dan

 

[cqaigy2]

I was thinking along the same lines as you Dan, wondering if just air crew vs. whole Army/Navy. I remember my Dad saying fighter support casualties at that time were horrendous. He said he 'started training as a fighter pilot but for some reason the Army grabbed a bunch of them and switched to bomber'. Periods of boredom, trying to stay awake, with periods of terror, trying to stay alive. They had so little sleep, he remembers at night ferrying a bomber and crew to another base and the whole crew fell asleep, to awaken to pine trees filling the wind screen, he remembers pushing the throttles full forward then pulling up, he figured they flew thru the top 20 feet or so of these trees. Needles and splinters flew everywhere and he had a new respect for the props as they chew thru foliage. Nobody said anything when they landed and ground crew wanted to know how the needles and wood splinter got jammed into every nook and cranny on the plane.

On a lighter note, his last duty was to fly a B17 around the States, for display at fairs. He said it was full of bullet holes with each one with a red circle painted around it. Looked like it had the measles, it was pretty uncomfortable to fly because of the wind blowing around inside and stirring up all the dust and crap, not to mention how cold it was.