The April 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo

Another interesting thing about these individuals...most have passed on now.

Many of the Pilots themselves, who stayed in the service, attained the rank of general before their retirement and many of them, and others are buried in Arlington National cemetery and other National Military cemeteries around the nation.

I have a friend who lives in a small town not far from the small town where I was raised in Texas (I was actually five miles out of town on a ranch) who indicated to me one was buried nearby in Bowie Texas...so I looked into it and fund a fairly large percentage of the 80 were actually buried in Texas, and 7 or so of them within fifty miles of where I was raised.

Amazing stuff. here's the list of those buried in Texas:

H.A. Potter
Navigator, Aircraft #1 (Doolittle's Plane)
Pflugerville, TX
Capitol Memorial Park
OVET #4, Lot 4, Space 16

Travis Hoover
Pilot, Aircraft #2
San Antonio, TX
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
Section C Grave 583

Robert Grey
Pilot, Aircraft #3
Killeen, TX
Killeen City Cemetery

Charles Ozuk
Navigator, Aircraft #3
San Antonio, TX

Lucian Youngblood
Co-pilot, Aircraft #4
Houston, TX
Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery
Section 28, Lot 46 Space 5

Bert Jordan
Engineer-Gunner, Aircraft #4
Pottsboro, TX
Georgetown Cemetery
Block 22 Lot 84 SPJ

Rodney "Hoss" Wilder
Co-pilot, Aircraft #5
Taylor, TX
Taylor City Cemetery

Joseph Manske
Engineer-Gunner, Aircraft #5
San Antonio, TX
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
Section 23 Grave 553

Edward York
Pilot, Aircraft #8
San Antonio, TX
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
Section 1 Grave 1220

James Parker
Co-pilot, Aircraft #9
Livingston, TX
Restland Memorial Park

Kenneth, Reddy
Co-pilot, Aircraft #11
Bowie, TX
Elmwood Cemetery
Block L Grave 15
Go through main gate, grave is immediately on the left

Thadd Blanton
Co-pilot, Aircraft #12
Gainesville, TX
Fairview Cemetery

Waldo Bither
Bombardier, Aircraft #12
Ft. Worth, TX
Greenwood Memorial Park
Woodlawn Garden Lot 1050

Edgar McElroy
Pilot, Aircraft #13
Dallas, TX
Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery
Section 25 Grave 741

Richard "Knobby" Knobloch
Co-Pilot, Aircraft #13
San Antonio, TX
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
Section 36 Grave 298

John Hilger
Pilot, Aircraft #14
Sherman, TX
Cremated

James Macia Jr.
Bombardier, Aircraft #14
San Antonio, TX
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery

Now that we have got the formalities out of the way and can revert to the nature of the thread, I would like to add my views.

The Raid has many significance and should be measured by its effect. The raid lifted the spirit of the nation from despair to hope; from defeat and retreat to a sense of victory and vindication over Pearl Harbour. It begin to instil fear upon the enemy and its public that it was vulnerable as opposed to the propaganda. It changed the military strategy of the enemy that resulted in the Midway campaign. The raid was the psychological turning point of the war just as Midway was the military turning point. It showed the country up to that point it was capable in taking the fight to the enemy and that the enemy and the distance separating was not all it made out to be. It projected the will of a nation, the audacity in its outlook and the military capability to execute such a bold plan. It speaks of the bravery of its service members even though it was likely to be a one way trip.

Lastly I also wish to acknowledge but not often mentioned connected to this event the many local Chinese who helped to return the Americans to safety and those who died directly and indirectly in making it happen.

Brumby said:

Lastly I also wish to acknowledge but not often mentioned connected to this event the many local Chinese who helped to return the Americans to safety and those who died directly and indirectly in making it happen.

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Yes, absolutely.

As I state in the 6th post of the thread:

from the thread said:

Three personnel died while landing or parachuting. Eight personnel were captured by the Japanese. Three of those captured were executed. Another one of those captured died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp.

The rest were helped by the Chinese people and Chinese soldiers and escaped the Japanese. The Japanese extracted a horrible retribution on the Chinese for helping the American crews to scape. it is estimated that thousands were rounded up and killed in the effort to find the Americans, or punish the Chinese for helping them.

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The reprisals were huge...and as I say, thousands were rounded up and killed (some estimates as high as 20,000 or more).

Yet, knowing this was likely, the Chinese people and their own fighters helped the American crews who fell into their hands and they escaped.

Many of them to continue their service throughout the war...and quite a few who elected to stay in China and fly missions there...some of whom died in combat in China as a result of that decision.

Although the Doolittle raid did not flatten Tokyo it did the embarrass the Japanese military's and government

And the bigger picture was that the Imperial Japanese navy then devised a plan to take mid way to extend the defensive perimeter around Japan so another raid like it could not take place

And we all know what happened at Mid Way

I will soon be building several vessels to represent the April 1942 Dolittle raid on Tokyo.

I already have the Hornet, two destroyers, and a cruiser. My USS Enterprise, CV-6, will be arriving next week.

I intend to make a large, at sea diorama showing both carriers, a cruiser, and two destroyers.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the raid. I believe only two of the raiders are still alive...maybe not even that.

God rest their souls.

Only one survivor left

asif iqbal said:

Only one survivor left

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Yes...I saw that ealier after I made the statement here.

I believe he is Doolittle's co-pilot.

One should keep in mind Japanese retaliation for harboring Doolittle's men cost upwards of a quarter million Chinese lives. In this sense Doolittle raid far exceeded the German V weapons in terms of unfavorable ratio between casualties it took to launch tge bombing raid vs casualty inflicted on the enemy by the bombing raid.

Richard Santos said:

in terms of unfavorable ratio between casualties it took to launch the bombing raid vs casualty inflicted on the enemy by the bombing raid.

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No, the reasoning, IMHO, is not correct.

It did not "take" those Chinese to launch the raid. The loss of so many Chinese was abjectly and directly a result of Japanese aggression, and war crime retaliation to the raid.

The estimates vary between 20,000 and over 100,000 Chinese killed. But this was the Japanese lashing out with war crimes against civilians, the vast, vast majority of whom had nothing to do with the aviators at all.

Originally the aircraft were to land at safe air fields well away from the Japanese...but beacuse they ended up launching early when sighted by a picket ship more than 200 miles before planned launch, they ran out of fuel and crashed either near the coast or just inland. One plane landed in Russia and was interred.

Of course at that time the Raid was over, and the 75 airmen who came down in China were foot and making their way to friendly lines. ONly a few (eight) were actually caught. Most of them had made their way to safety long before the fanatical reprisals had been conducted.

But the truth is, the Japanese did kill those poor souls because of the Raid. But that was a result of their own fanatical thinking and really had nothing to do with what it took to launch the raid.