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| Thank you for all who served... |
Seventy years ago today, 16 U.S. Army B29 Mitchell bombers under the command of Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle took off from the deck of the USS Hornet on a mission to bomb Tokyo. This would be the first American strike against the Japanese just 4 months after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. It was essentially a suicide mission as the bombers didn’t have the fuel capacity to complete a round trip back to the carrier. The plan was to complete the bombing run, make it into China and bailout out over territory not yet held by the Japanese.More history here...
The raid went generally as planned and all 16 planes were able to drop their bomb loads over Tokyo in broad daylight. Of the 80 crew members, all but 6 survived. One was killed on bailout; 2 drowned when their plane ditched off the coast of China; 8 were captured by the Japanese and 3 of those were executed by the Japanese.
Dan Collins has a post on it too...
Serr8d has a post too...
Airforce Times has a post...
h/t: The Blogmocracy
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