Overview

There were originally 25 crews selected for the Doolittle Raid, but when the USS Hornet arrived to load up the B25s, only 16 planes fit on the deck. Sixteen bombers and their eighty crewmembers from the Army Air Forces joined the Navy aboard the Hornet as part of Task Force 16, the Navy convoy that would ferry the raiders to Japan.

The plan was to launch roughly 500 miles from the home islands, leaving the B-25s with plenty of fuel to find their targets, release their bomb loads, and make it to China. Unfortunately, when the convoy was spotted by the Japanese defense network, the planes were forced to launched 150 miles further from Japan than expected.

Carrier USS Hornet's path for the Doolittle Raid. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc photo.

The targets were military production installations in and near Tokyo, the Japanese capital. The crews had strict orders not to bomb civilian targets or the Imperial Palace. All but one crew managed to hit military targets, but because they had to launch early, they found themselves flying towards China in the dark instead of the early morning light. Fifteen of the crews crash-landed in China; one crew made an emergency landing in Russia and was taken prisoner.

  • Leather Jacket

  • Leather Jacket

  • Leather Jacket

Leather Jacket

Leather jacket worn by Sgt. David W. Pohl during the Doolittle Raid. Pohl’s plane, No. 8, made an emergency landing and its crew was interned by the Soviets before escaping to Iran. The other 15 planes crashed on or near the Chinese coast, and three men out of the 75 were killed in the bailout. Eight more Raiders were imprisoned by the Japanese and tried for fabricated war crimes. Three were executed and the rest were sentenced to prison for life. One of the remaining five men died during their imprisonment, but the other four were liberated in August 1945. Years after the raid, the Doolittle Raiders began having annual reunions, celebrating their bond and commemorating those who had passed. The last Doolittle Raider passed away at the age of 103 in 2019.