The Doolittle Raid Remembered:
When: Sunday, April 12, 2008
What: USS Hornet Living History Day
Where: San Francisco Bay, Alameda Point
See the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in action!
Witness simulated flight operations as aircraft are lifted to the flight deck and placed into launch position; participate in mission briefings; meet former crew; sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet! Andy Popenoe, a historian from the Doolittle Museum of the Travis AFB Air Museum, will be one of our featured speakers. He will give a very interesting presentation about local hero Jimmy Doolittle and the impact of the Doolittle Raid in WWII.
In the photo: The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-12) at sea with attack aircraft on deck and the forward flight elevator in the down position.
The April 1942 air attack on Japan, launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, was the most daring operation yet undertaken by the United States in the young Pacific War. Though conceived as a diversion that would also boost American and allied morale, the raid generated strategic benefits that far outweighed its limited goals.
The sixteen bombers employed on the Doolittle Raid were all B-25B models, third production version of North American Aviation's B-25 "Mitchell" medium bomber design. Delivered in 1941, these aircraft were stripped of some of their defensive guns and given extra fuel tanks to extend their range. Two wooden dowels were placed in each plane's plastic tail cone, simulating extra machine guns that might hopefully persuade enemy fighters to keep their distance. Each B-25 carried four 500-pound bombs on the mission. One bomb was decorated with Japanese medals, donated by Navy Lieutenant Stephen Jurika, who had received them during pre-war naval attaché service and now wished to pointedly return them to a hostile government.
The planes were parked on USS Hornet's flight deck in the order they were to leave. There was no room to rearrange them, and their long, non-folding wings made it impossible to send them below. During the two week's outward passage, planes received regular maintenance and engine testing to ensure they would be ready. The leading bomber, piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle, had but a few hundred feet of deck run to reach flying speed, but every subsequent one had a little more. Each was helped off a Navy launching officer, who timed the start of each B-25's take-off roll to ensure that it reached the forward end of the flight deck as the ship pitched up in the heavy seas, thus giving extra lift at a critical instant.
For more information on the Hornet's Living Ship Day, the Doolittle Raid Remembered, Sunday, April 12, 2008:.
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