The Doolittle Raid Campaign was an early American operation during World War II (1939-1945) conducted on April 18, 1942.

In the weeks following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed that efforts be made to strike Japan directly as soon as possible. Roosevelt first suggested in a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on December 21, 1941, that the raid would achieve a degree of retribution. It will show the Japanese people that they are not vulnerable to attack.

It was also seen as a potential mission and a means to boost American morale, while making the Japanese people doubt its leaders, and while it was looking for ideas to fulfill the President's request, Captain Francis Law, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Navy in anti-submarine warfare, envisioned a potential solution to strike the Japanese islands.

While in Norfolk, Low observed several US Army medium bombers taking off from a runway housing a blueprint for an aircraft carrier, and upon further investigation, found that it would be possible for these types of aircraft to take off from the carrier at sea, and presented the concept to the Chief of Naval Operations , Admiral Ernest J. King, the idea was approved and planning began under the command of famed pilot Lt. Col. James (Jimmy) Doolittle.

Doolittle was a pioneer in the field of aviation and a former military pilot, and he returned to active service in 1940 and was working with car manufacturers to convert their factories to produce planes, and Doolittle, while evaluating the idea of ​​(Law), initially hoped to take off from an airline, bomb Japan and then land At bases near Vladivostok in the Soviet Union.

At this point, the aircraft could be delivered over the Soviets under the guise of Lend-Lease, although as the Soviets approached it, they denied using their bases because they were not at war with the Japanese and did not want to risk violating the 1941 Neutrality Pact with Japan, and as a result Doolittle's bombers will have to fly another 600 miles and land at bases in China, and going forward with planning, Doolittle is ordering an aircraft capable of flying approximately 2,400 miles with a 2,000-pound bomb load.

After evaluating medium bombers such as the Martin B-26 Marauder and Douglas B-23 Dragon, he selected the North American B-25B Mitchell for the mission as it could be adapted to achieve the desired range and payload as well as possess a carrier-friendly size, to ensure the B-25 was the right aircraft. Two were successfully transferred from the USS Hornet CV-8 near Norfolk, on February 2, 1942.

With the results of this test the mission was immediately approved and Doolittle instructed to select crews from the 17th (medium) bomb group, the most cautious of all B-25 groups in the US Air Force, the BG 17 was immediately transferred from Pendleton, OR to Lexington Army Field Air Colombia, under cover of naval patrols flying off the coast.

In early February, the crews of the 17 BGs were offered the opportunity to volunteer for an unspecified, extremely dangerous mission, and on February 17, the volunteers were dismissed from the 8th Air Force and assigned Command III Bomber with orders to begin specialized training. Initial mission planning called for the use of 20 aircraft in the raid, and as a result, 24 B-25Bs were sent to Mid-Continent Airlines' modification center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for mission-specific modifications.

To provide security, a detachment of the 710th Military Police Battalion was assigned from Fort Snelling to the airfield. Among the changes to the aircraft were the removal of the lower gun turret and Norden bombs, as well as the installation of additional fuel tanks and de-icing equipment. To replace the Norden bombs, Captain C. Ross Greening designed a device Meanwhile, Doolittle's crews trained relentlessly at Eglin Field in Florida, practicing takeoffs, low-altitude flying and early-night bombing.

The attackers flew their specialized aircraft to McClellan Field, California for final adjustments. Four days later, the 15 aircraft selected for the mission and one reserve aircraft were flown to Alameda, California where they were loaded onto the Hornet, sailing on April 2, and Hornet met US Navy L -8 the day after receiving spare parts to complete the final set of modifications to the aircraft.

Continuing west, the aircraft carrier joined Admiral William F.'s task force, Halsey 18 north of Hawaii, and centered on the carrier USS Enterprise, (CV-6), TF18 was to provide cover for Hornet during the mission, and the combined American force included the two carriers, cruiser Heavy USS Salt Lake City, USS Northampton, USS Vincennes, light cruiser USS Nashville, eight destroyers.

After sailing west under strict supervision the fleet was refueled on April 17 before the oilers withdrew to the east with destroyers and accelerated forward, pushing the cruisers and aircraft carriers deep into Japanese waters, and at 7:38 am on April 18, USS No. 23 Neto Maru American ships, though quickly sunk by the USS Nashville, the crew managed to sound an alert of the attack to Japan, and even though they were 170 miles from their assigned launch point, Doolittle met up with Captain Mark Mitcher, Hornet's captain to discuss the situation.

Deciding to launch early, Doolittle's team decided to take off at 8:20 AM, and since the mission was compromised, Doolittle chose to use reserve planes for the raid, and at 9:19 AM, 16 planes went to Japan in groups Two to four planes before dropping to a low altitude to avoid detection, coming from the shore, the raiders spread out and hit ten targets in Tokyo, two in Yokohama, one in Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokosuka, for the attack each plane dropped three high-explosive bombs And a firebomb.

With the exception of one, all the planes surrendered their munitions and the enemy's resistance was light, having turned to the southwest, fifteen attackers went to China, while one of them was low-fuel, which was made for the Soviet Union and as they advanced, the plane to China quickly realized that it lacked fuel to reach their intended bases due to their early departure and this has forced each aircraft crew to clear their planes and parachutes in safety or attempt to land.

The 16th B-25 succeeded in landing in Soviet territory where the plane was confiscated and the crew detained. The raiders also landed in China. Most of them helped local Chinese forces or civilians. One of the attackers, Corporal Leland Defecator, died while being rescued. In order to help American pilots, he was fired The Japanese campaign of Zhejiang and Jiangxi that eventually led to the deaths of about 250 thousand Chinese civilians, the survivors of the crews (8 men) were arrested by the Japanese and three executed after the trial of the show, and a fourth died while imprisoned.

The crew that had landed in the Soviet Union escaped capture in 1943 when they managed to cross into Iran. Although the raid did little damage to Japan, it provided a much-needed boost to American morale and forced the Japanese to call in combat units to defend the main islands. The use of ground-based bombers also confuses the Japanese, and when journalists asked them where the attack originated from.

Roosevelt replied, "They came from our secret base at Shangri-La." Landing in China, Doolittle believed the raid was a fiasco due to the loss of the plane and minimal damage to it. He was expected to be referred to a court martial upon his return, and instead From that he received the Congressional Medal of Honor, and was promoted directly to brigadier general.