Jimmy Doolittle's Raid on Tokyo
April 18th 1942 was the day that the United States had its first air raid against the Japanese Home Islands, also known as Jimmy Doolittle's Raid. This raid was led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle. It consisted of eighty raiders. Sixty four of those raiders returned to the United States. Doolittle later said that the point of this raid was to "cause the Japanese to doubt their leadership and to raise American morale." The plan would have them landing in China and planned to hit Japanese military targets. There were up to 250,000 Chinese killed. The concept for this attack came from Navy Captain Francis Low, who was the Assistant Chief of Staff for Anti-submarine Warfare. Sixteen U.S Army Air forces B-25 Mitchell medium bombers were launched from the U.S Navy's aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean. There were 11 crewmen that were either killed or captured during this raid. This attack did minor physical damage to Japan, but succeeded in its goal to boast the American morale. It also showed that the ability of the Japanese military leaders aren't as powerful as they thought.
James "Jimmy" Doolittle
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