Last of the Doolittle Raiders.
- Thread starter Malo83
- Start date
They what some said couldn't be done by taking off from a carrier.
The movie was great.
The movie was great.
Yep - that was insane. Practically a suicide mission that wasn't really a militarily significant achievement, but still put fear into Japan and was a huge morale booster for American forces. Still - there's some hints that the Chinese paid the price for it in terms of retribution from Japan.
Jimmy Doolittle did spend a lot of time in my area though, since he was born in Alameda and went to college at UC Berkeley. NAS Alameda was where the B-25s were loaded, as they obviously couldn't land on a carrier.
On June 11, 1942, Japanese forces marched into Nancheng, a walled city of 50,000 where several of the Doolittle Raiders had been sheltered, and began a reign of terror that U.S. missionaries would later call “the rape of Nancheng,” similar in its horror to the 1937-1938 “rape of Nanking.”
“For one month the Japanese remained in Nancheng, roaming the rubble-filled streets in loin clothes much of the time, drunk a good part of the time and always on the lookout for women,” wrote a missionary, the Rev. Frederick McGuire. “The women and children who did not escape from Nancheng will long remember the Japanese — the women and girls because they were raped time after time by Japan’s imperial troops and are now ravaged by venereal disease, the children because they mourn their fathers who were slain in cold blood for the sake of the ‘new order’ in East Asia.”
In July, Japanese troops burned the city to the ground.
Keepsakes given to the Chinese by Doolittle’s men became evidence for the Japanese. “Little did the Doolittle men realize,” wrote the Rev. Charles Meeus, “that those same little gifts which they gave their rescuers in grateful acknowledgement of their hospitality — parachutes, gloves, nickels, dimes, cigarette packages — would, a few weeks later, become the telltale evidence of their presence and lead to the torture and death of their friends!”
Chiang took the operation as proof that the United States did not value its allies or their sacrifices — a complaint that resonates today.
“The Japanese slaughtered every man, woman and child in these areas,” Chiang wrote to Gen. George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army’s chief of staff. Nor did Chiang’s air force ever get any of the promised bombers. They were damaged beyond repair.
Jimmy Doolittle did spend a lot of time in my area though, since he was born in Alameda and went to college at UC Berkeley. NAS Alameda was where the B-25s were loaded, as they obviously couldn't land on a carrier.
Salutes to the Doolittle Raiders...
In 1975 I was stationed at Norton AFB and I proudly participated in
Yeager's Pass and Review retirement ceremony... Among the greats
who honored him that day was none other than Jimmy Doolittle...
In 1975 I was stationed at Norton AFB and I proudly participated in
Yeager's Pass and Review retirement ceremony... Among the greats
who honored him that day was none other than Jimmy Doolittle...
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