Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Brandenburg | Retired Air Force Col. Richard E. Cole stands in front of a B-25 Mitchell at the...... read more read more
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FORT HOOD, Texas – ‘Battle stations’, ‘battle stations’, reverberated off the bulkheads and through portholes of the ship. A young 2nd lieutenant jumped out of his bunk and ran down a corridor toward the upper deck alongside other aviators, bombardiers and navigators. They all believed this was another drill. Then, as they reached the upper deck they heard the concussion of a destroyer’s 5-inch guns as it fired into the distance.
This was it. There was no turning back. They all knew they had to make their current mission happen, but it was a day early, and they were 600 miles farther away from their earliest departure point than they were supposed to be.
All the worries of their already stretched fuel supplies - replacing their tail guns with painted broomsticks to reduce weight, knowing the mission was a one-way trip and launching a medium bomber from sea - were pushed to the back of their minds as they scrambled into their B-25 Mitchells.
The 80 raiders of what is now known as the Doolittle Raid didn’t know then the significance of their mission or the impact it would have on either the United States or Japan. All they knew was that it was time to go and bomb an empire.
Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle, then a lieutenant colonel, as a desperate attempt to show the Japanese Empire that they were not untouchable, concocted the secret high-risk mission in response to the day that shall live in infamy, Dec. 7, 1941. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor crippled the U.S. Navy, and Japan seemed all but unstoppable in the Pacific, capturing island after island.
“The Pacific was a Japanese lake,” stated Col. Richard E. Cole, retired, raider and co-pilot of Doolittle’s plane.
Cole, who was a second lieutenant at the time of the mission’s birth, was at Columbia, S.C.
“Every squadron had a bulletin board that you were required to read once a day, at least once a day, and as I remember it, there was just an order sign on the board with a place for you to sign your name,” added Cole. “And I signed my name.”
The Raiders received 45 days of extensive training for the mission at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
“We didn’t think it was grueling, it was trying to develop a technique,” he said. “Just learning to get the knack of it.”
They were kept in the dark about the mission while training to launch their bombers on a 300-foot runway but some of the raiders had a guess about its objective. None, however, at the time could guess its destination or impact on the war.
“It was pretty apparent that we were going to be taking-off from a carrier, because the runways that we were using had the carrier marking on them. Additionally, they [the Navy] sent a young Navy lieutenant from Pensacola,” Cole added. “From that, most of us, being second lieutenants and not knowing much at all, figured we were going to be taken to the Pacific, close to some land area… and start fighting the war from there.”
With their training complete in Florida, they began loading their birds on the USS Hornet, and it wasn’t until the 10,000-man carrier taskforce was underway that they were told the details of their mission.
“My reaction was about the same as everybody’s; when they first announced it, there was a lot of jubilation and so forth, but after awhile it got kind of quiet when people began to realize what they had gotten themselves into,” said Cole, with that same mixture of jubilation and dread in his eyes. “But as far as I know, nobody jumped ship or backed out.”
The mission, which could bring so much euphoria and trepidation to the eyes of a 98-year-old man from Dayton, Ohio, even after so long? Launch a medium bomber from an aircraft carrier and fly it north at 500 feet to bomb the capital of Japan, then west to land in Japanese occupied China with just enough fuel for the 2,000-mile trip. No return flight. No way to come home. Once in China, each crew or man was on their own. Hoping to run into the Chinese locals, not the occupying Japanese, and that they had received word of their coming and would give aid.
The hum of 32 radial engines resonated off the deck of the USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean. Sixteen bombers lined up waiting for the queue to launch. The first plane, piloted by Doolittle and co-piloted by Cole, had the shortest runway so the sailors on the Hornet waited and timed the launch perfectly with the rocking of the ship in the rough sea so Doolittle’s plane launched at exactly the same time as the ship’s bow was angled toward the sky.
“It took an hour for all 16 planes to get off the Hornet, so I figured they would be about 5-minutes apart,” Cole quickly calculated.
Of course, this meant all the flight crews in the other 15 bombers were burning precious fuel sitting on the Hornet’s deck. Sailors feverishly handed extra cans of fuel to the bomber crews until the last plane had taken off. One Sailor lost an arm in the process after he wandered to close to one of the bird’s props.
Fuel was such a concern that once airborne each plane headed straight for Tokyo, not waiting to establish a formation, as was the standard procedure of the war. Thus, Cole’s plane took the capital by surprise.
“It was a nice bright sunny day at noon, and they had just completed an air raid exercise, and they had a bomber that looked something like the B-25 called the Nell,” he recalled. “And as we flew across Japan, I’m pretty sure people thought we were one of their airplanes because they waved, and we saw people swimming on the beach.
“I was impressed with the beauty of Japan.”
After Cole’s bombing run on Tokyo proper, they veered toward China, all hoping they had the fuel to make landfall. A few of the later planes encountered minor fighter interceptor numbers and anti-aircraft fire, but not a single plane was shot down or even significantly damaged during the raid.
The clear day gave way to strong overcast causing them to pull up to 9,000 feet; Doolittle and Cole had to rely strictly on instruments, according to Doolittle’s notes of the mission. They reached China under the cover of darkness and heavy rain.
On the indication of fuel warning lights, the crew bailed-out of what may be the most famous B-25 to have ever flown, in the order of gunner, Staff Sgt. Paul J. Leonard, bombardier, Staff Sgt. Fred A. Braemer and, navigator, 2nd Lt. Henry A. Potter.
Cole was next in line and moved to the hatch toward the rear of the aircraft. He paused for a moment as he looked into the dark abyss, heavy rain stinging his face.
“For me, it was probably the scariest time of the whole trip, you’re at 9,000 feet looking down at that black hole that you’re going to have to jump out of, and you have no idea what the terrain is like that you’re going to hit… but thankfully logic overruled, and we bailed-out.”
Doolittle quickly followed Cole, but at 166 mph the spread of the entire crew was enough to scatter their landings.
“I was very lucky, my chute drifted over a pine tree, and I ended up about 12 feet off the ground. So, I just spent the night in the tree.”
Dawn broke over the horizon the next morning, and Cole, who didn’t sleep much that night, found himself on the side of a steep hill with rough terrain.
“I was happy with the way things had worked out.”
After he climbed down, Cole oriented his compass and began to head west, trying to put as much distance between him and occupied China. He walked until late afternoon before coming upon a small clearing. He spied a small camp of Chinese Nationalist guerillas from a ridge and after being “dubious at first” made contact. He learned that Doolittle had arrived there sometime earlier and was taken to another outpost. He too was soon taken to the second outpost. The rest of their crew were rescued and brought to the same assembly point by the end of the next day.
Despite the crew’s good fortune, the overall mission was not without its share of losses. One man died after bailout, two more drowned off the China coast. The Japanese executed three and captured five. Only one plane landed safely in China – all others were lost.
The losses coupled with the fact that the bombing did inconsequential damage to Japan would have defined this mission as a massive failure; however, the raid is credited as one of the most successful missions of the Pacific war. Why?
“They never did extend their forces any farther after the raid.”
The raid is widely recognized to have boosted the low morale of allied forces in the Pacific. However, it also gave a large shock to the people and commanders of Japan. Their emperor had been telling his people that the island of Japan was untouchable. The raid proved their beloved emperor wrong, and for an honor society, this was an insult as well.
As a direct result of the raid, the emperor pulled many top commanders from the fronts to Japan. It was also the first time that Japan took a more defensive stance. This allowed the allies desperately needed breathing room in the Pacific. If the Battle of Midway was the turning point for the war; the Doolittle Raid was the turning point to allow Midway.
All 80 raiders were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The five imprisoned raiders were awarded the Purple Heart. Three received the Silver Star for gallantry and all received decorations from the Chinese government. Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor from President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was promoted two ranks to brigadier general.
| Date Taken: | 04.14.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.14.2014 12:44 |
| Story ID: | 125812 |
| Location: | TX, US |
| Hometown: | COMFORT, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 176 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, The raid that stopped Japan: Doolittle’s Co-Pilot’s Experience of the Doolittle Raid, by SFC Joshua Brandenburg, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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