LA Junta Tribune - La Junta, CO
  • The Doolittle Raid on Japan

  • This Friday (today) marks the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. My Uncle Mike Farrell was there that day in the United States Navy. His crystal clear mind can give you a vivid description of what happened from his position.
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    My Uncle Mike Farrell was there that day in the United States Navy.  His crystal clear mind can give you a vivid description of what happened from his position. After surviving the attack, he never experienced any fear in the Naval battles in the Pacific as great as he experienced that day at Pearl Harbor.
    Roosevelt called the attack a ‘Day of Infamy’ but it didn’t stop him from thinking about an attack against the Japanese mainland to lift the morale of the American people.
    Roosevelt consulted with General ‘Hap’ Arnold about the possibility of an air attack from the Chinese mainland, but there were no bases in China available for a heavy bomber attack.  It was Navy Captain Francis Low who suggested to Arnold a bomber attack from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
    Arnold bought the idea and he turned to his friend and fellow flier whom he had known since World War I, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, to develop a plan that would vanquish the myth that the Japanese mainland was invulnerable.
    No finer officer could have been selected to lead such a raid.  Doolittle had gained his fame as a flyer by the records he had set in air race competitions and distance flying.  He had three degrees in Aeronautical Engineering - a BA from the University of California Berkeley and an MS and PhD from M.I.T.  Doolittle was the first pilot to take off and land a plane using only instrumentation.  The windows of the plane were covered.
    Eighty pilots, navigators and gunners were chosen after 10 weeks of intensive, exhaustive training at Elgin Field, Florida, in a myriad of drills and practice missions that were designed to simulate taking off from an aircraft carrier deck of 500 feet in a B-25 Bomber.
    The selected crews arrived in Alameda, Calif., and boarded the recently commissioned Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet. Then the plane crews and 16 bombers sailed away from Alameda, April 2, 1942.
    There was only one crewman on the 16 Bombers that was born in Colorado and that was Navigator Lt.  Harry C. McCool, born in La Junta, Colo., April 19, 1918.  McCool grew up in Beaver, Okla.
    McCool was in good company in plane No. 5 as there were two others on the plane from Oklahoma; Bombardier Robert James Stephens, born in Hobart, Okla., Feb. 28, 1915, and MSgt. Bert Mervin Jordan born Sept. 3, 1919, in Covington, Okla.
    The plan was to launch the planes 400 miles from the Japanese coast at dusk on April 19.  Each of the 16 plane crews had selected their own target rather than Command telling them what their targets were.  Under no circumstances were they to drop bombs on the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.  Each plane had a bomb load of 2,000 lbs.  Targets selected were military industrial installations.  No civilian targets were on the list.  Later in the war, B29s carried a bomb load of 20,000 lbs.  That plan was to bomb Japan into submission.
    Page 2 of 3 - THE BEST LAID PLANS … Early on the morning of April 18, a patrol plane from the carrier Enterprise spotted Japanese picket ships.  Admiral Halsey ordered the immediate launching of the bombers  that were lined up on the deck of the Hornet with Bomber 16’s tail protruding off the rear of the deck.  It was understood that if a plane malfunctioned and couldn’t take off, the crew would abandon the plane and every effort would be made to shove the plane off the side of the carrier.
    The weather was not anything that the crews had experienced in their practice in Florida.  First off the rolling, pitching deck was Doolittle’s plane full throttle into a 30 knot wind, rain and low clouds.  The planes had to be launched into the air at an angle; if not properly executed the takeoff would end in a stall.
    It was reported that the roar of the cheers from the Hornet crew overcame the sound of the planes’ engines.  All 16 planes were successfully launched 30 hours ahead of schedule and 620 miles from the Japanese mainland.  The Navigators knew that the chances of reaching the Chinese mainland, given their fuel consumption, was very slim at best.
    Fifteen of the sixteen planes were reported to have successfully bombed their targets.  McCool’s plane had to jettison their bombs before they reached their target.  Their guns malfunctioned and they were being chased by Japanese fighters.
    None of the planes reached the Chinese mainland for landing.  All the crews had to bail out, with the exception of one crew who made it to Vladivostok, Russia, where they were interned by the Russians for a year. Russia had signed a non-engagement treaty with the Japanese and didn’t come into the war against Japan until the very end.
    The casualties could have been greater.  Eleven crewmen were injured. Three lost their lives and eight who landed in Japanese occupied territory were captured with the three who were eventually executed.
    In retaliation for the successful raid, the Japanese executed 250,000 Chinese for helping the Americans as best as they could.
    Doolittle felt that the mission was not a success and he would be court marshaled when he returned home.  The raid became immediately known as Doolittle’s Raid and was treated as an over the top success.  Doolittle was presented the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt in the White House on May 19, 1942.  He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.
    Doolittle’s career in and out of the military was exemplary and a genuine credit to our country.  Doolittle died Sept 27, 1993.  He’s buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
    Page 3 of 3 - La Junta born Robert McCool advanced to the rank of Lt. Colonel in his military career and continued to fly missions after the Tokyo Raid in the North African theater. McCool died Feb. 1, 2003.
    Tom Brokaw, as we know, wrote the book, “The Greatest Generation.”
    Let us not forget that generation’s sacrifices.
    Gary Holbrook
    LJHS 1957