With William Hock Buracker as the operations officer transporting the aircraft, what was the name of the first strike on the Japanese Home Islands by Americans in 1942?
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William H. Buracker William Houck Buracker (July 25, 1897 – March 7, 1977) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy who served as commanding officer of the USS "Princeton" during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a member of the task force that carried out the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, and was the operations officer for the carrier task force that transported planes for the Doolittle Raid. After leaving the Navy, Buracker worked as an engineer and was Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Works from 1947 to 1949.
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Doolittle Raid The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on Saturday, April 18, 1942, was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on the island of Honshu during World War II, the first air operation to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces.
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Convoy Hi-81 Convoy Hi-81 (ヒ-81 ) was the designation for a formation of Japanese transports that carried soldiers bound for Singapore and the Philippines during World War II. The transports were escorted by a large force of surface combatants including the escort carriers "Shinyo" and "Akitsu Maru" which were sunk in the Yellow Sea by American submarines. Over the course of a four-day convoy battle in November 1944 nearly 7,000 Japanese were killed in action while the Americans sustained no casualties.
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Tokyo Express The Tokyo Express was the name given by Allied forces to the use of Imperial Japanese Navy ships at night to deliver personnel, supplies, and equipment to Japanese forces operating in and around New Guinea and the Solomon Islands during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The operation involved loading personnel or supplies aboard fast warships (mainly destroyers), later submarines, and using the warships' speed to deliver the personnel or supplies to the desired location and return to the originating base all within one night so Allied aircraft could not intercept them by day.
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USS Langley (CV-1) USS "Langley" (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS "Jupiter" (AC-3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built "Lexington"-class battlecruiser s "Lexington" and "Saratoga", freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers "Lexington" and "Saratoga" . "Langley" was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion, to a seaplane tender, "Langley" fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.
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Hewitt T. Wheless Hewitt Terrell Wheless (October 13, 1913 – September 7, 1986) was a United States Air Force officer known for his heroism on a bombing mission against Japanese ships in the Philippines on December 14, 1941, a week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and mentioned by name in Franklin Roosevelt's Fireside Chat on April 28, 1942. In 1947, he was assigned to the Strategic Air Command and was named SAC chief of staff in 1962. He was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in 1963 and retired in June 1968 as Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
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Robert B. Westbrook (pilot) Robert Burdette Westbrook (9 November 1917 – 22 November 1944) was a United States Army Air Forces lieutenant colonel and a World War II flying ace. Westbrook, a member of the California National Guard before World War II, completed flight training in 1942, and was sent to the South Pacific with the 44th Fighter Squadron, which he later commanded. Westbrook gained his first victories while flying the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and in late 1943 began flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. After scoring his fourteenth victory, Westbrook was sent back to the continental United States on leave in spring 1944, returning as aide to the commander of the Thirteenth Air Force. In late summer he became deputy commander of the 347th Fighter Group. With 20 victories, Westbrook became the Thirteenth Air Force's highest scoring ace. He was killed in November 1944 while strafing a Japanese gunboat.
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Bombing of Kōfu in World War II The Bombing of Kōfu in World War II (甲府空襲 , Kōfu kūshū ) was part of the strategic bombing campaign waged by the United States against military and civilian targets and population centers of the Empire of Japan during the Japan home islands campaign in the closing states of World War II.
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Kweilin incident The "Kweilin" incident occurred on August 24, 1938 when a Douglas DC-2 airliner (the "Kweilin") carrying 18 passengers and crew was destroyed by Japanese aircraft in China. There were fourteen fatalities. It was the first civilian airliner in history to be shot down by hostile aircraft. The pilot was American and the crew and passengers Chinese. As it was unprecedented for a civilian aircraft to be attacked, there was international diplomatic outrage over the incident. In the United States, it helped solidify the popular view that Japan was morally wrong in their war against China, but the incident was not enough to spur the US into action against Japan despite Chinese entreaties. The "Kweilin" was re-built and destroyed by the Japanese a second time two years later.
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Operation Tan No. 2 Operation Tan No. 2 (Japanese: 第二次丹作戰 , "Dainiji Tan Sakusen") was a long-range Kamikaze mission directed at the main Allied naval fleet anchorage at Ulithi atoll in the western Pacific on March 11, 1945 during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The Japanese hoped to take the U.S. Pacific fleet by surprise and sink or damage a significant number of the fleet's aircraft carriers or other large ships.
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Battle of Sunda Strait The Battle of Sunda Strait was a naval battle which occurred during World War II in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java, and Sumatra. On the night of 28 February – 1 March 1942, the Australian light cruiser HMAS "Perth" and the American heavy cruiser USS "Houston" faced a major Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) task force. After a fierce battle of several hours duration, both Allied ships were sunk. Five Japanese ships were sunk, three of which by friendly fire.
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Admiralty Islands campaign The Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division occupied the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands.
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Operation Transom Operation Transom was a bombing raid on Japanese targets at Surabaya, Java by American and British aircraft on 17 May 1944 during World War II.
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Operation Chronicle Operation Chronicle was the Allied invasion of Woodlark and Kiriwina Islands during World War II, in the South West Pacific as part of Operation Cartwheel. An early planning name for this operation was Operation Coronet. The operation was executed without opposition on 30 June 1943.
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Operation Crimson Operation "Crimson" was a British-led naval operation in World War II, the objective being simultaneous naval bombardment and aerial strikes on Japanese airfields in the Indonesian cities of Sabang, Lhoknga and Kutaraja, to be launched from aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean on 25 July 1944.
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William Abercrombie Ensign William Warner Abercrombie, USN (24 July 1914 – 4 June 1942) was a United States Navy officer and Naval Aviator during World War II, who received the Navy Cross posthumously for his actions at the Battle of Midway.
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United States Asiatic Fleet The United States Asiatic Fleet was a fleet of the United States Navy during much of the first half of the 20th century. Before World War II, the fleet patrolled the Philippine Islands. Much of the fleet was destroyed by the Japanese by February 1942, after which it was dissolved and incorporated into the naval component of the South West Pacific Area command, which eventually became the Seventh Fleet.
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Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U.S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet and the right to maintain a repair and coaling station for ships here in 1887. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, was the immediate cause of the United States' entry into World War II.
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USS Arizona Memorial The USS "Arizona" Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on  during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and commemorates the events of that day. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oʻ ahu led to the United States' direct involvement in World War II.
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USS Dennis (DE-405) USS "Dennis" (DE-405) was a World War II "John C. Butler"-class destroyer escort in the service of the United States Navy. "Dennis" was named after Radioman Third Class Otis Lee Dennis. He was killed in action 1 February 1942 with Carleton Thayer Fogg (namesake of "Fogg" ) when their Douglas SBD Dauntless was lost during an attack launched by "Enterprise" on Roi-Namur, Kwajalein. It was one of the first offensive operations following Pearl Harbor.
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Lloyd Thomas Lloyd Thomas (March 10, 1912 – June 4, 1942) was an aviator in United States Navy who was killed in action in World War II during the Battle of Midway while attacking an Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier.
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4th Air Group The 4th Air Group (第四航空隊 , Dai Yon Kōkūtai ) was a land-based bomber aircraft unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The unit was formed on 10 February 1942 and flew the Mitsubishi G4M "Rikko" Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber aircraft. That same month, the 4th Naval Air Group (NAG) deployed to Rabaul, New Britain and supported Japanese operations during the early stages of the New Guinea Campaign, first as part of the 24th Air Flotilla and from April as part of the 25th Air Flotilla. The newly arrived unit took heavy losses on 20 February during an action off Bougainville, losing 15 of 17 bombers sent to attack a United States Navy aircraft carrier task force.