70 years ago today

[Green Onions]

Originally Posted by legalsea

Correct (from my memory). I believe it was set up to be a 'one way' bombing mission.

15 of the 16 aircraft crashed in China or ditched at sea just off the Chinese coast.

1 landed in Siberia and the Soviets interned the aircraft and the crew, as required by the neutrality of the USSR in the Pacific War. Conveniently, the crew managed to 'escape' (as did most aircrews supposedly interned by the Soviets) and return to the West to once again join the war effort.

[Green Onions]

Originally Posted by GregW

I do not believe enough B-25 bombers are still flying to make another movie. It was General "Billy" Mitchell's wonder bird. One version had 12 .50 cal machine guns in the nose. It was a small ship killer and ground support plane without compare.

Surprisingly, there are an impressive 45 or so B-25s that are still airworthy (and the link notes that many of them were featured in the 1970 film Catch-22).
List of surviving North American B-25 Mitchells - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[hornet67]

Originally Posted by GregW

I do not believe enough B-25 bombers are still flying to make another movie. It was General "Billy" Mitchell's wonder bird. One version had 12 .50 cal machine guns in the nose. It was a small ship killer and ground support plane without compare.

I don't believe that Gen. Billy Mitchell had anything to do with the B-25 bomber, although it was named for him.
The B-25 first flew in 1940, and entered service in 1941; Billy Mitchell died in 1936.

[WH59]

Another movie made during WW II that touched upon the Doolitle raid is The Purple Heart. The subject matter was on the eight captured flyers that were put on trial by the Japanese three of whom were executed and a 4th died in captivity.

[23145tp]

I believe two weeks ago the last surviving Doolitle's Raiders had their annual reunion at WPAFB in Dayton, Ohio. There are only 6 "heros" left and all in their 90's, it was reported that they had a memorial service and a social gathering, then the raiders when behind closed doors and had their annual toast to their fallen commarde's in arms. When the day comes, the last two Raiders will break open a bottle of French Cognac 1895 (?) the date is when Gen. Doolitle was born, and again drink the last toast to their commarde's in arms.

[Boompa]

Originally Posted by Little-Acorn

70 years ago today, on April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 bombers (originally designed to take off from long runways on land) took off from an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, loaded with bombs and lots of fuel, and flew to Tokyo to drop their bombs. Lt. Col. James Doolittle planned the mission, conducted the training and modification of the planes, and flew the lead plane to Tokyo.

Though it didn't achieve large military effect, the "Doolittle Raid" so shocked the Japanese, that they abandoned their former (fairly sound) strategy of concentrating their efforts on administering their locally-won gains in China, the south Pacific, and southest Asia, and tried to make advances in the Pacific to draw out and destroy the remains of the American Navy after Pearl Harbor. This led to their shattering defeat at Midway Island, where they lost four of their six aircraft carriers and most of their frontline pilots and planes - a defeat they never recovered from.

It did have a "Military Effect", it forced the Japanese to pull aircraft from the front to protect their homeland.