Wednesday, April 18, 2007
This Day in the History of Giving Our Enemies a Taste
On this day in 1942, an air squadron of sixteen B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, from the USS Hornet, led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities. They did little damage and scared the Japanese not in the slightest, but it sure helped with morale back home.
Labels: WWII history; Pacific theater
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The Hornet later fought in the Battle of Midway, the decisive battle in the war in the Pacific. She was later sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz, in October 1942. Second only to The Enterprise in terms of great American ships.
My favorite carrier in WWII was the Big E and I'd probably give the Hornet second place if I thought about it. See, we can agree on things. Thanks for the comment.
The father of my boyhood friend from Wilton, CT, Toby Smith, was an officer on the Hornet when it was sunk. Toby's father lowered the ship's American flag and reatined custody of it. Toby showed it to me when I ws at his house one day. I was impressed to say the least.
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