Doolittle Tokyo Raiders

A 1 ounce copper round to celebrate them. The date is April 18, 1942 but this token is more modern, like by an act of Congress, 2014. Part of the 17th bombardment group. First strike.

 

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Doolittle's Raiders are among my WWII heroes. That medal is beautiful, and a great tribute to those men.

 

Good rendition of the Mitchel b25 lib. Brave men one and all. That was an almost get captured or never return mission. Yet they went to give America a moral boost and give a taste to the Imperial snots what was to eventually come their way.

 

Hornet's looking good. Don't see many coins with CVs on them.

 

True that ! All around neato coin for sure.

 

B25 B, I think. A number of the crews did have unpleasant experiences.

 

And within but two short months the Imperial Japanese Navy launches a striking task force consisting of four carrier groups and a landing task force at a tiny coral atoll some 1100 miles NE of Hawaii, called Midway Island. But these B-25s (North American "Mitchells," BTW, the "Liberators" were the B-24s) were a fly-over of the Japanese Mainland to show we could hit them back for Pearl. It was for morale, as you pointed out. Just take a look at this picture, and be honest, do these belong on carriers? Lol...

 

Even almost after eight decades, the Hornet has also held up quite well on the ocean floor.

https://news.usni.org/2019/02/12/uss-hornet-found

 

Cool, Bradley. Two thumbs up.

 

Wonderful reading. Thank you.

 

Very, very cool. I had the honor of meeting several of those heroes many years ago. They trained out of our local airport and had an anniversary reunion here. For three days we had the five remaining airworthy Mitchel bombers circling our city. Talk about something that gets your heart in your throat…… As I recall I was able to shake the hand of three of those men and I couldn’t stop thinking about what must go through a very young mans mind when he is asked to participate in what he knows is very likely a suicide mission. May God bless them.

 

Imagine taking off with the belief that in all likelihood you will never come back. Yet, despite that, most of the crews did eventually make it back - one plane landed in Vladivostok Russia and the crew was interred because the Soviet Union and Japan were not at war - but eventually the crew "escaped" via Iran.

Jimmy Doolittle thought immediately afterwards that he was going to be court-martialed for the "failure" of the mission.

The physical damage to Japan's military and factories was minimal - but the raid made the Japanese warlords liars when they said that Japan was invincible and would never be attacked. But hundreds of thousands of people couldn't un-see the aircraft with white stars and not the hinomaru flying over and dropping bombs. It was a portend of a much larger and consequential campaign two years later.

 

Dave…. Thank you for this thread. It reminded me that in the back of my closet I had this print that four of the Doolittle Raiders signed for me when I met them. I believe it is high time I had this print framed and properly displayed.

 

Is that what they call them? Our pilots called them meatballs.

 

No they don't look like carrier service bombers at all. The heavy B24 consolidated libs were powered by four Prats. That being Prat & Whitneys. Imagine that on a carrier ! The courage of those aircrews defies description

 

Fantastic Randy! I am at a lost for words for that honor you had in meeting them. I would definitely have that map framed and displayed in my home or office. Just use a glass that can handle the light do as not to faded those signatures. You’ll need to go to a frame shop for this.

 

The Liberators had four R-1830 "Twin Wasp" Pratt & Whitneys. Dear old Dad towed targets for them in Kaneohe HI for a couple months. But those were what I thought you were referencing when you said "b25 lib." So I was kind of correcting it because that's just the way I am and there's nothing anybody can do about it.

 

@Randy Abercrombie OMG the one signer was Richard Cole who was also the last survivor - he lived to the age of 103 years and passed away in 2019. All of the Raiders exemplified the term "The Greatest Generation" and I am always in awe at the sheer kahuna's all the men and women of that era had.

 

And if I am not mistaken, Mr. Cole was part of the crew piloted by Doolittle….. What humble and courageous gentlemen they were.

Edit… I keep thinking about the day I met them. As I recall there was a hundred year old bottle of congnac that was to have been opened when only two Raiders were left. I wonder if that event was documented somewhere.

 

Ya know. Discussing this issue caused me to think about something concerning the millenials, or xer's or whatever they call the last few generations. It has been forty five years since I graduated high school but remember what we were taught. People my age remember why those actions were undertaken. WW11, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam police action, Gulf war, the Falkland Islands and such. America was fighting against totalitarianism. But I don't think it is promoted that way in our schools any more. I think it is now twisted around to confuse the kids about who the good guys are and have been. if this seems too political, perhaps the mods will scotch the post. Like Barnard Fife would say, " nip it in the bud Andy, nip it in the bud".