Doolittle Raid Quotes

During one raid alone in 1945, using conventional bombs, it was estimated that eighty-eight thousand Japanese were killed and six square miles of Tokyo were completely destroyed. But

The Japanese Navy not only outgunned American forces in the Pacific but proved more powerful in that ocean than the combined navies of the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.

Doolittle wrote. “Every boy should learn how to win graciously and lose courageously.

The Tokyo that Doolittle now set his sights on—much like the city destroyed nineteen years earlier—consisted of 98 percent wood and paper.

One of the pilots asked what Doolittle would do if his plane were hit. “Each pilot must decide for himself what he will do and what he’ll tell his crew to do if that happens,” he answered. “I know what I’m going to do.” A silence hung over the men before the pilot asked the logical follow-up. “I don’t intend to be taken prisoner,” Doolittle replied. “I’m 45 years old and have lived a full life. If my plane is crippled beyond any possibility of fighting or escape, I’m going to have my crew bail out and then I’m going to dive my B-25 into the best military target I can find. You fellows are all younger and have a long life ahead of you. I don’t expect any of the rest of you to do what I intend to do.

for 2,600 years no invader had ever touched Japan.

Down to the surface we went, mouths like glue, eyes wide open, and the target in sight.

Our new assignment will probably place us under fire, not only from submarines, but from aircraft and surface ships,” he warned. “Be fully prepared to go into action TO WIN. Knowledge of your job and careful performance of small duties become more important than ever.

To the enemy we answer—you have unsheathed the sword, and by it you shall die. —SENATOR ARTHUR VANDENBERG, DECEMBER 8, 1941

They spent their lives in preparation for a supreme moment—and then were asleep when it came.

I tried to invent new stunts and realized there was a similarity between aerobatics in the air and acrobatics on the ground in that you mentally previewed a maneuver,” he wrote. “If you failed, you tried it again and again until you mastered it.” Doolittle pushed himself and his airplane to the limit, much to the frustration of his commanding officers, a reaction captured in an early efficiency report.