Statistics about the Doolittle Raid and the Doolittle Raiders :

Military ranks of the 80 raiders before the raid

Lieutenant colonel = 1

Major = 1

Captain = 3

Lieutenant = 47

Sergeant = 25

Corporal = 3

The raiders had all different family names except :

Sergeant Aden E. Jones – crew 03

Captain David M. Jones – crew 05

-----

Sergeant Adam R. Williams – crew 13

Lieutenant Griffith P. Williams – crew 15

First names of the Doolittle Raiders ;

Robert = 7

William = 6

Richard = 4

David = 3

Charles = 3

Jacob = 3

James= 3

…

The weekdays the Doolittle Raiders were born :

Monday = 11

Tuesday = 16

Wednesday = 12

Thursday = 12

Friday = 9

Saturday = 10

Sunday : = 10

The months the Doolittle Raiders were born :

January  =  8

February =  8

March    =    10

April = 7

May  = 8

June = 4

July = 7

August    =   3

September = 11

Oktober =    5

November = 3

December = 6

The weekdays the Doolittle Raiders died :

Monday = 13

Tuesday = 8

Wednesday = 13

Thursday = 12

Friday = 10

Saturday = 13

Sunday : = 11

The months the Doolittle Raiders died :

January  =  10

February  = 10

March   =     7

April = 10

May=  2

June = 8

July = 4

August  =     4

September = 5

Oktober  µ   7

November  = 9

December = 4

The Doolittle Raiders were born in the year :

1896 = 1

1906 = 1

1907 = 1

1909 = 2

1912 = 4

1913 = 2

1914 = 7

1915 = 4

1916 = 10

1917 = 14

1918 = 13

1919 = 8

1920 = 7

1921 = 6

Oldest raider (except mission leader James Harold Doolittle – born in 1896)

Sergeant Waldo J. Bither Sr. – was 35 years old = crew 12 - born 31 October 1906

Youngest raider

Sergeant David W. Pohl – was 20 years old = crew 08 - born 31 December 1921

Difference in years between James Harold Doolittle (1896) – and the youngest Raider = 25 years

Difference in years between James Harold Doolittle (1896) – and the oldest Raider = 10 years

Difference in years between the oldest and the youngest Raiders = 15 years (except Doolittle)

Units raiders were attached to before the raid : all 17^th Bombardment Group

34th Bomb Squadron = 20 Raiders

37th Bomb Squadron = 15 Raiders

Wright Army Airfield = 1 Raider

89th Reconnaissance Squadron = 15 Raiders

95^th Bombardment Squadron = 29 Raiders

The last surviving raider died :

Lieutenant Richard E. Cole = crew 01 - died 9 April 2019

All raiders were born in the USA : born in 35 different states of the USA

Crew positions : in general pilot, co pilot, navigator, bombardier, engineer/gunner.

5 crewmembers in each of the 16 B-25 planes instead of 6 crewmembers

All Raiders were born in different villages and cities except :

Lieutenant Howard A. Sessler = born in Boston = crew 15

Sergeant David W. Pohl = born in Boston = crew 08

-----

Lieutenant Richard O. Joyce = born in Lincoln, Nebraska = crew 10

Sergeant Donald E. Fitzmaurice = born in Lincoln, Nebraska = crew 06

Raders who where born in the same city and the same year :

Lieutenant Richard O. Joyce = born in Lincoln, Nebraska = crew 10 = born in 1919

Sergeant Donald E. Fitzmaurice = born in Lincoln, Nebraska = crew 06 = born in 1919

Raiders captured in China by the Japanese = 8 - out of crews 06 and 16

19 Raders died during World War 2 :

3 Raiders were executed :  At 4:30 p.m. on 15 October 1942 the three Americans were brought by truck from the Shangai prison to Public Cemetery No. 1 outside Shanghai. In accordance with proper ceremonial procedures of the Japanese military, they were then shot. 

Lieutenant Dean E. Hallmark – crew 06 - was 28 years old when he was executed

Lieutenant William G. Farrow – crew 16- was 24 years old when he was executed

Sergeant Harold A. Spatz – crew 16 - was 21 years old when he was executed

1 died as POW 

Lieutenant Robert J. Meder - crew 06 - was 26 years old when he died of malnutrition ans diseases

Number of Raiders who later died during Wolrd War 2 = 10 (all air accidents/crashes/shot down)

Staff Sergeant Paul J. Leonard - North Africa. 05 January 1943 = crew 01

Lieutenant Richard E. Miller - Died of wounds. North Africa. 22 January 1943 = crew 02

Lieutenant Robert M. Gray - China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. 18 October 1942 = crew 03

Lieutenant Eugene F. McGurl - CBI. 03 June 1942 = crew 05

Lieutenant Denver V. Truelove – Italy - 05 April 1943 = crew 05

Sergeant George E. Larkin, Jr – CBI. 18 October 1942 = crew 10

Sergeant Melvin J. Gardner - CBI. - 03 June 1942 = crew 11

Staff Sergeant Omer A. Duquette - CBI. - 03 June 1942 = crew 12

Staff Sergeant Edwin V. Bain – Italy - 19 July 1943 = crew 14

Lieutenant Donald G. Smith – England - 12 November 1942 = crew 15

Three raiders died during bail out on 18/04/1942 - the day of the raid

Sergeant William J. Dieter = crew 06 = 29 years old

Sergeant Donald E. Fitzmaurice = crew 06 = 23 years old

Corporal Leland D. Faktor = crew 03 = 21 years old

Number of Raiders who later died during World War 2 in aircraft crashes in the USA = 2

Lieutenant Robert S. Clever. Ohio, USA - 20 November 1942 – crew 07

Lieutenant Kenneth E. Reddy. Arkansas - USA. 02 September 1942 – crew 11

4 were released as POW at the end of the war

Lieutenant Chase J. Nielsen -crew 06

Lieutenant Robert L. Hite – crew 16

Lieutenant George Barr – crew 16

Corporal Jacob D. DeShazer – crew 16

Number of Raiders who later died after World War 2 in aircraft crashes = 2

Lieutenant Jacob E. Manch - Nevada, USA - 24 March 1958 – crew 03

Lieutenant Lucian N. Youngblood – Mexico - 28 February 1949 – crew 04

Number of Raiders who died from all causes during World War 2 = 19

Number of Raiders who were shot down and captured by the Germans during World War 2 = 4

Captain David M. Jones – crew 05

Lieutenant Thomas C. Griffin – crew 09

Captain Charles R. Greening. – crew 11

Lieutenant Griffith P. Williams - crew 15

Number of Raiders who survived World War 2 = 61

5 raiders attained the rank of General = 3 Brigade generals, 1 Major general and one Lieutenant general in the reserve

Cities bombed in Japan = Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya, and Kobe.

11 crews bailed out above China

1 aircraft crash landed on land = crew 02

3 planes ditched in the East Chinese Sea in front of the Chinese coast = crews 05, 06 and 15

1 landed in Primorsky, about 40 miles north of Vladivostok, Russia = crew 08

The crew was subsequently moved to a few other cities in Russia and eventually to Ashkhabad, Soviet Turkmenistan, just north of Iran (Persia). The crew escaped to Iran after 13 months of being interned.

U.S. Navy Task Force 16 support = Two fleet carriers, three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, eight destroyers, and two oilers. +10.000 seamen were par of Task Force 16 at that time.

 -Note : Doctor (Lieutenant) Thomas R. White – crew 15 - Doctor White, flight surgeon with the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron, begged Maj or John A. Hilger (crew 14) the commander of the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron and Lieutenant colonel Doolittle’s deputy commander, for permission to participate in the Raid. Major Hilger refused at first but relented and said dr. White could go if he qualified as a gunner. Author Col. Carroll V. Glines wrote that dr. White took gunnery training and had the second highest score against ground targets with the twin .50-caliber machine guns. Fortunately, Chinese guerrillas reunited dr. White with crew 07, four of whom suffered severe injuries in the ditching of their aircraft. Doctor White amputated the severely infected leg of Lieutenant and pilot Ted W. Lawson, crew 07, clearly saving Lawson’s life. Dr. White also provided Lieutenant Lawson with two pints of his own (White’s) blood.

-Note : A reported 250,000 Chinese may have been killed by the Japanese in retaliation for the Doolittle Raid. Author James Scott describes atrocities that compare in ferocity to those depicted in Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Scott reveals that much of his detailed and graphic information is based on discovered missionary records. Retaliation included participation by Japan’s bacteriological warfare organization, Unit 731. Author David Bergamini states that on 20 April 1942, Emperor Hirohito signed an order for General Okamura Yasuji, the senior Japanese commander in China, to prepare a reprisal expedition against Chekiang (Zhejiang) Province, where the Raiders received help from the Chinese. A few days later, another order was given “to destroy the air bases from which the enemy might conduct aerial raids on the Japanese Homeland.” Further: “Airfields, military installations, and important lines of communication will be totally destroyed.” Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, who was born in Chekiang Province, informed President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 28 April 1942: “These Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman, and child in those areas – let me repeat – these Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman, and child in those areas.”

-Note : The saga of the crewmembers of crew 8 would make a great adventure movie. There were differences among some of the crewmembers whether the diversion of the aircraft to the USSR was planned (not an act of fate or unintentional poorly calibrated carburetors) and to the role played by the USSR vis-a-vis the crew’s “escape” to Iran (Persia). It seems that navigator Lieutenant Nolan Herndon had post-war thoughts that the landing in the USSR was preplanned by U.S. authorities and that pilot Captain Edward York and copilot Lieutenant Robert Emmens were ordered to land in the USSR for intelligence-related reasons (there is no official evidence to support this). Also, it seems that York and Emmens disagreed whether the Soviets moved the crew to Ashkhabad, Soviet Turkmenistan Republic, to facilitate their escape to Iran. York felt the Soviets had; Emmens disagreed. Further, there is the question whether the Soviets provided an assist/“turned a blind eye” to the actual escape.

-Note : How the pictures taken above Japan by crew 08 and the bombing of Japan also by crew 08 fell in USA hands is something that needs to be researched. The plane with crew 08 landed in Russia.

to keep this incredible story alive!

Why a website about the Tokyo Raid better known as the Doolittle Raid? 

The Doolittle Raid or Tokyo Raid has not been known by me for a very long time. The first I heard or saw anything about it was in the movie Pearl Harbor from 2001. But I didn't think about it for long. I thought Doolittle was a very odd name. That's why I thought he was a fictional character. The second time I heard of Doolittle (of which I remember) was while watching the 2019 movie Midway almost 20 years later. 

That’s when I decided to find out more about that man with the silly name. He occurred to have lived quite the life. He turned out to be a test pilot, a very well-known stunt pilot in the USA and an aircraft manufacturer.

Of course, I also read about his action over Japan. I immediately thought it was a spectacular and unlikely mission, even more so because it is a true story. Since no one else was found at the time to carry out this one-way mission, they always ended up with James Harold Doolittle. Before World War II, he was a major in the United States Air Force Reserves. Before his mission even started, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. After completing his mission, he was immediately promoted to a General.

It turned out that the mission (Special Aviation Project No 1) that Doolittle was assigned to was really made for him: he had to take off with bombers from an aircraft carrier. This was an American retaliation after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. At the time it was considered technically impossible to take off with medium bombers from an aircraft carrier, but the former stunt pilot managed to do it anyway. 

Doolittle and his Raiders faced unforeseen circumstances beyond their control before and during their flight to Japan. Even after their flight across Japan to China, things did not go as planned.

In short, I thought it was an interesting idea and strong story to build a website about. The mission was very well documented at the time and there is a lot of information and photography available. 

SOURCES

A word of thanks to the people and institutions that helped me shape this project. I used several books and websites to look up my information. My research work is based entirely on third-party research on the subject. The research I did mainly consisted of checking the data and processing this information, but above all putting it together. There is a lot of information on the internet and in books regarding the Doolittle Raid/Tokyo Raid, but the information is often partial, sometimes incomplete and scattered across many webpages and books.

In the meantime, I also built a very extensive and unique database with information about the Doolittle Raiders. I am happy to make this information available on this website. 

Thanks to the Internet, I was able to contact various individuals, agencies and organizations worldwide in connection with the Doolittle Raid. These agencies were always very helpful and cooperative. I edited the collected information into texts that were/are being checked and translated one by one by Najima Gueddar who also did the conversion to English. Najima is on Linkedin @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/najima-gueddar/

My thanks particularly go to the organization of the children of the Doolittle Raiders (https://www.childrenofthedoolittleraiders.com/children-doolittle-raiders/).

With special thanks to Jeff Thatcher, son of Doolittle Raider S Sgt. David J. Thatcher, Engineer/Gunner of Crew 7. Crew 7 took off with their bomber “The Ruptured Duck” from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on the 18^th of April 1942 and flew towards Tokyo.

It was an honor to get in touch with Jeff. I believe the real hero of the Doolittle saga is his father Staff Sgt. David J. Thatcher, who was only 20 years old in 1942. It is not surprising that Jeff's father was decorated by the American government with, among other things, the Silver Star which is the third highest military decoration in the United States.

Websites I consulted as a source: 

https://b-25history.org/ 

https://www.togetherweserved.com/ 

https://nl.findagrave.com/ 

http://veterantributes.org/ 

https://valor .militarytimes.com/hero/30238 

https://commemorativeairforce.org/ Mr. Buddy Cooksey 

https://www.history.navy.mil/ 

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/ 

https://www.americanveteranscenter.org/ 

http://oldbattlefield.web.fc2.com/English_Where_Doolittle_Raiders_Bomb_01. html 

https://www.conflictproof.nl/birds/b25/pag2.htm 

https://www.tracesofwar.nl 

https://www.geni.com/projects/Doolittle-s-Tokyo-Raiders/people/18003

And of course, the always present and handy Wikipedia was also one of my sources (https://www.wikipedia.org).

The Facebook page Our colorful history with a specific thanks to Lori. She did a beautiful job giving the photos color! - Our colorful history (n.d.). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. n.d. from https://www.facebook.com/historyrestored

A very big thank you to Najima Gueddar :  https://www.linkedin.com/in/najima-gueddar for the many translations and corrections of the texs and articles I'm using on this website. Thanks Najima.

I also bought some very informative books about the Doolittle Raid in which I found a lot of information:

Target Tokyo: James M. Scott: : ISBN 979-0-393-35227-6 

The Doolittle Raid: Carroll V. Glines : ISBN 978-0-88740-347-7 

The Doolittle Raiders: George Nolta : ISBN 978-0 -7643-5614-89 

copyright pictures

Almost all pictures concerning the Doolittle Raid are in public domain. The USA government owns the pictures.  On Pixabay and Picryl you find also pictures about the raid and of theDoolittle Raiders them selves.  Pictures and photographs on Pixabay and Picryl  are also public domain.

Concerning the photos, copyright is a bit more difficult. I have tried to provide every photo I use on this website with a text under the photo or on the webpage with whom the copyright belongs to. From Our colorfull history and others, I got permission to use the colored pictures of the Doolittle Raiders on this website. 

If you believe that any part of this website has been infringed on copyright, please send us: 
1. The link to this webpage or any other information indicating that the referenced material is under restricted copyright;
2. The address of the section of the website where the material is presented;
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4. A statement that the above use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law and that you are acting in good faith;
5. A statement that all information provided by you is true and that you are the owner of the intellectual property or have the right to represent it on behalf of the owner. 

Once we receive this information from you, we will take immediate steps to remove the contentious material from the website. 

Note: Property rights last 70 years from the date of their author's death or the date of first publication of a work. Claiming works that are in the public domain is considered an attempt to obtain money under false pretenses. 

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The articles used on the pages of this website are mostly written by myself as webmaster. The articles on the pages are free to use. I particularly appreciate you mentioning my name 'Geert Rottiers, Belgium' and the URL of this website https://www.doolittle-raid.net in your work as source. You can contact the webmaster @  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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