Why a website?

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.