America's First Strike Against Japan

books:

	• The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan Carroll V. Glines Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2000 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

America's First Strike Against Japan

In April, 1942, the U.S. Navy set out to strike back at the Japanese. The plan was to launch B-25 Mitchell bombers from the deck of an aircraft carrier, bomb Tokyo, then fly to safety in China. In this excellent book by Carroll Glines, the story of the famed Doolittle Raiders unfolds. President Roosevelt conceived the idea. American morale was very low after the Pearl Harbor attack, and the President felt that an attack on the Japanese homeland would do wonders for the American civilians as well as the armed forces. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle was selected to lead the mission. Famous for his air racing and numerous speed records, Doolittle assembled sixteen crews and began training in Florida. Finally, the planes were loaded aboard the U.S.S. Hornet and the task force set sail for Japan. The original plan was to approach to within about 350 miles of the Japanese coast before launching, but a Japanese sampan discovered the task force while they were still some distance from the take off point. I enjoyed the way that Mr. Glines told the individual story of each crew involved in the attack. This aspect of the book made it much more enjoyable to read. The dialogue is so vivid that one can imagine themself sitting in the cockpit. In the end, most of the planes successfully crash-landed in China, but eight men were taken prisoner by the Japanese. They suffered horribly at the hands of their captors. One man died in prison, three were executed by the Japanese, and four survived the war to return to the United States. Another book, entitled Four Came Home, also written by Mr. Glines, tells the story of the four survivors in much greater detail than this book. I would highly recommend both of these books as they both do an excellent job describing this first strike against the enemy.

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History the way it should be written

An intensely interesting account of the Doolittle Raid - America's first strike at the Japanese mainland five months after Pearl Harbor. The Doolittle Raid is one of those historical events that people are aware of without knowing many of the details - more so now as the veterans of WWII age and pass on than 20 odd years ago when this book was first published. The books well-written, factual, covers everything from the conceptualisation of the raid through the planning, preparation, the raid itself and it's aftermath as well as side-events such as the crew that ended up in the USSR and eventually escaped through Iran to India.

There's photo's of all the crews that took part in the raid as well as some of the aircraft themselves. Keep in mind that these men volunteered for this mission without knowing what it was, flew off a carrier with bombers that were in no way designed for it and took off on a one-way mission with nothing much prepared at the other end. Eight were captured by the Japanese and three were executed. Quite frankly, these guys were real heroes.

"They shall not grow old,
As we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.
We will remember them."

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Inspiring Book

A truely inspiring read about men willing to fight any odds to strike a blow for the USA.

Confusing titles

This is the second of two books that Glines wrote specifically on the Doolittle Japan mission. The first, "Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders," was published in 1964 and was the first comprehensive history of the mission. (Okay, James Merrill published his "Target Tokyo: The Doolittle-Halsey Raid" the same year, but Glines' account is the better of those two.) Of particular interest in the 1964 book are the 16 accounts that Glines elicited from a crew member of each of the 16 B-25s that took part in the raid, as well as the individual photographs of each five-man crew.

Several years later, Glines decided to write an updated (1988) account of the raid, emphasizing information that had come to light since the 1964 book -- e.g., the story of the Japanese fishing vessels that "intercepted" Halsey's task force on April 18, 1942, and forced an early takeoff by the B-25s. That second book is "The Doolittle Raid," featured on this webpage.

If I had to choose one over the other, I'd definitely seek out a copy of the earlier (1964) book. Although the later (1988) book probably is cheaper and easier to find, the updated information doesn't add a great deal to the basic story of this extraordinary feat. Ideally, you should read/own both. I won't claim to have read every book on the Doolittle raid. Of those I have seen (including Craig Nelson's "The First Heroes" and Duane Schultz's "The Doolittle Raid"), some are better written, but none are more informative than Glines.

Note that Glines also authored "Four Came Home," an account of the Doolittle raiders who were captured by the Japanese, and co-authored Doolittle's autobiography, "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again." He's pretty much the man from Doolittle Raid headquarters.

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reviews: page 1, 2

It was the biggest gamble of World War II, but Lt. Co. ""Jimmy"" Doolittle's legendary bombing raid on Tokyo gave America the morale boost it needed in the wake of Pearl Harbor. This is the full story as told by the Doolittle Raiders' official historian. Carroll Glines is also the author of Attack on Yamamoto.

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