Eye Witness Account (1)

 

The Doolittle Raid was launched on the morning of 18 April 1942, 150 miles further from mainland Japan than originally planned. At 0843 hours, Lt. Ted William Lawson took flight in “The Ruptured Duck” B-25B # 40-2261, of the 95th Bomber Squadron/17th Bomber Group.

Lt. Ted W. Lawson

“A Navy man stood at the bow of the ship with a checkered flag.  He gave Doolittle [the lead plane] the signal to begin racing his engines again.  Doolittle gave his engines more and more throttle until I was afraid he’d burn them up.  A wave crashed at the bow and sprayed the deck.

leaving the USS Hornet

“The man with the flag was waiting, timing the dipping of the ship for it’s take-off.  The man gave a new signal.  Navy boys pulled the blocks from under the wheels.  We watched him like hawks, wondering what the wind would do to him and whether we could get off in that little run.  If he couldn’t – we couldn’t.”

Pilot 1st Lt. Ted Lawson; Co-Pilot 2nd Lt. Dean Davenport; Navigator 2nd Lt. Charles McClure; Bombardier 2nd Lt. Robert Clever; Engineer/Gunner Sgt. David Thatcher

Almost on his Tokyo target – “I was almost on the first of our objectives before I saw it.  I gave the engines full throttle as Davenport [co-pilot] adjusted the prop pitch to get a better grip on the air.  We climbed as quickly as possible to 1,500 feet.  There was just enough time to get up there, level off, open the bomb bay, make a short run and let fly the first bomb.  The red light blinked and I knew the first 500-pounder was gone.

The Ruptured Duck

“The red light blinked again and I knew Clever [bombardier] had let the second bomb go.  A black cloud appeared about 100 yards in front of us and rushed past at great speed. [antiaircraft fire].  Two more appeared ahead of us, on about the line of our wingtips…They had our altitude perfectly but they were leading us too much.

“The third red light flickered and since we were in the southern part of the city, the fourth light blinked.  That was the incendiary, which I knew would separate as soon as it hit the wind and that dozens of small fire bombs would molt from it.  I put the “Ruptured Duck” into a deep dive.  I looked back and out I got a quick, indelible vision of one of our 500-pounders as it hit our steel-smelter target.

Bomb crater near Asahi Denka factory, 15′ wide x 10′ deep

“Our actual bombing operation, from the time the first one went until the dive, consumed not more than thirty seconds.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

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Military Humor – the definition of furlough…

Postcards courtesy of Chris @ Muscleheaded

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Farewell Salutes – 

Duane Aborn – Ellington, CT; US Army Air Corps, WWII

Alan Bakas – Anthem, AZ; US Air Force (Ret. 24 years), Vietnam

Herbert Couvollion – Ft. Smith, AR; US Army, Colonel (Ret. 30 yrs), Korea, Vietnam, Special Forces

Manford Gremaux – New Haven, IN; US Army, WWII, PTO

Glen Lang – Canton, OH; US Army, Korea

Victor Lilley – Detroit, MI; US Army, WWII, PTO, Bronze Star

Joseph Ryan – Rockledge, FL; US Army Air Corps, ETO, 542 Reg/101st Div., Bronze Star

Michael Stucker – Grand Junction, CO; US Air Force, Vietnam

Russell Washburn – Bluffton, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII

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