Pilot Jimmy Doolittle was the courageous hero that America needed.
Still reeling from the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States struck back 75 years ago when Doolittle led 80 men in 16 B-25 bombers on a daring raid of Tokyo from the deck of the USS Hornet aircraft carrier April 18, 1942.
“They actually reached Japan and all dropped their bombs,” said John F. Wittibschlager, 89, of Barberton, who delivered the Beacon Journal as a Cuyahoga Falls High School student growing up on Ironwood Street.
After the raid on Tokyo (which U.S. newspapers then spelled as “Tokio”), the Beacon Journal headlines were huge: “American Fliers Bomb Tokio.” “Damage Caused in Yokohama and Kobe.” “Japanese Fear More U.S. Raids.” “Alarms Raise Tokio Jitters.”
The Doolittle Tokyo Raiders gave Americans a morale boost and punctured Japanese beliefs of invincibility. To this day, Summit County residents who recall the early 1940s remain grateful for Doolittle’s service and regard him as a hero.
“Oh, a great man,” Wittibschlager said. “A great, wonderful man. That was a tremendous accomplishment.”
Jim Skeese, 84, of Stow, lived on Baughman Street in West Akron and attended St. Sebastian in 1942. He, too, was a Beacon Journal paperboy, but also remembers hearing news bulletins on the radio.
“I read headlines while preparing to make deliveries,” he said. “Big bold fonts reported WWII action. Although a good reader and able to comprehend, I didn’t grasp the significance of WWII headlines.
“Gasoline was rationed, butter, coffee, other items limited. Cigarettes scarce, but overall, no discomfort.”
He also remembers viewing newsreels before the feature films at Akron movie theaters.
“More specifically, to the Doolittle air raid, 1942, the significance came to me in 1944 by watching Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, starring Spencer Tracy,” Skeese said.
Doolittle (1896-1993), a California native, was a frequent visitor to Akron in the 1920s and 1930s. He came here to perform in air shows, judge model airplane contests, test aviation equipment, refuel his aircraft and present lectures on the future of flying. He became a close buddy of Fulton Airport founder Bain E. “Shorty” Fulton, whom he described as “a loyal friend” and “a fine American.”
“Lieutenant Doolittle is short in height but rugged in stature,” the Beacon Journal reported during a 1927 visit. “He smiles easily and laughs hard. He is carefree and good natured. He did not get to fight overseas, but he’s the type you could bet would make an ‘ace.’ ”
During a speech at Portage Country Club, Doolittle said: “Development of aviation is no longer a mechanical problem. All that remains to be done now is to educate the people to have confidence in flying and the public is learning fast.
“The question of the airplane’s success is not an uncertainty now, it is a reality. Aviation is here to stay and if Akron wants to be in the national airway route, it will have to have a good airdrome and up-to-date landing field.”
Returning three years later, Doolittle praised Fulton’s airport as “one of the finest in the country.”
After the U.S. entered World War II, Lt. Col. Doolittle, 45, organized a band of 80 volunteers from the U.S. Army Air Forces to embark on a dangerous, secret mission to bomb Tokyo. The five-man crews took off in 16 B-25 bombers from the USS Hornet in the churning Pacific and flew 620 miles to reach their target, which included factories, railroads, refineries and warehouses. Doolittle bravely led the way.
“What made him great was to take off a B-25 medium bomber from an aircraft carrier,” Wittibschlager said. “He was the first one off, so he had the shortest runway, you see?”
Lt. William M. Bower, 25, a native of Ravenna, was the pilot of the 12th bomber. As a child in the 1930s, he had gone to the Cleveland National Air Races to see Doolittle soar. Now he was flying behind him. “I’d go anywhere in the world Jimmy said to go,” Bower confided later.
“We flew as low as it was possible for us to fly and that’s why the Japanese anti-aircraft guns which were trained for high targets didn’t get us,” Bower explained.
After carrying out their mission, Doolittle’s Tokyo Raiders were supposed to land in China, but all 16 crews had to either bail out or crash-land their planes after running low on fuel. Doolittle’s and Bower’s crews parachuted to safety in China.
“It would be dark as hell in about a half hour,” Bower wrote in his diary. “We held a council of war. I told them we had no chance of landing and would fly until she quit.
“I patted the old boat and went out the hatch. A swish and a bang and I came down to earth gently. Wrapped up in the chute I smoked a cigaret.”
Three of the 80 Americans were killed in accidents after completing the mission. The Japanese captured eight men and executed three by firing squad. A fourth died of malnutrition in prison.
“Our job is to utterly and completely defeat the Japanese nation and everything her warlords stand for,” Doolittle said. “This can only be accomplished by striking at the heart of Japan itself.”
Bower (1917-2011) received a hero’s welcome in his hometown that July as Ravenna celebrated Bill Bower Day. “I can’t see what on earth they are making all this fuss about me for,” Bower said as the town turned out to see him.
Doolittle and his daring band of Tokyo raiders deflated Japanese claims of military superiority and helped give Americans the confidence and resolve to win World War II.
“He gave us a spark,” Wittibschlager said.
To learn more about Jimmy Doolittle, visit www.doolittleraider.com. Mark J. Price can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.