at 8:48 on the 2nd of April 1942 the USS Hornet aircraft carrier steams under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and heads out to sea with her escort fleet 16 b-25 Mitchell medium bombers can be seen on her flight deck the locals assume the bombers are simply being transported to Hawaii after all bombers of that size are surely far too large to be able to actually take off from an aircraft carrier in December 1941 the Empire of Japan attacked the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor bringing the United States into World War two simultaneously Japan also to the US territories of Guam the Philippines and Wake Island the American people were furious at these attacks on their territories and demanded revenge President Roosevelt inquired about the feasibility of bombing raids on Japan the u.s. needed a morale boost however the loss of airfields on the occupied Pacific Islands rendered the u.s. unable to reach Japan with the range of his conventional bomber airpower at a naval airfield in Virginia testing was carried out whereby the outline of the deck of an aircraft carrier was drawn out on a runway and medium bombers attempted to take off within the required distance of 467 feet it was possible with major modifications but only just an attempt in the high seas of the Pacific Ocean would be quite a different matter leftenant Colonel Doolittle an engineer before the war and now famous military test pilot sketched out a plan where medium bombers would take off from an aircraft carrier off the coast of Japan and strike the greater Tokyo area landing back on the aircraft carrier after the raid would be impossible so he considered that the strike force would continue west after their raid and land in the Soviet Union turning the aircraft over to the Soviet Air Force as 11 lease however while the Soviets were fighting with the Allies in the war against Germany they were still neutral with Japan Stalin did not want a second front to open in the Far East with Japan at a time when Germany was hammering the Soviet Union to the West Doolittle revised his plan to land the aircraft in China with the b-25s modified for long-range operations they were craned onto the deck of the USS hornet and on the 2nd of april the ship steamed west the force from san francisco task force 18 consists of the USS hornet aircraft carrier cruisers Nashville and Vincennes for less cimarron and destroyers Gwyn Meredith Monson and Grayson on the 8th of April the oiler Cimarron refills the destroyers whose range is limited in stormy seas in Pearl Harbor task force 16 led by Admiral Halsey puts to see made up of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier cruisers Northampton and Salt Lake City oiler Sabine and destroyers belch Benin elet and fanning the fleet leaves the Navy base and heads towards grid reference 38 north 1a0 east they are to rendezvous with task force 18 on the 13th of April before the combined fleet heads west thousands of miles away off the coast of Japan the USS submarines trowel and thresher have been attacking and sinking Japanese merchant shipping they monitor the weather and feedback radio reports to the fleet on the 17th the task force is 800 miles from the Japanese coast all ships resupply from the oilers Cimarron and Sabine the two Oilers then turn east for home the destroyers hold at this position to save valuable fuel for the later voyage home the rest of the task force continues West the carrier USS Enterprise is providing air cover to the fleet as the USS Hornet cannot launch any of its own combat wing while the Bombers take out the deck space recon aircraft are launched to search an area 200 miles ahead of the fleet for hostile shipping at 3:00 a.m. on the 18th of April the fleet detects to surface radar contacts at 20,000 yards distance Halsey orders a course change a way to avoid detection at 4:00 a.m. the fleet resumes its course towards Japan at sunrise air patrols resume from the enterprise this time three Dauntless dive bombers are also dispatched to search for the surface contacts detected overnight one aircraft sights a ship at 42 miles ahead of the task force and drops a note onto the deck of the enterprise so as to preserve radio silence at 8:00 a.m. the fleet spots the Japanese patrol craft and eat out maru had ten thousand yards the USS nashville opens fire and sinks the craft but not before it was able to radium back a warning to the Japanese homeland enemy carriers spotted Admiral Halsey realizes the elements of surprise has been lost and every minute passed is a minute longer the Japanese military has to prepare for the attack 10 hours early and 170 miles further away the plant he gives the order to launch the bombers first into the air do this or leads the 16 b-25 Mitchell in successfully completing the perilous takeoff remarkably no aircraft are lost and the bombers set course for Tokyo the task force turns back to the east knowing there are further patrol craft in the area ready to radio back the location the fleeing ships to long-range bombers on the mainland with the b25 launch Hornet can now launch his own air wing to help defend the fleet over the next few hours Hornet launches eight wildcat fighters on combat air patrols and Enterprise launches Dauntless 'as in 200-mile search patterns for enemy ships Enterprise detects Japanese recon aircraft at long-range where they turn away at 2 p.m. the fleet spots to patrol craft to the north dauntless is attack and destroy the first but returned fire from the craft damages one dogmas which crashes into the sea near the USS Nashville the Nashville closes in and destroys the remaining ship with the aid of dive bombers from Hornet to the west the 16 bombers are approaching the Japanese coast they split into five formations the first will hit northern Tokyo the second Central's Tokyo the third southern Tokyo the fourth spreads out over a 50-mile front on its way to can Ogawa Yokohama and Yokosuka Navy base the fifth will hit Nagoya and Kobe the first three flights 13 aircraft surround Tokyo and run in from different directions the targets are selected military and civilian factories and oil refineries notably the Nippon Electric Company and the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company Japanese observer posts have spotted the bombers crossing the coast and an intercepting fighter force comprising zeros ki 27th and ki-61 s have been scrambled the target selected are specifically chosen for their scattered nature throughout the greater Tokyo area the plan is to cause as much shock to civilians as possible across the widest possible area nearly all bombers are pursued and attacked by multiple fighters Doolittle himself is attacked by nine enemy aircraft the city's anti-aircraft batteries open a desperate barrage of fire on the Bombers but their low altitude and flight paths make them impossible targets the Gunners on the US aircraft claim five fighters shot down in self-defense is a defensive disaster for the Japanese who school no bombers destroyed nearly all planned targets a hit including damage to an aircraft carrier in drydock at Yokosuka two aircraft attacked multiple targets in Nagoya they encounter heavy anti-aircraft fire before bombing and military barracks an oil storage facility and two aircraft factories the last aircraft follows the coastline into the port of Kobe and drops bombs on a steel works electric works and the Kawasaki dockyards and aircraft factory all bombers except one turn for China to make their escape Captain Edward York's aircraft makes for the Soviet Union an administrative error led to unauthorized modifications to York's engine carburetors before leaving the US mainland this means that fuel consumption is vastly higher than has been planned for and China will now be 300 miles out of range York's crew has no choice but to make for Vladivostok in the Soviet Union they would eventually land safely but are interned by the Soviet Union a month later the Soviet government was staged there supposes escaped near the Iranian border allowing the crew to travel to the British Consulate in Iran the crew would return home soon after without the Soviets appearing to have broken the neutrality agreement with Japan all crews are forced to bail out near or before their planned landing areas in China thanks to unusually high wind and fog when communicating the plan to the Chinese military in the days leading up to the attack a mistake was made by u.s. planners forgetting that the raid would involve crossing the International Dateline the Chinese have been told to await the Bombers 24 hours after intended all but two crews aiming for China returned home with help from the Chinese duelists will receive the Medal of Honor as leader of the raid the other two crews were captured by the Japanese regretfully after a military trial three of the crew members were executed with another dying of malnutrition in prison Japanese reprisals on China for harboring the crews were severe launching operation psycho in May to occupy the coastal areas to prevent their use as a bomber landing area again estimates for civilian fatalities during the campaign range from 70 to 250,000 people there was a major boost to American morale more importantly the Japanese High Command now considered their coastline vulnerable to attack they would attempt to take the Pacific Islands of Midway two months later to try to hinder US carrier operations against their mainland in the future the resulting Battle of Midway would be a crippling defeat for the Japanese Navy and decisive in the war in the Pacific