Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

as available by We 3 Books

Major Ted W. Lawson was born on March 7, 1917. He was an American officer in the United States Army Air Forces, a memoir of his participation in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942. The book was subsequently adapted into a film of the same name starring Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum. Lawson was born in Alameda, California and attended Los Angeles City College. He joined the then- U.S. Army Air Corps in March 1940 while employed by Douglas Aircraft Company and received his pilot's wings and commission as a Second Lieutenant on 15 November 1940. Lieutenant Lawson was accepted as a volunteer for the mission led by then-Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle to bomb Tokyo and several other cities with 16 carrier-launched B-25 Mitchell bombers from aboard the USS Hornet (CV-8) - the first air raid on mainland Japan during World War II following the Pearl Harbor attack. After launching the mission 170 miles (275 km) further out than planned and bombing their targets in Japan, all of the aircraft ran out of fuel short of their intended recovery airfields in non-Japanese occupied China. Lawson and his crew were forced to ditch their plane off the coast of the small island of Nantien. Lawson and his co-pilot were both thrown clear of the B-25, with Lawson suffering a severely lacerated left leg in the process. After he was transported by friendly Chinese throughout several provinces in China, Lawson's infected leg was amputated by the mission's flight surgeon, Lt Thomas R. White. Along with the majority of the surviving Doolittle Raiders, Lawson was eventually repatriated back to the United States, and in his case, for further medical care. His decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and the Chinese Army, Navy, and Air Corps Medal, Class A, 1st Grade. He died on January 19, 1992 at his home in Chico, California and was interred at the Chico Cemetery Mausoleum. Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Benning, Georgia is partially named for Ted W. Lawson. It was originally named only for Walter R. Lawson (no relation to Ted), an Army Air Corps flyer who earned the Distinguished Service Cross in World War I. Several years later, after the Doolittle Raid in World War II, Ted W. Lawson's name was added to the memorial at the field. Robert Bernard Considine was born on 11 April 1906 in Washington DC. He was an American writer and commentator. He is best known for co-writing Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and The Babe Ruth Story.