The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan

The complete account of one of the biggest gambles and most harrowing stories of courage to come out of World War II.

Five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt and military leaders decided to boost American morale by undertaking a daring offensive against Japan. Forced to launch early from the aircraft carrier Hornet after being spotted by Japanese fishing boats, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle and his 16 B-25 bombers flew to their targets.

But the early launch forced 15 crews to bail out or ditch their aircraft instead of landing in China as intended. What was supposed to be “thirty seconds over Tokyo” became an odyssey of escape for some crew members that lasted fourteen months and cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese patriots.

Author and retired Air Force Colonel Carroll Glines tells the story of Doolittle’s raiders, their bold bombing mission, their long struggle to escape their pursuers through China, and how the raid altered Japanese thinking about the security of their home islands and induced them to withdraw forces from the perimeter of their far-flung empire.

Glines personally interviewed most of Doolittle’s surviving raiders to produce this dramatic and authentic story.

Glines is curator of the Doolittle Military Aviation Library at the University of Texas.