The Doolittle Raid - Hardcover

Schultz, Duane P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031202195X ISBN 13: 9780312021955

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1988

Synopsis

Recounts the first U.S. bombing raid on Tokyo, just four months after the attack at Pearl Harbor, and assesses the psychological importance of the raid

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

On the heels of Carroll Glines's The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan (Forecasts, Sept. 23), this version covers much the same ground with heavier emphasis on the conception of the raid and the training of the crews, the failed attempts to arrange reception of the bombers in China after they had unloaded their munitions on Japanese cities and the reactions of individuals in the target zone. There is also more about Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, the mission leader: his prewar career, for instance, and his gnawing sense afterward that the raid was a failure since all 18 bombers were lost. (Doolittle practically had to be dragged to the White House for the Medal of Honor ceremony.) Schultz ( The Maverick War ) discusses the controversy over Admiral Halsey's decision to launch the B-25s from the carrier Hornet earlier than planned after the Japanese discovered the approach of the task force. The strategic upshot of the raid on April 18, 1942, was that Admiral Yamamoto decided to extend Japan's outer defensive perimeter, which led to Japan's first major defeat, the air-naval battle of Midway in June 1942. Photos, maps.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Two books about Jimmy Doolittle's 1942 attack on Japan by experienced writers of popular military history who use the same sources. Inevitably they echo each other. In the case of Glines, he also echoes himself. This is his fourth book on the Doolittle saga, and he is running out of steam. Much of The Doolittle Raid is taken from his earlier titles, especially Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders ( Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981); whole passages are virtually identical. The newer work includes a few more interviews with survivors of the famous raid but adds nothing to our understanding. Libraries owning copies of the earlier book will not need this. Schultz's book is yet another readable and fast-moving account of the planning, execution, and aftermath of the famous raid. He makes use of most of the Glines interviews, so much of his text is eerily familiar. The book is somewhat better researched and makes fewer grandiose claims about the raid's importance.Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog . , Los Angeles
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 031202195X
• ISBN 13: 9780312021955
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 325