Unless you are now 80 or more years old, you could hardly be expected to have memories of those dark days after the attacks by Japanese forces on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines and the British, French and Dutch colonies in the Western Pacific. The Allies were impotent. The Empire of Japan could not be stopped. President Roosevelt and his senior military leaders were desperate for a counterstrike against the Japanese home islands but we had no airfields within range, or even close. Yet in less than four months after the devastating attack at Pearl Harbor, 16 B-25s were over Tokyo and other major cities.
James Scott in this definitive account of the planning, training and execution of this raid, led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, U.S. Army Air Corps, also reveals details of the interplay of the strong characters in the Navy and Air Corps who carried out this daring carrier task force raid across the North Pacific.
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