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U.S. Army B-25 bomber
Takeoff for Tokyo: A U.S. Army B-25 bomber gets airborne from the Hornet’s flight deck and sets off for the retaliatory strike against Japan.
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

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‘The Nation Badly Needed an Offensive Action’

By General James H. Doolittle, U.S. Air Force (Retired)
June 2022
Naval History Magazine
As I Recall
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On 18 April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle of the U.S. Army Air Forces entered the annals of World War II history in command of the celebrated Doolittle Raid, which took the war to Japan’s shores for the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Having Army B-25s embarked on board the USS Hornet (CV-8) involved any number of challenges—but also embodied a spirit of interservice cooperation in America’s hour of need.

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General James H. Doolittle, U.S. Air Force (Retired)

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