DAY OF DANGER AND GLORY: APRIL 18, 1942

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

The planes went in as lone raiders. Three of those following Doolittle would hit the northern sector of Tokyo, three the central sector and three the southern. Three others would strike Kanagawa, Yokohama and the Yokosuka Navy Yard. The last three bombers would hit targets in Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe.

Shortly before noon, Doolittle's plane crossed the coast about eighty miles northeast of Tokyo. Minutes later, as he raced south toward the city at thirty feet, Doolittle saw nine Japanese fighters a thousand feet above him. By a stroke of good fortune, the capital's defenses had just completed an air raid drill. At a little past noon the first B-25 was over Tokyo.

A light haze lay over the city, but downward visibility was good. The bomber passed over the Imperial Palace to reach a complex of factories. Doolittle climbed to 1200 feet. Bombardier Sergeant Fred Braemer checked his map, lined up the first target in his twenty-cent bombsight. The bomb-bay doors opened. At about 12:15 PM, a red light blinked in rapid succession on Doolittle's instrument panel. Four incendiary clusters rained down on Tokyo.

Antiaircraft fire burst around the B-25, rocking the plane. Of his getaway, Doolittle was to write, "Lowered away to housetops and slid over western outskirts into low haze and smoke. Turned south and out to sea."

Scattered by headwinds and by variances in the settings for their magnetic compasses, ten B-25s swept in over the sprawling city from several directions, confusing its defenders as to their point of origin.

Skimming above treetops and hills, pilots gunned their planes up to about a thousand feet and dropped four 500-pound bombs each. The Raiders struck industrial targets like steel works, oil refineries, aircraft factories and docks, or military targets like naval yards, ammunition dumps and supply centers. Because of their careful study of maps, their low altitude and their arrival in broad daylight, most attackers scored hits.

Pursued by swarms of fighters, evading Raiders redlined their Mitchells at over 300 miles per hour. Despite balky or jammed turrets, gunners hit at least two interceptors, perhaps more.

Ground antiaircraft fire filled the sky with shell bursts, sending fragments into several B-25s, but every Raider escaped.

The raid was fast and furious. Each pilot popped up to altitude, unloaded his bombs, then promptly pushed the control yoke forward, dove to rooftop level and throttled southwest along the Japanese coast, toward hoped-for safety in China.

Yet by about an hour out of Japan, aircrew calculated that they probably wouldn't have enough fuel to reach airstrips near Chuchow. Having accomplished their mission, men pondered their fates as afternoon light faded.