What was the names of the planes flown in the Doolittle raid?

Answer 1

There were sixteen B-25 Mitchell medium bombers on the raid. This was all that could be crowded on the deck of the USS Hornet, and still leave enough flight deck forward so the first ones had room to take off. Unlike carrier aircraft the wings of the B-25 did not fold up, so they could not fit on the elevators of the aircraft carriers and be stowed below on the hanger deck. The B-25 was a big plane compared to carrier aircraft, far bigger than anything which usually operated off a carrier. Because the Hornet's deck was covered with these big army bombers she could not operate her normal airplanes, and had to have another aircraft carrier along to provide air cover. The USS Enterprise went for this duty, so the US risked two of the three aircraft carriers it had in the Pacific on this daring raid.

Doolittle chose the crews from among volunteers at Eglin Field, Florida. A B-25 normally flew with a six man crew, but one gunner was left off on the raid, to save weight. Each plane flew with a crew of five, so there were eighty men involved including Doolittle, 52 officers and 28 enlisted men.

The two carriers were supposed to close to within two hundred miles of Japan to launch the bombers. This would allow the bombers enough flight time to reach China after bombing Japanese cities. The carriers encountered a Japanese picket boat six hundred miles from japan, which was quickly sunk, but no one knew if it had gotten off a radio message reporting their presence before being sunk. The carriers would have to turn back immediately. Doolittle decided to proceed with the raid anyway, even though this would scarcely leave the bombers sufficient fuel to reach the coast of China, and no hope of reaching inland airfields. The bombers were quickly launched. Because of this fuel crunch all the bombers were lost, though one did manage to land in Siberia and was interned with its crew by the Russians, who were not at war with Japan. Three of the raiders were killed. Two of these were killed when their bomber crashed near Japan, as did another bomber. The eight survivors of those two bombers were taken prisoner by the Japanese, and were tortured and starved. One died of disease in captivity. Three were executed by the Japanese, after being tried as war criminals (something the Japanese certainly knew plenty about).

Of the crews of the bombers that reached China, one became the third of the raid to die, when bailing out of his bomber as it ran out of fuel. The rest eventually reached safety and returned to service, with the help of Chinese civilians and soldiers. One was helped by Mao Tse Tung and his communists. The Chinese who helped these Americans evade the Japanese and escape paid very dearly for this act of "disloyalty" to the Japanese invaders. An estimated 250,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese while searching for the Doolittle raiders.

Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle was promoted to brigadier general and awarded the Medal of Honor. Two others earned a Silver Star and all 80 the Distinguished Flying Cross. All also got a decoration from the Chinese government. Several earned Purple Hearts.

Answer 2

There were 16 B-25 Bombers that took off from the USS Hornet on April 18th 1942 to attack Japan.

Answer 3

They were B-25 Mitchell Bombers.

Answer 4

Jack