THOSE SHANGRI-LA PLANES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 117, 21 May 1942, Page 5

THOSE SHANGRI-LA PLANES

HISTORIC RAID ON TOKIO ROOSEVELT DECORATES LEADER (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Recd. 6.30 p.m.) Washington, May 19. Brigadier-General James Doolittle was personally awarded the Congressional Medal ol Honour by President Roosevelt to-day for having led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in the highly-destructive raid on the Japanese mainland on April 18. Mr. Roosevelt commended General Doolittle’s conspicuous leadership as above and beyond the call of duty, involving personal valour and intrepidity at extreme hazard to life. General Doolittle, with the apparent certainty of being forced to land on enemy territory or perish at sea, led the squadron and bombed Japanese cities and a navy yard, leaving one new cruiser or battleship on fire. Immediately after receiving his decoration General Doolittle made a statement in which lie described the raid as successful beyond his most optimistic expectations. “Each plane.’’ he said, “was

assigned specific targets, which I tasks were carried out with remarkable precision. We experienced little hostile reaction because apparently there was no advance warning. "The bombers zoomed down just over the housetops but dropped bombs at 1500 ft. The target ol one plane was a navy yard south of Tokio. One p salvo made a direct hit on either a A cruiser or battleship under construe- si tion, which was set alire. Another t< bomber strewed incendiaries along a tl quarter of a mile ot an aircraft rac- I tl tory near -Nagoya, and another on an o. illuminated tank farm. Flying at such low altitudes made it diuieult to b observe the result following the o bombs' impact. We could see them si strike, but the speed and the low alii- a tude restricted our vision. The raid v was made in fair weather at mid-day. fi No trouble was experienced in finding b the exact target designated. a "No more than 30 Japanese pursuit " planes were observed during the Hight, fl These were completely ineffective, fi Several we know were shot down, and t> possibly more. Incidentally, the Japanese pursuit pilots seemed inexperi- il enced and evidently were below the v

♦ ♦>♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦ ♦ ♦-♦♦♦ ♦ ♦ *' standard of those encountered in the active theatres of war. Approaching r the navy yard we apparently passed c over a Hying school, where a number of trainer planes were in the air. i “Before releasing the bombs we dived again toward the tree tops and went toward the coast at that altitude I. to avoid anti-aircraft fire. Along the coastline we observed several squadrons of destroyers, some cruisers and battleships. About 25 to 30 miles to sea the rear-gunners reported seeing columns of smoke rising thousands of feet into the air. “One of our party observed a ball game in progress. The players and spectators did not run for cover until n just as the field passed out of sight. The pilots and bombardiers and mom- j bers of the crew performed their g duties with great calmness and re- j. markable precision. It appeared to us d that practically every bomb reached j 1 the target for which it was intended. We would have liked to tarry and ■watch later developments from fire and explosion, but even so we wore fortunate to receive a fairly detailed report from the excited Japanese radio broadcasts. It took them sev- ( eral hours to calm down to deception 1 and accusation. t Both Mr. Roosevelt and the War Department left unanswered an im- 1 portant question to which the Japanese would like a solution—Where was the raiding squadron based? General Doolittle, 45-year-old veteran of the last war, achieved fame as a speed flier in the 1920’5. He received the Flying Cross in 1922. Mrs. Doolittle was especially ( brought from Los Angeles for the | ceremony. She told the Press: “I am r so thrilled that I can’t talk.’’ L She arrived this morning and n walked into the President’s office. She o had not the slightest idea that her husband had been there, or even that c he was in the United States. c Generals Marshall and Arnold at- g tended the ceremony. No one knewj about the decoration until a few moments prior to the ceremony. Mr. Roosevelt said he thought it. would be quite a surprise to General Doolittle. Just before pinning on the decora- ' tion Mr. Roosevelt remarked with a , grin to the reporters: “Not even a columnist had guessed it.” Seventy-nine others in the historic j ( raid received the Distinguished Ser-I vice Cross. Ip — WEEKS OF PRACTICE ■■ n CREWS’ PREPARATION FOR | SI MISSION f (Recd. 8.25 p.m.i Washington, May 19. General Doolittle said tne objectives v of the raid included the navy yard al P Yokohama, the Mitsuoisni aircraft lac- a Lory at Nagoya, and industrial concen-i a (rations, docks, shipyards, fuel storage; 1 ’ depots and ammunition dumps at' l ' iOKesuke, Kenagawa, Kobe andjb Osaka. Extreme care was exerciser/ not to drop bombs on non-military r targets. * IP His squadron was composed o. !n North American 825 medium bombers.'a The performance of the planes was.lt magnificent and the crews were t equally magnificent. The planes were a specially equipped for the task. The h crews practised the plan attack forio weeks, although they did not know the object of the mission until they n were ready to take off. t None of the American planes was |< shot down and none was damaged p enough to prevent its safe arrival at n the destination, said General Doolittle. The Japanese anti-aircraft fire was so y ineffective that the Japanese shot p down many of their own barrage bal- t innne ..