MARK HOFFMAN / MHOFFMAN@JOURNALSENTINEL. COM Oshkosh - As they flew over Tokyo, Richard Cole and David Thatcher realized with relief that Japanese antiaircraft gunners had never before fired at enemy planes.
As the first Americans to strike Japan's home islands during World War II, Cole and Thatcher found that the ack-ack-ack of the flak guns did little damage to the 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers that achieved fame as the Doolittle Raiders.
It was only four months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and Japanese military commanders had promised their nation that it was invulnerable.
The American crews lost all their planes and their bombs did minimal damage, but the Doolittle Raid was considered a success, proving to be a big morale boost to Americans and a punch in the gut to Japan.
"When we were approaching Tokyo, there was a lot of anti-aircraft fire, but it wasn't accurate because they didn't have much experience," Thatcher told a large crowd Wednesday at Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture.
Thatcher and Cole are among the five surviving members of the Doolittle Raid. During their visit to Oshkosh, they talked about their experiences, posing for photos and signing autographs as part of AirVenture's salute to the Greatest Generation in the Air.
Commanded by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, the raid was noteworthy because it was the only time Army Air Force bombers were launched from an aircraft carrier during World War II. The B-25B Mitchell bombers were chosen because they had a long range - made longer for the mission by added fuel tanks - and were narrow enough to fit on the deck of the U. S. S. Hornet.
Thatcher, a staff sergeant who turns 91 next week, was awarded the Silver Star for helping wounded crew members in his plane evade Japanese troops. The pilot of his plane was badly injured when it ditched in the sea and flipped over. The pilot's leg became infected - and was later amputated - because it took three days for the airmen to reach medical help in China.
Cole, a colonel who turns 97 later this summer, was the copilot in Plane No. 1piloted by Doolittle.
The raiders had only a few weeks to practice taking off from an aircraft carrier.
There was no need to learn carrier landings; they knew it was a one-way trip, with the plan to land at friendly airfields in China not under Japanese control.
After training for the topsecret mission and seeing their planes safely stowed on the deck of the Hornet in San Francisco's harbor, the 16 five-person crews were given the night off before shipping out the next day. Cole recalled going to a bar at the top of a tall hotel and looking out over the harbor to see the unusual sight of 16 Army Air Force bombers lashed to the carrier's deck.
"We wondered if Japanese spies were looking at the same thing we were," said Cole, who later piloted C-46 cargo planes in the China- Burma-India campaign.
After they dropped their bombs, most of the planes crash-landed in China, though three ditched at sea and one landed in the Soviet Union, where its crew was interned for more than a year.
Because the convoy carrying the B-25s was discovered by a Japanese fishing vessel, which alerted the Japanese military, Doolittle's Raiders took off much earlier than planned. They were farther out to sea, making their journeys more hazardous. "The main thing I was thinking about on taking off was keeping the gentleman next to me happy," said Cole, referring to Doolittle.
The B-25B bombers flew only 200 to 300 feet above the waves to avoid radar detection.
When their navigator told Cole and Doolittle they didn't have enough fuel to make it to Chinese airfields, "we didn't feel too good about it," Cole said as the crowd laughed.
Fortunately, favorable weather gave the crews tail winds that proved to be the difference between life and death for most. Still, Doolittle told his crew to prepare for ditching their plane at sea.
"Nobody was interested in ditching. Flying as low as we were, we saw numerous sharks sunning themselves," Cole wryly noted.
Both Thatcher and Cole remembered Doolittle as an intelligent, friendly commander who called everyone by their first name and was known for his incredible piloting skills and aircraft knowledge. Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor for the raid.
The B-25 was the perfect plane for the mission because it was a medium bomber with enough range to get crews to Japan to drop their bombs before veering south to China, said Ed Bowlin, a B-25 pilot and volunteer at EAA's extensive Warbirds area on the AirVenture grounds. Several B-25s are displayed at the aviation convention and are flying in the daily air shows.
"They're the original heroes of World War II," Bowlin said of the Doolittle Raiders.
"They're the ones who took the war to the Japanese." The Doolittle Raiders who survived the war - some were killed in action in Europe and the Pacific later in the war - have gathered for an annual reunion since the late 1940s.
At each reunion, the survivors perform a roll call and toast those who died in the previous year, using silver goblets engraved with the names of each of the 80 Raiders.
The goblets of those who have passed away are turned upside down.
The last two alive will drink a final toast of vintage cognac from a bottle kept with the goblets at the Air Force Museum in Ohio.
Thatcher and Cole were asked Wednesday whether they believed they would be the two to drink the cognac.
They smiled.
"The man upstairs has to make that decision, so I don't worry about it," said Cole.
Copyright 2012, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)
Copyright, 2012, Journal Sentinel, All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2012 Journal Sentinel Inc.
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