April 18 -- the Doolittle Raid. Please join us.

[Brooke]

Please join us to commemorate the Doolittle Raid, which occurred on April 18, 1942.

We'll run it twice on April 18, at 3 pm Eastern and at 10 pm Eastern, in Special Events II arena.
 
Starting with the devestating attack at Pearl Harbor, Japan went on to rout US forces wherever they were engaged. To show that mainland Japan was not invincible and to help US morale at a time when progress in the war was bleak, Col. James Doolittle formulated a stealthy raid on Tokyo and other targets in Honshu using B-25's launched from the USS Hornet.

[Brooke]

Details about the event:

http://ahevents.org/events/this-day-in-wwii/600.html?task=view

[Tigger29]

Yes, while the attack was for the most part strategically insignificant, it did land a heavy blow to the Japanese' egos... and was a huge morale boost for America.

A few years ago, "Kermit" made an AH film about it.  It looks like the download link stopped working some time ago, so I've uploaded it onto my server.

(Kermit, if you have problems with this, please feel free to PM me and I will take it down)

It is an incredible piece of work!

It's a pretty big download at almost 358 megs, but well worth the time.  CLICK HERE to download it (right click/save as if you want to save it).

[Brooke]

Thanks for saving that film -- it is excellent. 

[MarineUS]

Bump - so the other guys know about the later one tonight!

[Chilli]

  I hope you all have a great time. 

Please post Screenies, this was a fun event last year.  Sorry, I have to miss both.

[STEELE]

I.........................wil l be there 

[MarineUS]

raiders had zero chance on the 10PM run - zeroes were up at 10K just waiting for the NOE approach - we got chewed up before we could get close

made a friend though

[Scca]

raiders had zero chance on the 10PM run - zeroes were up at 10K just waiting for the NOE approach - we got chewed up before we could get close

made a friend though

No, it was 8K 

[MarineUS]

  damn hahaha

I finally said forget it and on my 3rd up I went to 20K - STILL got chased down. There was a con only 4K below me on arrival haha.

[Brooke]

It was fairly hard to find the B-25's, especially when they were on the deck, so many Japanese planes hung out near Tokyo at various altitudes as it was one place where they had a much easier time finding the B-25's.  While it wasn't guaranteed to make it to Tokyo, many B-25's did make it there to drop bombs.  Some that made it to Tokyo then back to land, and some that made it to non-Tokyo targets and back to land.

[Zoney]

Thanks for hosting this, it was a lot of fun.