Us Official Photographs

USAF Tokyo Raid

92988 USAF - TOKYO RAID - On 18 April 1942, airmen of the U S Army Air Forces, led by Lt Col James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle, carried the Battle of the Pacific to the heart of the Japanese empire with a surprising and daring raid on military targets at Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya and Kobe. This heroic attack against these major cities was the result of co-ordination between the Army Air Forces and the U S Navy, which carried the sixteen North American B-25 medium bombers aboard the carrier USS Hornet to within take-off distances of the Japanese islands. Despite the rough seas this B-25 bomber becomes airborne on the last leg of its journey to the Japanese mainland.