by Geert Rottiers
Hardback (6.4×9.4 inches). 253 pages. 2026.
Subtitle: The Men Who Bombed Tokyo and Their Harrowing Story of Escape and Capture in China
Plane by plane and crew by crew, each receives a chapter about the take off and approach to Japan, the bombing, and the flight to China (except for the one crew who flew to the Soviet Union). Since the planes left early, not only did they not have enough gas to reach the Chinese airfield, the Chinese had not set up radio beacons to guide the planes in. Baling out and crash landing were the only options.
Each crew member’s ordeal is covered, along with tales of Japanese retribution against the Chinese peasants and guerilla forces that helped the US airmen escape. Some were captured and with executed or spent the war in a
POW camp.
Crew 6 remains a mystery, for the official account reveals some discrepancies: such as a pilot being catapulted through the navigation window, a boat ride that seems implausible, and that the officers survived but the enlisted men did not.
Of interest is the widespread Chinese opposition to the Japanese occupation. The resistance aided in the escapes with the connivance of villagers — although sometimes the villagers thought the Americans were Japanese.
It strikes me as odd, or poor planning, that after all the years of the Flying Tigers, the Doolittle airmen were not provided with a US flag and an English-Chinese dictionary or at least a pamphlet with some phrases and a promise of reward. One crew found such a dictionary in a village (p142), which helped. It seems planners assumed a little too much of a clockwork operation. Launching early proved insurmountable friction for the plan.
A couple typos: “18 april” (p104) needs a capital A, and “pourinh” (p182) should be “pouring.”
The book contains 17 black and white photos. A map of the flight paths over Japan and China, for each plane was assigned a different target, would have been helpful.
It’s a fascinating account of the Doolittle raid and how the crews survived or not.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
