The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan [Hardcover]

Carroll V. Glines (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

It was the biggest gamble of World War II, but Lt. Co. ""Jimmy"" Doolittle's legendary bombing raid on Tokyo gave America the morale boost it needed in the wake of Pearl Harbor. This is the full story as told by the Doolittle Raiders' official historian. Carroll Glines is also the author of Attack on Yamamoto.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25s under the command of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle were launched from the carrier Hornet , flew 650 miles to Japan, dropped their bombs on Tokyo and other targets, and escaped to China and neutral Soviet territory. Although a very small affair in comparison with the B-29 strikes three years later, the Doolittle raid was a severe psychological blow to Japanese military leaders and had far-reaching strategical effects. At the same time, the raid provided an electrifying boost to American morale. Glines, former editor of Professional Pilot magazine, relates this exciting story in full: the bold conception of the mission, the selection of its leader (Doolittle was known as a "master of the calculated risk"), the difficult preparations, the hair-raising "thirty seconds over Tokyo," and the ordeals of those crewmen who fell into Japanese hands in China. Glines also tells the almost unbelievable story of "the last Doolittle raider." Lt. George Barr, convinced that his liberation was an elaborate Japanese trick, was shunted around the U.S. military-medical circuit and ended up in a mental ward. Doolittle himself, by then a general, traced him, rescued him from bureaucratic oblivion, and set him firmly on the road to recovery. Photos.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887403476
• ISBN-13: 978-0887403477
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #600,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Retired Air Force Colonel Carroll V. Glines is the author of 36 books and more than 700 magazine articles on aviation and military subjects. Three of the books are about the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan and he was co-author of General Jimmy Doolittle's autobiography titled I Could Never Be So Lucky Again. He was formerly editor of Air Cargo, Air Line Pilot and Professional Pilot magazines and is now the Curator for the Doolittle Library at the University of Texas, Dallas and Historian for the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Account of the Doolittle Raid, January 30, 2001

By 

Walter F. Nowak II "nowakwf" (Langhorne, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan (Hardcover)

This book, I believe, is a very good account of a relatively forgotten event during the Second World War in the Pacific theater. Sandwiched between two intensely covered events such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the American victory at Midway, the Doolittle raid often gets overlooked. The author did a good job to provide a detailed account of the events leading up to the raid as well as an excellent account of the experiences of each of the sixteen bomber crews as they made their raid over Japan. Other lesser-known areas concerning the raid were covered such as the voyage of the carrier task force and just how close they came to being attacked by Japanese aircraft and surface forces. Also the technical challenges that occurred to the aircraft were elaborated on as well as an account from the Japanese standpoint pertaining to their preparedness for such an air raid. To complete this telling of the Doolittle Raid the author explains the fate of the aircrews that either survived the raid to continue the fight or those that were captured by the Japanese. Finally the plight of the Chinese people as a result of their part of the raid was not forgotten or overlooked, as is often done by history. Overall, for a person generally interested in World War II history this book would rate a 4 out of 5. If you are particularly interested in the Pacific war against Japan this book is definitely a 5 of 5.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America's First Strike Against Japan, May 21, 2002

By 

Jeffrey T. Munson (Dixon, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan (Hardcover)

In April, 1942, the U.S. Navy set out to strike back at the Japanese. The plan was to launch B-25 Mitchell bombers from the deck of an aircraft carrier, bomb Tokyo, then fly to safety in China. In this excellent book by Carroll Glines, the story of the famed Doolittle Raiders unfolds. President Roosevelt conceived the idea. American morale was very low after the Pearl Harbor attack, and the President felt that an attack on the Japanese homeland would do wonders for the American civilians as well as the armed forces. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle was selected to lead the mission. Famous for his air racing and numerous speed records, Doolittle assembled sixteen crews and began training in Florida. Finally, the planes were loaded aboard the U.S.S. Hornet and the task force set sail for Japan. The original plan was to approach to within about 350 miles of the Japanese coast before launching, but a Japanese sampan discovered the task force while they were still some distance from the take off point. I enjoyed the way that Mr. Glines told the individual story of each crew involved in the attack. This aspect of the book made it much more enjoyable to read. The dialogue is so vivid that one can imagine themself sitting in the cockpit. In the end, most of the planes successfully crash-landed in China, but eight men were taken prisoner by the Japanese. They suffered horribly at the hands of their captors. One man died in prison, three were executed by the Japanese, and four survived the war to return to the United States. Another book, entitled Four Came Home, also written by Mr. Glines, tells the story of the four survivors in much greater detail than this book. I would highly recommend both of these books as they both do an excellent job describing this first strike against the enemy.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Confusing titles, March 27, 2007

By 

Edison McIntyre (Durham, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan (Hardcover)

This is the second of two books that Glines wrote specifically on the Doolittle Japan mission. The first, "Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders," was published in 1964 and was the first comprehensive history of the mission. (Okay, James Merrill published his "Target Tokyo: The Doolittle-Halsey Raid" the same year, but Glines' account is the better of those two.) Of particular interest in the 1964 book are the 16 accounts that Glines elicited from a crew member of each of the 16 B-25s that took part in the raid, as well as the individual photographs of each five-man crew.

Several years later, Glines decided to write an updated (1988) account of the raid, emphasizing information that had come to light since the 1964 book -- e.g., the story of the Japanese fishing vessels that "intercepted" Halsey's task force on April 18, 1942, and forced an early takeoff by the B-25s. That second book is "The Doolittle Raid," featured on this webpage.

If I had to choose one over the other, I'd definitely seek out a copy of the earlier (1964) book. Although the later (1988) book probably is cheaper and easier to find, the updated information doesn't add a great deal to the basic story of this extraordinary feat. Ideally, you should read/own both. I won't claim to have read every book on the Doolittle raid. Of those I have seen (including Craig Nelson's "The First Heroes" and Duane Schultz's "The Doolittle Raid"), some are better written, but none are more informative than Glines.

Note that Glines also authored "Four Came Home," an account of the Doolittle raiders who were captured by the Japanese, and co-authored Doolittle's autobiography, "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again." He's pretty much the man from Doolittle Raid headquarters.