On April 18, 1942 American Lieutenant James Doolittle engaged in the most risky air attack on the Japanese. Doolittle and his men flew from a ship about 2,400 miles outside of Japan. The plan Doolittle came up with was to use just enough fuel to go and bomb the Japanese and go and crash land in China, their allied forces. The planes that were used were B-25 Bombers with the name the “Hornet”. The U.S had so much to lose in this attack such as a great plane, many high rank officers, and a loss with their first air strike for the Americans. Although there was a lot to loose there was a lot to gain such as confidence for the Military, a win against the Japanese, and to show Japan that we are powerful and unafraid of them. On the mission there was going to be sixteen bombers carrying a ton of explosives and using over six hundred gallons of fuel. The plan was nearly impossible to succeed but the Americans felt the need to do it. The mission was to bomb Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya and take out the Militant centers, energy areas and industrialized areas. The plan in itself was risky but actually going out and trying to complete what was said is a near death trap, hardly enough fuel, no machine guns, no radio, or many other key factors needed to succeed. The aircraft carrier had stationed four hundred miles outside of Japan and Doolittle knew that he was low on fuel but in fear of an attack on the carrier the bombers had to go for it. The bombers successfully made it to Japan and the first bomb was dropped on Tokyo and soon after the other bombers dropped their bombs too. The planes were now low on fuel and were flying in complete darkness needing to find the landing strip in China, after flying for an extended amount of time the bombers had to ditch their planes and parachuted down. They all landed and were greeted by a Chinese man who helped them contact the American Government. The attack was a success and seemed to be well worth it. The Americans were now confident with their Military and had won their first air battle with Japan. What if they failed? If they Americans had failed they would have lost so much like the confidence in their Military, which was very important in WWII because you needed to be confident with your Militant forces in order to win and be successful. If the plan failed other nations might have looked at the Americans and thought they were weak and seemingly easy to beat. So much to lose and so much to win was the risk truly and absolutely worth it? The Americans had won but if they had lost were the consequences really worth having to deal with, winning was a big deal but not losing was an even bigger deal with this plan of attack. The loss of the battle would have instantly put a doubt in the minds of Americans and completely changed the way we had fought in WWII. If this plan had never been used we still would have succeeded in winning the war and still could have attacked Japan when we were more readily able to fight. Executing this plan of attack was successful but not important enough to loose all that could have been lost.


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