Artifact: B-25 Cowling Panel Autographed by Doolittle Raiders

June 4th, 2008 5:31 pm

Acquired in 2004, this B-25 Mitchell Cowling Panel was purchased from Aero Trader in California. During the restoration research for this panel, the decision was made to restore the panel in the colors of the B-25 Mitchell bombers that the Doolittle Raiders flew on 18 April 1942.

The Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese home island of Honshu during World War II. It demonstrated that the Japanese home islands were vulnerable to Allied air attack, and provided an expedient means for U.S. retaliation for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The Doolittle Raid was the only time that United States Army Air Corp bombers were launched from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on a combat mission.

The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle, already a famous civilian aviator and aeronautical engineer before the war. The raid, however, had its roots in the mind of Navy Captain Francis Low, who early in the war surmised that, under the right conditions, twin-engine Army bombers could be successfully launched from an aircraft carrier.

All 16 aircraft that participated in the bombing were lost on the mission, and 11 crewmen were either killed or captured. The crews of 13 aircraft, however, were recovered and returned to the United States, and a 14th crew interned by the Soviet Union eventually made its way home in 1943.

In August of 2007, Flightline Fabrications had the rare experience to visit and meet three of the original Doolittle Raiders, Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, copilot of aircraft #1, Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, navigator of aircraft #9, and S/Sgt. David J. Thatcher, gunner of aircraft #7 in Nampa Idaho at the Warhawk Air Museum’s B-25 Days.