Suddenly, the Hornet’s Klaxon sounded, followed by the announcement over the loudspeaker: “Army pilots, man your planes!”
Jake stuffed the compass and flashlight back into the bag, grabbed his hat, and headed for the exit. This was a surprise to him and the other bomber crew members, who had expected to be leaving in the afternoon so that they could bomb their targets in Japan at night. Leaving this early meant that they would be making their bombing runs in broad daylight.
Amid the mayhem on the flight deck, Jimmy Doolittle gathered the men and explained that the task force had been spotted by Japanese picketboats and the Hornet’s radio officer had intercepted a message sent from one of the Japanese boats to Tokyo warning of the presence of American ships. As a result, Admiral Halsey had given the order for the army bombers to take off on their mission before enemy aircraft began swooping in to attack the ships. Jake’s heart sank when he heard that they were leaving on the mission two hundred miles short of the planned position. The extra miles would tax the B-25s’ fuel supply and give them less opportunity to fly deep into China if necessary. Doolittle wished the men good luck, and then the crews headed to their bombers.
Doc White, a medical doctor and the gunner/engineer on plane #15, was in charge of the medical needs of the B-25 crews, and he ran to each plane handing out two bottles of alcohol to each man. “This is for cuts and scrapes,” he yelled over the roar of the wind.
Jake smiled to himself. Doc White had the good sense to leave giving out the alcohol to the last moment. If the men had received it earlier, they most likely would have drunk it while they played poker at night. Another crew member ran from plane to plane handing out bags of sandwiches to sustain the men on their twelve-hour flight.
The Bat was so close to the edge of the Hornet’s flight deck that its tail hung out over the stern. As a result, there was no way to fully load the plane, as the back hatch was over the water. Jake threw his bag in through the front hatch and then went around to the other side of the aircraft, where Harry Spatz was amassing extra five-gallon cans of gas for the flight. “Since we have to go farther than anticipated, we need all the gas we can take,” Harry told Jake. “And we have to punch holes in the cans before we ditch them. They can’t be left afloat to leave a trail back here.” Jake understood why Harry’s voice had a worried tone. The bombers were now going to have to fly farther than anticipated on their ration of gas if they were to reach China.
Meanwhile, Jake kept busy helping to arm and load bombs into the bomb bays of the B-25 bombers. As he worked away, he could not help but think that they were over six hundred miles from land—Japanese land—two hundred miles more than they had expected to be at takeoff. If they accomplished their mission, they had little chance of getting out alive—or of not being captured by the Japanese. Some of the men had discussed this among themselves on the sea voyage, and the poll was about fifty-fifty between those who would rather be caught by the Japanese and those who would prefer being killed outright.
The flight deck of the USS Hornet was a hive of frenzied activity. While bombs were being loaded into the bombers, other navy crewmen were topping off the planes’ fuel tanks, shaking the aircraft as they did so to make sure that no air bubbles were in the system that would preclude the maximum amount of gas being loaded into the planes. Meanwhile, mechanics removed the canvas covers that had been placed over the engines to protect them from salt spray during the voyage.
While all of this activity was going on, rain and salt spray washed across the aircraft carrier’s deck. As day broke, the weather had turned sour. Bruised purple clouds hung low above the task force, a stiff wind howled across the deck, and thirty-foot waves had the carrier pitching and rolling. Despite the conditions, everyone on deck worked hard and fast to ready the Mitchell B-25s for flight.
“The old man’s about to go!” Will Farrow shouted. Jake followed Will’s pointed finger to the very first bomber on the Hornet’s deck. This was Jimmy Doolittle’s plane, and all eyes were on it. Although the pilots had trained for short takeoffs back in Florida, they had done so on dry land. No one had actually ever flown a B-25 bomber off the deck of an aircraft carrier before, and certainly not off a carrier whose flight deck was rising and falling as it rode over mountainous waves. This was the moment of truth, the moment when they would find out whether it was indeed possible to do so. Would Jimmy Doolittle get his bomber airborne, or would he crash over the front of the flight deck into the roiling sea?
The USS Hornet was now cruising at full speed into the wind, her bow rising and falling as she rode over the massive waves. Jake watched as Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle cranked the B-25’s engines to life. Doolittle let the engines warm up for a few minutes, and then the deck-launching officer, standing to the side of the flight deck ahead of the bomber, began to rotate a checkered flag above his head. The engines of Doolittle’s bomber roared to full throttle. As the bow of the Hornet began to drop, a deck handler pulled the chocks out from under the wheels, and the deck-launching officer gave the signal for the plane to take off before he dropped facedown on the deck as the wing passed over his head. The nose and left wheels of Doolittle’s bomber stayed right on the two white lines painted along the port side of the flight deck. These lines were guides for the pilots. If the pilots kept their wheels on the lines during takeoff, then their right wing would clear the Hornet’s command and control island on the starboard side of the ship by six feet.
As the bomber lurched forward, everyone held his breath. Jimmy Doolittle now had 467 feet of flight deck space in which to get his plane into the air. Could he do it?
The Hornet’s bow continued to fall, until it looked like Doolittle and his crew were going to fly right into the ocean, and then it began to rise. As it did so, the B-25 lifted off the deck at 8:15 AM, with yards of runway to spare. A huge cheer went up from the deck of the Hornet. Mitchell B-25 bombers could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
As Doolittle’s plane lifted off the deck, Jake looked up to the ship’s island, where Hollywood movie director John Ford and his crew of cameramen were capturing the whole event on film for the navy.
Once he was airborne, Doolittle banked his plane around and made a low pass straight above the Hornet’s flight deck. He did this so that his navigator could calibrate the aircraft’s navigation system with the aircraft carrier’s compass heading. After his pass over the Hornet’s deck, Doolittle set course for Tokyo, over eight hundred miles away, and his B-25 was soon swallowed up by the fog and low clouds that hung over the launch area.
As soon as Doolittle’s plane had left the deck, a mechanical “donkey” pulled the next B-25 into takeoff position. The bomber’s engines began to rev up to full speed, and five minutes after Doolittle’s plane had taken off, the next bomber was airborne. This plane also overflew the flight deck to calibrate its navigational system, and was then on its way to Japan.
Jake and the other four members of his crew watched as B-25 bomber after B-25 bomber lifted off safely from the deck of the Hornet. Finally it was time for them to prepare for takeoff.
Will Farrow, Bob Hite, and George Barr climbed into their positions in the plane, and Will cranked the engines to life. The aircraft’s tail still hung out over the stern of the ship, and the plane needed to move forward so that Jake and Harold could load the rest of their gear onto the plane and Harold could take his position in the rear.
Jake watched as the flag was waved for Will to taxi forward into the final loading and takeoff position. Suddenly a gust of wind whipped under the airplane and lifted the plane’s nose off the ground. Shouts went up from the sailors on deck as they ran forward with ropes. The men managed to secure the ropes to the plane’s nose hooks, but the ropes snapped under the strain. Jake then ran forward and grabbed one of the front-wheel struts. Sailors quickly joined him, and with grim determination they stopped the bomber from sliding overboard with three of her crew inside.
The plane stabilized, and the men backed away. Will gunned the engine as Jake pulled the chocks out from under the wheels. The plane lurched forward. As Jake turned and threw the last few items into the rear hatch of the plane, where Harold was now seated, a spurt of blood splattered across the deck in front of him. He looked up to see a sailor lying under the propeller, his left arm dangling by a thread of skin.
“He backed into the propeller,” one of the sailors yelled as Jake ran and knelt down to help the man. The injured sailor looked Jake in the eyes and said to him, “Go get them for me!”
Jake nodded as he helped two sailors carry the injured man out of harm’s way.
Jake took a deep breath. Blood was splattered on his uniform, and his heart was heavy. Was he looking at the first death caused by the Doolittle Raid? He didn’t know whether the injured sailor would make it, but he had to put the incident out of his mind and get going.
With the last few items loaded into the rear of the plane, Jake scrambled through the front hatch. As he climbed into his position at the front of the plane, his heart sank. The Plexiglas nose cone in front of him had a jagged hole the size of a dinner plate smashed in it, and gale force winds were swirling around inside the cone. Jake concluded that the Plexiglas nose must have bumped into the tail of plane #15 when the wind caused the nose to rear up.
A million thoughts ran through his head as Jake pondered the problem. Of course, he should inform the pilot that the plane was damaged. But what would happen then? They were under strict instructions to report any mechanical failures, with the understanding that any plane that was not fit to fly was to be pushed overboard. But what about a structural problem? The increased drag from the jagged hole would cut into fuel efficiency and the number of miles they could fly, but it wouldn’t stop the plane from flying.
As Jake thought about what to do, Will gunned the engines, and Jake felt the B-25 vibrate violently under him. They were preparing for takeoff. Jake buckled himself in. It was too late to do anything about the problem now.
The Bat’s engines roared so loudly that Jake thought they were about to tear themselves apart. Then all off a sudden the plane lurched forward and gathered speed. As they raced down the Hornet’s flight deck, all Jake could see at the end of the deck was swirling ocean. Then suddenly the ship’s bow began to rise, and with a thump, the Bat was airborne.
Will banked the B-25 around and flew over the length of the Hornet’s flight deck while navigator George Barr calibrated his instruments. Jake glanced at his watch. It was 9:16 AM. It had taken an hour to get all sixteen B-25 bombers airborne.
As they climbed up and away from the USS Hornet, Jake looked back. The carrier’s flight deck was a hive of activity. Sailors were working the elevators to get their own airplanes up from the hangar below, and all of the ships were turning sharply to the southeast, away from the immediate threat of Japanese attack.
Jake took a deep breath. The first part of the mission—getting airborne—was over. Now it was time to tell Will about the hole in the nose. Jake picked up the intercom that connected him with the pilot and shouted into it. Will sounded concerned and immediately sent copilot Bob Hite down to see what could be done. The wind was roaring so loudly through the hole that the two men were forced to use hand gestures to work on a solution to the problem. Bob and Jake stuffed the hole with a thick coat, but the force of the wind pushed it right back in their faces. After several failed attempts, the men looked at each other and shook their heads. It was obvious that there was no way to plug up the hole while they were flying. Bob headed back to the cockpit to inform Will.
