92 “woefully deficient”: Greening, “The First Joint Action,” p. 3.
92 “A man could learn to play”: Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 246.
93 Greening zeroed in as well: Details on the Norden bombsight come from the following sources: Wayne Whittaker, “The Bombsight That Thinks,” Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1945, pp. 7–10, 160–62; Volta Torrey, “The War’s Most Closely Guarded Secret Revealed: How the Norden Bombsight Does Its Job,” ibid., June 1945, pp. 70–73, 220–24, 228, 232; “Norden Bomb Sight Is Revealed as Almost Self Sufficient Device,” New York Times, Nov. 25, 1944, p. 11; C. Brooks Peters, “Japan Bombed with 20-Cent Sight,” ibid., June 28, 1942, p. 1; Greening, Not As Briefed, pp. 14–15.
93 Mark Twain: Greening, Not As Briefed, p. 15.
93 “It was fine for the things”: Lawson, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, p. 24.
93 North American developed: Greening, “The First Joint Action,” pp. 12–13.
93 “I understand you want”: This exchange is ibid., p. 53.
94 Pilots flew under simulated: Ibid., pp. 12–13.
94 “This did not do the trick”: Kenneth Reddy diary, March 20, 1942, Box 5, Series II, DTRAP.
94 Doolittle likewise demanded: J. H. Doolittle, Report on the Aerial Bombing of Japan, June 5, 1942; Greening, “The First Joint Action,” pp. 13–16.
94 “Many Florida coast towns”: Greening, “The First Joint Action,” p. 16.
94 A Maui native: T. R. White to Jack J. Levand, Feb. 28, 1962, Box 5a, Series II, DTRAP; Thomas Robert White, family bio, Nov. 21, 1996, ibid.; Thomas R. White, Personal Data Sheet, 1958, ibid.
94 “To his great credit”: Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 248.
95 Mindful of weight limits: T. R. White to Air Surgeon, “Report of Activities Covering the Period from March 1, 1942, to June 16, 1942,” June 23, 1942, Box 22, James H. Doolittle Papers (DPLOC), LOC.
95 “Difficulty was experienced”: Ibid.
95 “No marked reactions”: Ibid.
95 In addition to teaching: Thomas White, “Memoirs of ‘Doc’ White,” unpublished memoir, p. 2.
95 taking in a performance: Joseph Manske diary, March 14, 1942.
95 “We caught a good mess of fish”: Kenneth Reddy diary, March 23, 1942.
95 “Our commanding officer”: Richard Cole to his mother, early 1942, Richard E. Cole Collection, Vernon R. Alden Library, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
95 “You’re helping in national defense”: William Farrow to Jesse Farrow, March 7, 1942, quoted in Jesse Farrow to James Doolittle, May 24, 1942, Box 22, DPLOC.
96 Lawson came out: Lawson, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, p. 23.
96 “Doolittle has got some”: Richard E. Cole oral history interview with James C. Hasdorff, Dec. 12–13, 1988, AFHRA.
96 “It was sort of obvious”: Knobloch oral history interview with Hasdorff, July 13–14, 1987.
96 “We could do”: Bower oral history interview with Edwards, Oct. 27, 1971.
96 “The first pilots were all”: J. H. Doolittle, Report on the Aerial Bombing of Japan, June 5, 1942.
97 “General, it occurred to me”: This exchange comes from Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, pp. 248–49.
CHAPTER 6
98 “These brutal and inexcusable attacks”: “Japan’s Atrocities in China,” Feb. 3, 1942, Box 138, RG 226, Office of Strategic Services, NARA.
98 Donald Duncan stepped off: The Reminiscences of Admiral Donald Duncan, pp. 331–34.
98 “Well”: This exchange is ibid., pp. 332–33.
99 the entire bay rimmed: Frederick Mears, Carrier Combat (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1944), pp. 33–34.
99 The burned-out: Homer N. Wallin, Pearl Harbor: Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1968), pp. 253–80; “Report on Infamy,” Time, Dec. 14, 1942, pp. 75–80; Robert Trumbull, “‘Dead’ Ships Rise at Pearl Harbor; Miracle in Salvage Cuts Loss to 3,” New York Times, May 23, 1943, p. 1.
99 Workers only the month before: “Salvage Pearl Harbor Greetings,” New York Times, Feb. 4, 1942, p. 5; Salvage Officer to the Commandant, Navy Yard, Pearl Harbor, Report of the Salvage of the USS West Virginia, June 15, 1942, in Wallin, Pearl Harbor, p. 349.
99 A fifty-seven-year-old: Chester Nimitz Navy Bio, June 21, 1948, NDL.
99 “May the good Lord”: Nimitz Diary, Dec. 31, 1941, Papers of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, 1901–1967, NHHC. Some entries in Nimitz’s diary are written as traditional entries; others are written to his wife. For the purposes of consistency, all entries are referred to simply as his diary.
100 The deteriorating situation: Chester Nimitz diary, Jan. 29, 1942.
100 The Pacific Fleet had so far executed: E. B. Potter, Nimitz (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1976), pp. 37–57.
100 “The Japs didn’t mind”: Potter, Nimitz, p. 52.
100 “I will be lucky”: Chester Nimitz diary, March 22, 1942.
100 “arrived for conference”: Nimitz Gray Book, vol. 1, March 19, 1942, p. 296.
100 The audacious operation: The Reminiscences of Admiral Donald Duncan, pp. 330–32.
100 “I had been told”: Donald B. Duncan, “Secret Planning for the Tokyo Raid,” in Mason Jr., ed., The Pacific War Remembered, p. 68.
100 “Pacific Fleet markedly inferior”: CINCPAC to COMINCH msg. 080239, Box 4, Safe Files, FDRL.
100 “Pacific Fleet not”: COMINCH to CINPAC msg. 092245, ibid.
101 The Pacific Fleet commander: Layton, “And I Was There,” pp. 380–81.
101 his own staff: Nimitz Gray Book, vol. 1, Feb. 10, 1942, p. 212.
101 “Tell Jimmy”: The Reminiscences of Admiral Donald Duncan, pp. 334–35.
102 “Do you believe”: William F. Halsey and J. Bryan III, Admiral Halsey’s Story (New York: Whittlesey House/McGraw-Hill, 1947), pp. 100–101.
102 “crackpot”: Phillip S. Meilinger, Airmen and Air Theory (Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.: Air University Press, 2001), p. 27.
102 Few military leaders had as much: Barbara W. Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945 (New York: Macmillan, 1971), pp. xi–xiii, 9–89, 123–63.
102 “Dour, belligerent”: Lewis Brereton diary, May 28, 1942, in Lewis H. Brereton, The Brereton Diaries: The War in the Air in the Pacific, Middle East and Europe, 3 October 1941—8 May 1945 (New York: William Morrow, 1946), pp. 126–27.
102 “unreasonable, impatient”: Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945, p. 126.
102 “niggers”: Ibid., p. 127.
102 “When I think”: Joseph Stilwell diary, March 1, 1942, in White, ed., The Stilwell Papers, p. 49.
102 “rank amateur”: Joseph Stilwell diary, Dec. 29, 1941, ibid., p. 16.
103 “Very unimpressive”: Joseph Stilwell diary, Feb. 9, 1942, ibid., p. 36.
103 Spread across: “China’s War Potential: Estimate,” in U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1942, China (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1956), pp. 71–82.
103 “Our ally, China”: Frank Dorn, Walkout: With Stilwell in Burma (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1971), p. 20.
103 The bespectacled Chinese leader: Ibid., pp. 17–20.
103 Stilwell viewed him: Joseph Stilwell diary, April 1, 1942, in White, ed., The Stilwell Papers, p. 80.
103 “He thinks he knows psychology”: Joseph Stilwell diary, April 1, 1942, ibid., p. 77.
103 “a peanut perched”: Dorn, Walkout, p. 23.
103 “The trouble in China”: Theodore H. White, In Search of History: A Personal Adventure (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), p. 140.
103 “He’s a vacillating”: Chennault, Way of a Fighter, p. 226.
103 Stilwell’s views stood: Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945, pp. 187–88.
104 “Man & Wife of the Year”: “Man & Wife of the Year,” Time, Jan. 3, 1938, pp. cover, 12–16.
104 The Chines
e leader’s image: Alan Brinkley, The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), p. 131.
104 The press proved equally adoring: For a few examples see “Modern Joan of Arc,” Portsmouth Times, Dec. 10, 1937, p. 11; Clare Boothe, “What One Woman Can Do,” This Week magazine section of the Milwaukee Journal, July 26, 1942, p. 10; Vanya Oakes, “Madame Chiang Kai-shek,” Toledo Blade, March 13, 1943, p. 6.
104 “Each night it was like”: Dorn, Walkout, p. 74.
104 “If St. Francis of Assissi”: John Fischer, “Vinegar Joe’s Problem,” Harper’s Magazine, Dec. 1944, p. 91.
104 “The true explanation”: Research and Analysis Branch, “American Aid to China,” Far Eastern Study No. 21, undated, Microfilm Roll #1, in Paul Kesaris, ed., O.S.S./State Department Intelligence and Research Reports, pt. 3, China and India (Washington, D.C.: University Publications of America, 1977).
105 “The probabilities”: Joseph Stilwell memo to Lauchlin Currie, Aug. 1, 1942, Box 51, RG 165, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, NARA.
105 “With relation”: George Marshall to H. H. Arnold, Feb. 11, 1942, Microfilm Roll #173, HHAP.
105 “Despite my request”: John Magruder to Adjutant General (For AMMISCA), msg. No. 258, Feb. 9, 1942, ibid.
105 “Inhuman acts”: “Japan’s Atrocities in China,” Feb. 3, 1942, Box 138, RG 226, Office of Strategic Services, NARA.
106 “There came a day”: Ibid. The sword contest remains a controversial flashpoint in the history of the Rape of Nanking. Some Japanese historians have alleged that the contest, though published in the press at the time, was fabricated or at least exaggerated. The two officers were executed after the war.
106 The Japanese coaxed: Details are drawn from the report “Japan’s Atrocities in China” and Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (New York: Penguin Books, 1998), pp. 3–7, 35–59.
106 “Perhaps when we were raping her”: Azuma Shiro undated letter to Iris Chang, in Chang, The Rape of Nanking, p. 50.
106 The war crimes tribunal: Chang, The Rape of Nanking, p. 4.
106 “The actions of the Japanese soldiery”: “Japan’s Atrocities in China,” Feb. 3, 1942.
107 “What progress”: Cablegram to AMMISCA, Chungking, China, AAF RC 49, March 16, 1942, Microfilm Roll #A1250, AFHRA.
107 “Time is getting short”: Cablegram to AMMISCA, Chungking, China, AAF RC 88, March 18, 1942, ibid.
107 Stilwell had only recently arrived: Dorn, Walkout, p. 31.
107 The capital and principal seaport: “Foe Gains in Burma,” New York Times, March 9, 1942, p. 1; Raymond Daniell, “Rangoon Capture Confirmed in India,” ibid., March 10, 1942, p. 5.
107 Although China boasted: Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945, pp. 264–66.
107 “You will know long before”: Joseph Stilwell diary, March 26, 1942, in White, ed., The Stilwell Papers, p. 70.
107 Because he was not briefed: Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, pp. 259–60.
107 “Please advise”: Radiogram to AGWAR for AMMISCA, No. 391, March 22, 1942, Microfilm Roll #A1250, AFHRA.
107 Arnold ordered the fuel: Cablegram to AMMISCA, Chungking, China, AAF RC 279, March 25, 1942, ibid.
107 He further ordered: Cablegram to AMMISCA, Chungking, China, AAF RC 359, March 26, 1942, ibid.
108 “The success of a vital project”: Cablegram to AMMISCA, Chungking, China, AAF RC 279, March 25, 1942, ibid.
108 Rather than import fuel: Cablegram to AGWAR for AMMISCA, No. 416, March 29, 1942, ibid.
108 “Other than fuel”: Cablegram to AMMISCA, Chungking, China, AAF RC 467, March 30, 1942, ibid.
108 “On April 20th”: Cablegram to AMMISCA, Chungking, China, AAF RC 505, March 31, 1942, ibid.
108 Doolittle had gotten: Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, pp. 249–50.
108 “Hey, come on”: Holstrom oral history interview with Hasdorff, April 14–15, 1988.
108 “Get your financial affairs”: McClure, “How We Bombed Tokyo: Thrilling Epic,” p. 1.
109 Thomas White: T. R. White to Air Surgeon, “Report of Activities Covering the Period from March 1, 1942, to June 16, 1942,” June 23, 1942; Richard Cole oral history interview with William J. Alexander, Aug. 8, 2000, University of North Texas, Denton, Tex.
109 “Rather than bump”: Potter oral history interview with Hasdorff, June 8–10, 1979.
109 “Operations was like a mad house”: Kenneth Reddy diary, March 24, 1942.
109 “I hear you had an accident”: This exchange comes from The Reminiscences of Rear Admiral Henry L. Miller, vol. 1, p. 35.
109 “Newt, old boy”: York oral history interview with Hasdorff, July 23, 1984.
109 “Where is everybody?”: This exchange comes from Emmens oral history interview with Hasdorff, July 8–9, 1982.
110 “We kept so low”: Lawson, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, pp. 27–28.
110 “When we departed Eglin”: Charles McClure to Ross Greening, Individual Histories questionnaire, undated (ca. 1950), Iris # 01010162, AFHRA.
110 “The trip to the West Coast”: Aden Jones to Ross Greening, Individual Histories questionnaire, May 8, 1950, ibid.
110 “I pulled some sagebrush”: DeShazer oral history interview with Hasdorff, Oct. 10, 1989.
110 Bad weather forced: Kenneth Reddy diary, March 24, 1942.
110 Doolittle, however: Lawson, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, p. 28.
110 “I am going on a special mission”: “Tokyo Lists 4 as Captive U.S. Airmen,” Sun, Oct. 25, 1942, p. 3.
110 “We flew to Sacramento non-stop”: Kenneth Reddy diary, March 25, 1942.
111 “Can you see”: This exchange comes from Macia oral history interview with Hasdorff, July 15–16, 1987.
111 “Over Texas”: McClure to Greening, Individual Histories questionnaire, undated (ca. 1950).
111 “I would like to have”: This exchange comes from “Meeting of Doolittle Project B-25B’s,” transcript, March 25, 1942, Iris #00142923, AFHRA.
111 “Services and supplies”: Vanaman to CO SAD, March 24, 1942, ibid.
112 “Under no circumstances”: Edmund J. Borowski to C. G. Williamson, “Work to Be Accomplished on B-25B Doolittle Project,” March 26, 1942, ibid.
112 “Stick close to the field”: Lawson, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, p. 29.
112 “You won’t need it”: Ibid., p. 29.
112 “Mind your own business”: Reynolds, The Amazing Mr. Doolittle, p. 191.
112 “I had to stand by”: Lawson, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, p. 29.
112 “Things are going”: Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 253.
112 “What’s going on here?”: This exchange comes from Reminiscences of General James H. Doolittle, U.S. Air Force (Retired) (Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute, 1987), p. 32.
112 “I was madder”: Ibid.
114 The crews ran into a similar headache: York oral history interview with Hasdorff, July 23, 1984.
114 “In several instances”: T. R. White to Air Surgeon, “Report of Activities Covering the Period from March 1, 1942, to June 16, 1942,” June 23, 1942.
114 Ken Reddy went bowling: Kenneth Reddy diary, March 27–30, 1942.
114 “We lowered Dean Hallmark”: Everett W. “Brick” Holstrom, “General Recollections,” unpublished memoir, p. 30.
114 “Let’s give him a hot foot”: This exchange comes from Greening, “The First Joint Action,” p. 55. See also Greening, Not As Briefed, p. 17.
114 “This will be”: Jacob Eierman to J. George Eierman, March 9, 1942, in “Baltimore Airman Wins Valor Award,” Sun, May 21, 1942, p. 24.
115 “Please don’t worry”: Melvin Gardner to parents, April 1, 1942, in “SSG Melvin J. Gardner,” unpublished family narrative, Box 2, Series II, DTRAP.
115 The officers met: Details of the meeting are drawn from Reminiscences of General James H. Doolittle, pp. 15–17; Doolit
tle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, pp. 256–57; Halsey, Admiral Halsey’s Story, p. 101.
115 “It immediately occurred”: Halsey oral history, quoted in Reminiscences of General James H. Doolittle, p. 17.
115 “We discussed the operation”: Reminiscences of General James H. Doolittle, pp. 15–16.
116 “This was understandable”: Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 256.
116 “We just happened to find out”: “Interview with B-25 Crew That Bombed Tokyo and Was Interned by the Russians,” transcript, June 3, 1943, Iris #00115694, AFHRA.
116 “We had to change”: This exchange comes from York oral history interview with Hasdorff, July 23, 1984.
116 “How do you think”: This exchange comes from The Reminiscences of Rear Admiral Henry L. Miller, vol. 1, pp. 36–37.
117 “I haven’t got time”: Reynolds, The Amazing Mr. Doolittle, pp. 192–93. This anecdote is recounted in several sources. I have depended largely on Greening’s report, since it was written closet to the time.
117 “LOUSY”: Greening, “The First Joint Action,” p. 53; Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 254.
117 “Just a minute, Colonel”: Greening, “The First Joint Action,” p. 53.
117 “If that’s the case”: Ibid.
117 “Who is that guy?”: Ibid., p. 54.
117 “At less than 24 hours”: John M. Clark to Assistant Chief, Air Service Command, April 2, 1942, Iris #00142923, AFHRA.
CHAPTER 7
119 “We believe the hand of God”: Russell Ihrig, “A War Message to All Hands,” included with Cimarron war diary, April 3, 1942, Box 731, RG 38, Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, World War II War Diaries, NARA.
119 The Hornet towered: Hornet deck log, April 1, 1942.
119 The 19,800-ton carrier: Background on the Hornet is drawn from Clayton F. Johnson et al., eds., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, vol. 3 (Washington D.C.: GPO, 1968), pp. 367–69; Francis E. McMurtrie, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships: 1941 (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., 1942) p. 460; Chief of the Bureau of Ships to the Secretary of the Navy, April 12, 1943, USS Hornet (CV-8) – Final Settlement under Navy Department Contract Nod-1126 dated April 10, 1939, with Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Va., Box 738, RG 19, Bureau of Ships, General Correspondence, 1940–1945, NARA.
Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor Page 63
