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The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on 18 April 1942, was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu island during World War II, the first air raid to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and provided an important boost to U.S. morale while damaging Japanese morale. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, U.S. Army Air Forces. Sixteen U.S. Army Air Forces B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to bomb military targets in Japan, and to continue westward to land in China—relanding a medium bomber on ''Hornet'' was impossible. Fifteen of the aircraft reached China, and one landed in the Soviet Union. All but three of the crew survived, but all the aircraft were lost. Eight crewmen were captured by the Japanese Army in China; three of them were executed. The B-25 that landed in the Soviet Union at Vladivostok was confiscated and its crew interned for more than a year. Fourteen crews, except for one crewman, returned either to the United States or to American forces.〔〔Glines 1998, pp. 166–168.〕 After the raid, the Japanese Imperial Army conducted a massive sweep through the eastern coastal provinces of China, in an operation now known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, searching for the surviving American airmen and applying retribution on the Chinese who aided them, in an effort to prevent this part of China from being used again for an attack on Japan. The raid caused negligible material damage to Japan, but it succeeded in its goal of raising American morale and casting doubt in Japan on the ability of its military leaders to defend their home islands. It also contributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's decision to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific—an attack that turned into a decisive strategic defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the U.S. Navy in the Battle of Midway. Doolittle, who initially believed that loss of all his aircraft would lead to his being court-martialled, received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two steps to Brigadier General. ==Origins== The raid had its start in a desire by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, expressed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a meeting at the White House on 21 December 1941, that Japan be bombed as soon as possible to boost public morale after the disaster at Pearl Harbor.〔Glines 1998, p. 10.〕 Doolittle later recounted in his autobiography that the raid was intended to bolster American morale and to cause the Japanese to begin doubting their leadership, in which it succeeded: The Japanese people had been told they were invulnerable ... An attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders. There was a second, and equally important, psychological reason for this attack ... Americans badly needed a morale boost.〔Doolittle and Glines 1991, pp. 1–2.〕 The concept for the attack came from Navy Captain Francis Low, Assistant Chief of Staff for anti-submarine warfare, who reported to Admiral Ernest J. King on 10 January 1942 that he thought twin-engine Army bombers could be launched from an aircraft carrier, after observing several at a naval airfield in Norfolk, Virginia, where the runway was painted with the outline of a carrier deck for landing practice.〔Glines 1998, p. 13.〕 The attack was planned and led by Doolittle, a famous military test pilot, civilian aviator and aeronautical engineer before the war. Requirements that the aircraft have a cruising range of with a bomb load resulted in the selection of the B-25B Mitchell to carry out the mission. The range of the Mitchell at the time was only about 1300 miles, so the bombers had to be heavily modified to hold nearly twice the normal fuel reserves. The Martin B-26 Marauder, Douglas B-18 Bolo and Douglas B-23 Dragon were also considered,〔Glines 1998, p. 19.〕 but the B-26 had questionable takeoff characteristics from a carrier deck and the B-23's wingspan was nearly 50% greater than the B-25's, reducing the number that could be taken aboard a carrier and posing risks to the ship's island (superstructure). The B-18, one of the final two types considered by Doolittle, was rejected for the same reason.〔Glines 1998, pp. 19–20.〕 The B-25 had yet to be tested in combat,〔Martin and Stephenson 2008, pp. 174, 182–183.〕 but subsequent tests with B-25s indicated they could fulfill the mission's requirements. Doolittle's first report on the plan suggested the bombers might land in Vladivostok, shortening the flight by on the basis of turning over the B-25s as Lend-Lease.〔Glines 1998, p. 27.〕 Negotiations with the Soviet Union for permission, which had signed a neutrality pact with Japan in April 1941, were fruitless.〔 Bombers attacking defended targets often relied on a fighter escort to defend them from enemy fighters; not only did Doolittle's aircraft lack a full complement of guns to save weight, but it was not possible for fighters to accompany them. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Doolittle Raid」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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