The raiders

The Doolittle Raid is usually told as the story of 16 bombers launching from an aircraft carrier to strike Japan after Pearl Harbor. This chapter follows the people, the training, and the secrecy, and the connection to a small airport in Willows.

Why the raid happened

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered World War II facing setbacks across the Pacific. President Franklin Roosevelt wanted a direct strike on the Japanese homeland, to show that Japan could be reached and to lift American morale. The problem was distance. No nearby airfield let medium bombers reach Japan and return.

In January 1942, Navy Captain Francis Low watched Army bombers practice approaches over the outline of a carrier painted on an airfield. He saw that a land-based bomber might be able to take off from a carrier, even if it could not land on one. The plan that grew from that was to launch Army B-25 Mitchell bombers from the USS Hornet, strike targets in Japan, and fly on to airfields in China.

General Henry “Hap” Arnold picked Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle to lead it. The mission was highly secret. The crews were told they were volunteering for a dangerous assignment of major importance, and most details were held back until they were inside the operation.

Learning to take off from a carrier

Lt. Henry L. Miller, a Navy flight instructor at Ellyson Field near Pensacola, Florida, had flown from carriers, which was the experience the Army pilots needed. A B-25 normally needed a long runway, and the Hornet would give them less than 500 feet of deck. On February 28, 1942, Miller was ordered to Eglin Field on temporary duty, and once he arrived he learned what the training was for.

Miller was born in Alaska, graduated from the Naval Academy, where he was an accomplished boxer, and began his career on the battleship USS Texas. A chance flight physical turned him toward aviation, and he was designated a naval aviator in 1938. He flew from carriers and was then assigned as an instructor at Ellyson Field, one of the training fields around Naval Air Station Pensacola. When Pearl Harbor was attacked he was still there, and he wanted to return to a fighter squadron. A trip to the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington to ask for one got him nowhere. Instead came the orders to Eglin. He flew there in an old SBU biplane, and the Army colonel in charge had not been told a Navy pilot was coming. When Miller asked about “Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle’s detachment,” the colonel lowered his voice and closed the door.

Miller helped the crews build a short-takeoff routine they could repeat under pressure. Over about three weeks at Eglin and its auxiliary fields, they practiced:

• Carrier-style short takeoffs, with full engine power applied before the brakes were released
• Low-level flying and bombing
• Night flying and navigation over water, without the usual landmarks and radio aids
• Gunnery and evasive maneuvers
• Long-range flight planning, since the bombers could not return to the carrier

Miller had never seen a B-25 before Eglin. He learned it from the copilot’s seat, then adapted the carrier method to it. In a carrier takeoff the pilot holds the brakes, brings the engines to full power, and only then lets go. For the B-25 he suggested about half flaps, the tail stabilizer set well back, and full power held a little longer before the brakes came off. The Army pilots were used to leaving the runway near 110 mph. In Miller’s demonstrations the bomber was airborne at roughly 65 to 70 mph, and the pilots told him it was impossible. Pilots were checked out at light, intermediate and maximum loads. The raid load, about 31,000 pounds, was some 2,000 pounds over the B-25’s design maximum.

Not every takeoff went well. On March 23, 1942, Lt. Bates stalled on takeoff and belly-landed his B-25. No one was killed, and Miller was aboard. Miller blamed the pilot for not applying full throttle, not the technique or the airplane. Later, when the crews were ranked at Sacramento and Willows, Miller explained Bates’s mistakes to Doolittle’s staff, and Bates was left off the raid.

Miller later became an honorary member of the Doolittle Raiders. He offered to fly an extra B-25 aboard the Hornet and launch it about 100 miles out, then deliver it back, and so he went with the task force. He sailed on the Hornet and helped some crews man their planes before watching the launch.

Changing the bombers

The B-25Bs were stripped and reworked for a job they were never built for. Most of the work was done at Eglin, with more at McClellan Field in Sacramento:

• Fuel. The 265-gallon bomb bay tank leaked. A rubber bladder fixed the leak but cut its capacity to about 225 gallons. At McClellan a 60-gallon rubber bag was added and new covers were fitted over the larger extra tank.
• Lower gun turret. It was so hard to aim that it was taken out at Eglin.
• Guns. Most had never been fired. The .50 caliber guns were taken apart and rebuilt, and blast plates were added because firing near the fuselage popped rivets.
• Bombsight. The Norden sight was accurate at altitude but no use on low, fast runs, so it was replaced. Lt. Ross Greening built a simple one from two pieces of aluminum, nicknamed the “Mark Twain” sight.
• Propellers. Old, pitted propellers cost performance, and new ones can add as much as 55 mph of airspeed. Replacements were shipped to McClellan and fitted to every plane.
• De-icers. Boots were fitted in case the weather at the landing end required them.
• Radios and cameras. Liaison radios and trailing antennas came out for radio silence, and cameras went in, still cameras in six aircraft and movie cameras in the others.

The carburetor problem

The change that mattered most may have been the carburetors. At Eglin a Bendix carburetor expert adjusted them for the best fuel economy, which the long flight to China depended on. When the planes reached McClellan, Doolittle ordered that nothing be altered and that no carburetor settings be touched. He then found a depot mechanic adjusting them anyway. The mechanic, who knew nothing about the mission, said they were all out of adjustment. That is the argument that sent Doolittle looking for a quiet place to retest the airplanes.

Why Willows

By late March 1942 the surviving B-25s had flown from Eglin to McClellan Field in Sacramento for inspections and final preparation. As each aircraft came out of the depot, Miller took it and its crew to Willows for more takeoff practice.

There was another reason for the stop. The bombers’ carburetors had been altered to let them fly the long distance the mission required, but the depot mechanics, who knew nothing of the secret mission, set them back to the factory recommendations. Doolittle ordered the settings redone and wanted the planes tested again. Accounts differ on how much was repaired: one history says there was no time to fix all of it before departure. Short-field takeoffs could not be flown in front of hundreds of workers at McClellan, so the testing was arranged at the quiet Willows airport.

Willows also had a personal link to the man in charge. Jimmy Doolittle and Floyd “Speed” Nolta met at Rockwell Field in Coronado in the winter of 1918–19, when Doolittle was an instructor pilot and Nolta was an Army mechanic. Family recollections say Doolittle gave Nolta his first airplane ride. They stayed friends for life, and after the war Doolittle came back to the Willows area again and again to hunt birds with Floyd, who later managed the airport. Read Floyd Nolta’s story in The farmers.

Historians are careful here. The friendship and Doolittle’s familiarity with Willows are well documented, and they helped bring the crews here, but the record does not prove that he chose the airport for that reason alone. What the crews needed was a place to practice short takeoffs without drawing attention to the mission.

March 30 and 31, 1942

In a 1971 oral history, Miller remembered taking crews to Willows for takeoff lessons. His later-discovered notes and temporary-duty report name five crews that practiced here. All 16 crews trained at Eglin, so these five are the ones documented as getting extra practice at Willows.

March 30: Crew 3

Robert M. Gray, in “Whisky Pete,” bound for Tokyo. Crew: Jacob E. Manch, Charles J. Ozuk Jr., Aden E. Jones, and Leland D. Faktor. They bailed out over China. Faktor died after falling down a cliff following his parachute landing, and the other four survived.

March 30: Crew 7

Ted W. Lawson, in “The Ruptured Duck,” bound for Tokyo. Crew: Dean Davenport, Charles L. McClure, Robert S. Clever, and David J. Thatcher. They crash-landed near the Chinese coast and all survived. Lawson was badly injured and lost a leg. He later wrote Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.

March 31: Crew 1

Jimmy Doolittle, bound for Tokyo. Crew: Richard E. Cole, Henry A. Potter, Fred A. Braemer, and Paul J. Leonard. They bailed out over China in bad weather and survived with help from Chinese civilians. Leonard died in North Africa in January 1943.

March 31: Crew 4

Everett W. Holstrom, bound for Tokyo. Crew: Lucian N. Youngblood, Harry C. McCool, Robert J. Stephens, and Bert M. Jordan. They abandoned the aircraft over China and survived.

March 31: Crew 14

John A. Hilger, bound for Nagoya. Crew: Jack A. Sims, James H. Macia Jr., Jacob Eierman, and Edwin V. Bain. They abandoned the aircraft over China and survived.

The B-25s were loud, and residents could hear them and watch them take off over the rice fields, but the mission stayed secret. Historical accounts say the sheriff blocked access to the airport during the practice sessions.

Doolittle was in the Bay Area on March 30 for meetings with senior Navy officers. Miller later recalled him saying they would finish at Willows before flying to Alameda and boarding the carrier.

The airplanes

The aircraft were North American B-25B Mitchell medium bombers. Twenty-four were prepared for the project, 22 flew from Florida to California, and 16 were loaded aboard the Hornet. They were modified for a mission they were not expected to return from:

• Extra fuel tanks and containers extended their range.
• Equipment judged nonessential was removed to save weight.
• Capt. C. Ross Greening helped develop a cheap, simple bombsight to replace the Norden, which was poorly suited to low-altitude bombing.
• Crews drilled on precise flap, trim, power, and brake settings for short takeoffs.
• Some aircraft carried fake gun barrels in the rear to look more heavily armed.

The bombers could not land back on the Hornet. For the aircraft it was a one-way trip, and the crews hoped to reach friendly territory in China after the attack.

To the Hornet and across the Pacific

After final preparation in Sacramento and at Willows, the B-25s flew to Naval Air Station Alameda near San Francisco. Each crew was told to spend at least an hour in the air testing its airplane before loading, and at least two could not resist the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Capt. Edward York and 2nd Lt. Dean Davenport each flew their B-25 under it. The Navy loaded all 16 aboard the Hornet on March 31 and April 1, 1942. They stayed on the flight deck while the carrier’s regular aircraft were stowed below. The Hornet left Alameda on April 2 and joined the carrier Enterprise and its escorts, and the task force crossed the Pacific under radio silence.

The planned launch point was 400 to 500 miles from Japan. On April 18 the task force met Japanese picket vessels earlier than expected, and the Americans feared their position had been reported. Admiral William Halsey ordered the bombers launched about 170 miles farther out than planned, which meant a longer flight to China on limited fuel. Doolittle’s B-25 went first, and the other 15 followed over the next hour. All 16 launched from the short, pitching deck.

The bombers struck military and industrial targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya, and Kobe. The physical damage was limited, but the raid showed that Japan’s home islands could be hit, lifted American morale after Pearl Harbor, and influenced Japanese planning before the Battle of Midway.

All 80 Raiders and what became of them

Each of the 16 crews had five men. The crews that practiced short takeoffs at Willows are highlighted in yellow. Life dates are shown for each man.

Willows crews:

• Crew 1, Jimmy Doolittle
• Crew 3, Robert M. Gray
• Crew 4, Everett W. Holstrom
• Crew 7, Ted W. Lawson
• Crew 14, John A. Hilger

Of those 25 men, five died by the end of 1943: Gray, Faktor, Leonard, Clever, and Bain. Doolittle lived to 1993, and Dick Cole, his co-pilot, became the last surviving Raider when he died in 2019.

Crew 1: Jimmy Doolittle Practiced at Willows

Aircraft: 40-2344 · Target: Tokyo

Bailed out over China in bad weather. All five survived the raid.

Doolittle’s was the first plane off the Hornet, at 8:20 a.m. ship time, carrying four incendiary clusters for Tokyo. They hit the capital about midday and reached the Chinese coast after dark, in fog, with no beacon or flares to guide them and fuel running out. Over Zhejiang Province they bailed out in the order Braemer, Potter, Leonard, Cole, and Doolittle last, after setting the plane on autopilot. Doolittle reported that “very unfavorable weather conditions forced the crew to abandon the aircraft.” Chinese resistance members guided them to free China, and they reached Chongqing between April 18 and 25.

• James H. Doolittle Lieutenant Colonel · Pilot 1896–1993
• Richard E. Cole Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1915–2019 The last surviving Raider.
• Henry A. Potter Lieutenant · Navigator 1918–2002
• Fred A. Braemer Sergeant · Bombardier 1918–1989
• Paul J. Leonard Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1912–1943 Killed in action January 5, 1943, at Youks-les-Bains, Algeria. Reburied in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Crew 2: Travis Hoover

Aircraft: 40-2292 · Target: Tokyo

Belly-landed in a rice paddy near Ningbo. All five survived.

Hoover’s plane took off second, at 8:25 a.m. ship time. Lt. Richard Miller released the bombs by hand from about 900 feet, well below the planned 1,500, and the crew bombed before Doolittle did. After dark over China the left engine began to sputter, and Hoover chose to land wheels down in a rice paddy rather than bail out. No one was hurt. The crew burned the plane, walked for three days, was found by Chinese resistance members, and reached Chongqing on May 14.

• Travis Hoover Lieutenant · Pilot 1917–2004
• William N. Fitzhugh Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1915–1981
• Carl R. Wildner Lieutenant · Navigator 1915–1994
• Richard E. Miller Lieutenant · Bombardier 1916–1943 Killed in action January 22, 1943, in a bombing raid in North Africa. Reburied in Killeen, Texas.
• Douglas V. Radney Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1917–1994

Crew 3: Robert M. Gray Practiced at Willows

Aircraft: Whisky Pete, 40-2270 · Target: Tokyo

Bailed out over the mountains of China. Faktor died after a fall from a cliff, and the other four survived.

The third plane off, at 8:30 a.m. ship time, Gray’s bomber carried the name “Whisky Pete.” After the raid the crew recognized China by its lighted houses, dropped flares looking for a place to land, and with fuel gone bailed out over Suichang County, Zhejiang Province, the night of April 18. Several were injured. Faktor was killed in the fall when his parachute only partly opened. The others were guided by the Chinese resistance to Chongqing between April 18 and 25.

• Robert M. Gray Lieutenant · Pilot 1919–1942 Killed October 28, 1942, when his plane crashed after an engine failure in Assam, India. Reburied in Killeen, Texas, in 1951.
• Jacob E. Manch Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1918–1958
• Charles J. Ozuk Jr. Lieutenant · Navigator 1916–2010
• Aden E. Jones Sergeant · Bombardier 1920–1983
• Leland D. Faktor Corporal · Engineer-gunner 1922–1942 Killed after bailing out over China. The first Raider to die. Villagers hid his grave from Japanese troops, and after the war he was reburied in Mason City, Iowa.

Crew 4: Everett W. Holstrom Practiced at Willows

Aircraft: 40-2282 · Target: Tokyo

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Fourth off, at 8:33 a.m. ship time. The rear turret failed in a test after takeoff, and near Japan the plane was reportedly attacked by four fighters with only its forward gun to answer them. Holstrom dropped his bombs over Sagami Bay and turned for China. A strong tailwind carried them to the mainland, where they bailed out at about 9:50 p.m. with no injuries. Chinese resistance members picked them up, and they reached Chongqing between April 25 and 30.

• Everett W. Holstrom Lieutenant · Pilot 1916–2000
• Lucian N. Youngblood Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1918–1949
• Harry C. McCool Lieutenant · Navigator 1918–2003
• Robert J. Stephens Sergeant · Bombardier 1915–1959
• Bert M. Jordan Corporal · Engineer-gunner 1919–2001

Crew 5: Davey Jones

Aircraft: 40-2283 · Target: Tokyo

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Fifth off, at 8:37 a.m. ship time, Jones’s crew bombed Kawasaki at 12:40 p.m. local time. Crossing the East China Sea, Jones flew on instruments through a storm and, believing he was over land, ordered the crew out at about 9:55 p.m. in heavy rain. No one was injured. Chinese resistance members guided the crew to free China, and they reached Chongqing between April 18 and 25.

• David M. Jones Captain · Pilot 1913–2008
• Rodney R. Wilder Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1917–1964
• Eugene F. McGurl Lieutenant · Navigator 1917–1942 Died in 1942, in later wartime service.
• Denver V. Truelove Lieutenant · Bombardier 1919–1943 Died in 1943, in later wartime service.
• Joseph W. Manske Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1921–1998

Crew 6: Dean E. Hallmark

Aircraft: The Green Hornet, 40-2298 · Target: Tokyo

Ditched off the China coast. Dieter and Fitzmaurice drowned. Hallmark, Meder, and Nielsen were captured by Japanese forces.

Sixth off, at 8:40 a.m. ship time, Hallmark’s crew bombed Kawasaki at 12:40 p.m. local time and set out over the East China Sea. At about 9:55 p.m. the plane came down in the sea off the Chinese coast. Dieter and Fitzmaurice drowned. The three officers swam ashore, buried their comrades on a slope above the beach, and were captured near Ningbo after a local man betrayed them. Hallmark was executed in October 1942, Meder died in captivity in December 1943, and Nielsen survived to be freed in 1945.

• Dean E. Hallmark Lieutenant · Pilot 1914–1942 Captured. Executed October 15, 1942. His ashes were found in Shanghai after the war and reburied at Arlington.
• Robert J. Meder Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1917–1943 Captured. Died in captivity in December 1943.
• Chase J. Nielsen Lieutenant · Navigator 1917–2007 Captured. Freed in 1945.
• William J. Dieter Sergeant · Bombardier 1912–1942 Drowned when the aircraft ditched.
• Donald E. Fitzmaurice Corporal · Engineer-gunner 1919–1942 Drowned when the aircraft ditched.

Crew 7: Ted W. Lawson Practiced at Willows

Aircraft: The Ruptured Duck, 40-2261 · Target: Tokyo

Crash-landed in the surf off the Chinese coast. All five survived, four badly injured, and Lawson lost a leg.

Seventh off, at 8:43 a.m. ship time, the “Ruptured Duck” bombed Kawasaki at 12:40 p.m. local time. After about 15 hours in the air the crew tried to land on a beach in Zhejiang Province and the plane flipped. Three men were thrown through the navigator’s window, and four of the five were badly hurt. Sgt. Thatcher is credited with saving them. Chinese villagers carried the injured to Linhai, where Lt. Thomas White, the doctor from Crew 15, found them and amputated Lawson’s leg. The crew never reached Chongqing. They were guided to Guilin and returned to the United States, and Lawson was at Walter Reed Hospital by July 25, 1942.

• Ted W. Lawson Lieutenant · Pilot 1917–1992 Lost a leg. Wrote Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.
• Dean Davenport Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1918–2000
• Charles L. McClure Lieutenant · Navigator 1916–1999
• Robert S. Clever Lieutenant · Bombardier 1914–1942 Killed November 20, 1942, in later wartime service. Buried in Portland, Oregon.
• David J. Thatcher Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1921–2016 Awarded the Silver Star for saving his crew after the crash.

Crew 8: Edward J. York

Aircraft: 40-2242 · Target: Tokyo

Landed near Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. The crew was interned for about 13 months before escaping to Persia.

Eighth off, at 8:46 a.m. ship time. Soon after takeoff the crew found the carburetors had been improperly adjusted, and the bomber was burning fuel too quickly to reach China. York turned north across Japan toward Russia, bombing along the way, and landed safely at an airfield near Vladivostok. It was the only one of the 16 bombers that did not crash. The Soviet Union was neutral toward Japan, so the crew was interned. About 13 months later they escaped to Persia and made their way back to the United States, and the Soviets kept the plane.

• Edward J. York Captain · Pilot 1912–1984
• Robert G. Emmens Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1914–1992
• Nolan A. Herndon Lieutenant · Navigator 1918–2007
• Theodore H. Laban Sergeant · Bombardier 1914–1978
• David W. Pohl Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1921–1999

Crew 9: Harold F. Watson

Aircraft: Whirling Dervish, 40-2303 · Target: Tokyo

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Ninth off, at 8:50 a.m. ship time, the “Whirling Dervish” bombed Tokyo’s Shinagawa district at 1:05 p.m. local time. On the way in the crew found a fuel leak in the space where the lower turret had been removed and put a fuel bag there instead. They had agreed on a plan to ditch near a small boat and sail it to China if they ran out of fuel at sea. In the end they bailed out over Jiangxi Province at about 10:30 p.m. Mountain people helped them, and they reached Chongqing in the first week of May.

• Harold F. Watson Lieutenant · Pilot 1916–1991 Hurt bailing out and could no longer walk. He was carried to Chongqing by rickshaw.
• James M. Parker Jr. Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1920–1991
• Thomas C. Griffin Lieutenant · Navigator 1916–2013
• Wayne M. Bissell Sergeant · Bombardier 1921–1997
• Eldred V. Scott Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1907–1978

Crew 10: Richard O. Joyce

Aircraft: 40-2250 · Target: Tokyo

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Tenth off, at 8:53 a.m. ship time. One account says nine Japanese fighters attacked during the bomb run and that this was the only Raider plane seriously hit over Tokyo, leaving a hole in the fuselage. The crew bailed out over Zhejiang Province at 9:40 p.m. in heavy rain and wind, carrying candy and chocolate, and landed near Crew 12. The Chinese resistance took them to free China, and they reached Chongqing in late April or early May.

• Richard O. Joyce Lieutenant · Pilot 1919–1983
• J. Royden Stork Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1916–2002
• Horace E. Crouch Lieutenant · Navigator and bombardier 1918–2005
• Edwin W. Horton Jr. Sergeant · Gunner 1916–2008
• George E. Larkin Jr. Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1918–1942 Killed October 18, 1942, in a bomber crash near Assam, India. Reburied in Honolulu.

Crew 11: C. Ross Greening

Aircraft: Hari Kari-er, 40-2249 · Target: Yokohama

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Eleventh off, at 8:56 a.m. ship time, the “Hari Kari-er” carried four incendiary clusters. The crew bailed out from about 10,000 feet over eastern China at about 10:05 p.m. Chinese resistance members took them through Anhui Province, and they reached Chongqing four days later. Bombers 1, 10, 11, and 12 all crashed near one another between Hangzhou and Quzhou.

• C. Ross Greening Captain · Pilot 1914–1957
• Kenneth E. Reddy Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1920–1942 Died in 1942, in later wartime service.
• Frank A. Kappeler Lieutenant · Navigator 1914–2010
• William L. Birch Sergeant · Bombardier 1917–2006
• Melvin J. Gardner Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1920–1942 Killed June 3, 1942, returning from a bombing mission to Lashio, Burma. His body was never found. He is named on the Tablets of the Missing in Manila and on a cenotaph in Taylor, Arizona.

Crew 12: William M. Bower

Aircraft: Fickle Finger, 40-2278 · Target: Yokohama

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Twelfth off, at 8:59 a.m. ship time. Barrage balloons kept Bower from his assigned targets near Yokohama, so he bombed Kawasaki at 1:45 p.m. local time. The crew bailed out over China at 11:25 p.m. The Chinese resistance brought them to safety, and they joined Crew 10 on the way to Chongqing.

• William M. Bower Lieutenant · Pilot 1917–2011
• Thadd H. Blanton Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1919–1961
• William R. Pound Jr. Lieutenant · Navigator 1918–1967
• Waldo J. Bither Sergeant · Bombardier 1906–1988
• Omer A. Duquette Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1916–1942 Broke his foot landing by parachute and was carried part of the way in a sedan chair. Died in 1942, in later wartime service.

Crew 13: Edgar E. McElroy

Aircraft: The Avenger, 40-2247 · Target: Yokosuka

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Thirteenth off, at 9:01 a.m. ship time, the “Avenger” bombed Yokosuka at 1:40 p.m. local time. The crew bailed out over Jiangxi Province at 10:45 p.m. and came down scattered. The pilot and co-pilot found each other about 1 a.m. and the others joined them through the next morning. At Poyang they were helped by the sisters of a mission station, and with Chinese help they reached Chongqing on April 23.

• Edgar E. McElroy Lieutenant · Pilot 1912–2003
• Richard A. Knobloch Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1918–2001
• Clayton J. Campbell Lieutenant · Navigator 1917–2002
• Robert C. Bourgeois Sergeant · Bombardier 1917–2001
• Adam R. Williams Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1919–1993 Sprained a knee bailing out.

Crew 14: John A. Hilger Practiced at Willows

Aircraft: 40-2297 · Target: Nagoya

Bailed out over China. All five survived.

Fourteenth off, at 9:07 a.m. ship time, Hilger’s plane carried four incendiary clusters. Over the East China Sea the crew met rain squalls and low cloud, went on instruments, and with about 40 gallons of fuel left ordered the bailout at about 10:30 p.m. The co-pilot jumped first and Hilger trimmed the plane for about 170 mph and went last. No one was seriously hurt. They reached Chongqing by the end of April.

• John A. Hilger Major · Pilot 1909–1982
• Jack A. Sims Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1919–2007
• James H. Macia Jr. Lieutenant · Navigator 1916–2009
• Edwin V. Bain Sergeant · Radio-gunner 1917–1943 Died in 1943, in later wartime service.
• Jacob Eierman Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1913–1994

Crew 15: Donald G. Smith

Aircraft: TNT, 40-2267 · Target: Kobe

Ditched off the China coast and reached shore in a raft. All five survived the raid.

Fifteenth off, at 9:15 a.m. ship time, the “TNT” carried four incendiary clusters. The plane came down in the sea off Zhejiang Province at about 10:25 p.m., and the crew paddled a raft to a beach. Japanese troops searched for them for days, but with local help they got through to free China and reached Chongqing between April 18 and 25. Lt. Thomas White, a flight surgeon who flew as a gunner, left the group on the way after hearing that Lawson of Crew 7 was badly hurt.

• Donald G. Smith Lieutenant · Pilot 1918–1942 Killed November 12, 1942, in a plane crash in England. Buried in Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
• Griffith P. Williams Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1920–1998
• Howard A. Sessler Lieutenant · Navigator and bombardier 1917–2001
• Thomas R. White, M.D. Lieutenant · Flight surgeon 1909–1992 A doctor. He left the crew to treat Lawson and amputated his leg.
• Edward J. Saylor Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1920–2015

Crew 16: William G. Farrow

Aircraft: Bat Out of Hell, 40-2268 · Target: Nagoya

Crash-landed near the China coast and were captured by Japanese forces. Farrow and Spatz were executed. Hite, Barr, and DeShazer survived imprisonment.

Sixteenth and last off the Hornet, at 9:19 a.m. ship time, 59 minutes after Doolittle. As the plane started its roll, a Navy sailor, Seaman Robert Wall, was holding it with a restraining line when the nose wheel jumped on a wave. He fell into the propeller and lost nearly his whole left arm. Wall survived and died in Poway, California, in 2002. After the raid, the crew bailed out near Nanchang in Japanese-held Jiangxi Province and was captured within hours. Farrow and Spatz were executed on October 15, 1942. Hite, Barr, and DeShazer survived imprisonment.

• William G. Farrow Lieutenant · Pilot 1918–1942 Captured. Executed October 15, 1942. Cremated, then reburied at Arlington.
• Robert L. Hite Lieutenant · Co-pilot 1920–2015 Captured. Freed in 1945.
• George Barr Lieutenant · Navigator 1917–1967 Captured. Freed in 1945.
• Jacob D. DeShazer Corporal · Bombardier 1912–2008 Captured. Freed in 1945.
• Harold A. Spatz Sergeant · Engineer-gunner 1921–1942 Captured. Executed October 15, 1942. Cremated, then reburied in Hawaii.

The cost

All 80 airmen launched, and none of the 16 B-25s returned to the carrier. Fifteen aircraft were lost over or near China, and one landed in the Soviet Union, where its crew was interned. Most crews reached safety with help from Chinese civilians and soldiers. Eight Raiders were captured by Japanese forces. Three were executed and one died in captivity. One other Raider was killed in a bailout, and two drowned when their aircraft ditched at sea.

Remembering the Raiders who did not come home

Of the 80 Raiders, 19 died during World War II.

• Three died in the raid itself. Cpl. Leland Faktor was killed after bailing out over China. Sgt. William Dieter and Cpl. Donald Fitzmaurice drowned when their aircraft ditched off the coast.
• Four died in Japanese hands. On October 15, 1942, Japanese forces executed three captured Raiders by firing squad at a cemetery outside Shanghai: Lt. Dean E. Hallmark (26), Lt. William G. Farrow (23), and Sgt. Harold A. Spatz (21). They had been told the day before. Lt. Robert Meder, Hallmark’s co-pilot, died in captivity in December 1943. The other four captured Raiders, Chase Nielsen, Robert Hite, George Barr, and Jacob DeShazer, were freed in 1945.
• Twelve died later in the war, ten of them in combat, while continuing to serve.

Their names are in the roster above, with the rest of the 80.

The people who sheltered and guided the Americans paid heavily. Japan retaliated against Chinese communities suspected of helping the Raiders, and historical estimates of civilian deaths in the affected region reach into the hundreds of thousands.

Some Raiders went back into combat and died later in the war. Others lived long lives and spent decades telling the story of the mission and their fallen comrades.

What Willows added

For Doolittle Day, this is the local story worth keeping: a small airport in Northern California, a trusted friendship between two aviation men, a Navy instructor from Pensacola, and five bomber crews finishing their preparation before one of the most extraordinary missions of World War II. The Raiders did not launch from Willows. They launched from the USS Hornet. But Willows was part of the journey that got them ready.

March 30–31, 2027 is the 85th anniversary of that training.

The airport’s role is documented in the Willows-Glenn County Airport National Register nomination and in research by Doolittle Raid historian Geert Rottiers. The crew rosters were checked against Children of the Doolittle Raiders, Northrop Grumman’s Meet the Raiders, and B-25History.org. Miller’s background comes from the U.S. Naval Institute’s oral history listing and the National Naval Aviation Museum’s Training the Doolittle Raiders; his takeoff method and the Bates episode from the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (April 2022); the aircraft changes from B-25History.org, and the Bay Bridge flights from its account of the raid. The crew narratives, takeoff times and 1942 ranks come from Doolittle Raid: The Crews, checked against the other rosters above; its accounts differ from others in places. The carburetor story comes from James M. Scott, Target Tokyo (W. W. Norton, 2015), p. 114. Also drawn from the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Training the Doolittle Raiders, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, and George Nolta’s family biography, Floyd “Speed” Nolta: An Aviation Pioneer, for the Doolittle and Nolta friendship.