North American B-25 Mitchell
The aircraft that launched Doolittle's raiders off a carrier.
The B-25 was a superb medium bomber — rugged, fast for its class, and adaptable. It is best remembered for the Doolittle Raid of April 1942, in which sixteen Mitchells launched from USS Hornet to strike Tokyo, a seemingly impossible operation that gave a wavering America its first morale boost of the war.
01Following Pearl Harbor, Lt. Col. James Doolittle led sixteen modified B-25Bs off the carrier USS Hornet — a feat never before attempted with medium bombers. They bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities and then crashed or landed in China. Material damage was light, but the psychological impact on both sides was enormous.
02In the South-West Pacific, Maj. Paul "Pappy" Gunn converted B-25s into tree-top strafers with batteries of forward-firing .50 calibre machine guns. These skip-bombed Japanese shipping and shredded airfields from fifty feet.
03The B-25H carried an enormous 75 mm cannon in the nose — one of the largest weapons ever mounted in a production aircraft — primarily for anti-shipping work. Mitchells served in every theatre; their name honoured Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell, the prophet of American airpower.
Theatres of operation
- ·Pacific
- ·Western Europe
- ·Mediterranean
- ·China-Burma-India
Principal operators
- ·USAAF
- ·RAF
- ·Soviet VVS
- ·Netherlands East Indies
- ·Chinese Nationalist AF
Others in the same fight.
Avro Lancaster
B.I / B.III / B.X
North American P-51 Mustang
P-51B / C / D / K
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47C / D / M / N
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
P-38F / G / H / J / L