Doolittle Raid Training video (VERY RARE) …

[Mark Allen M]

This rare original 16mm silent film was donated to the USS Hornet Museum by the Knobloch Family. It documents the Doolittle Raiders training in B-25's at Eglin Field in March of 1942 prior to embarking on the USS Hornet for the Raid on Tokyo.

https://youtu.be/b2zGF9FfIOo

[Steve Nelson]

Fantastic stuff! I hope that film gets some serious conservation and cleanup.

SN

[Ken]

At 1:12, appears to be 40-2344, the lead aircraft flown by Doolittle & Cole. The closing moment of the film appears to show 40-2245, a spare that did not go on the raid. It has been years since I dug into Doolittle serials, but I believe there is a source that lists the airplanes that were modified as spares but which did not make the final cut of 16 aircraft.

Ken

[Saville]

Was any wreckage of the ones that landed in China found and retrieved?

[lucky52]

Saville, I read a while back, maybe here, that someone went searching for parts and found a cockpit seat(or seats) or maybe it was the armor plate mounted on the seat back. I would imagine a lot of the parts were picked up by locals and sold for a little money. In my mind there still has to be quite a few of those planes that were never found. On this site a while back someone posted a picture of a B-25B fuselage found in a scrapyard in Japan. It was probably brought back from China for propaganda purposes.

[Richard W.]

While we're on the subject, the famous photo of Doolittle sitting by the wreck of his B-25 seems to indicate that the ship didn't burn (no fuel left) and was in big pieces if not still one piece.

Curious about the missing aileron fabric, though.

Attachments

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[mike furline]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66250

[Mark Allen M]

[Mark Allen M]

[Warbirdnerd]

Was any wreckage of the ones that landed in China found and retrieved?

Bryan Moon conducted a few trips and found crash sites and collected bits. He passed away in 2015 and his website is gone, but google turns up quite a bit on what he found...

[Mark Allen M]

kr

[Mark Allen M]

Some of the Doolittle Raiders' crew members are seen in front of an air raid shelter in Wang Village.


The descendants of the Doolittle Raiders taking a group photo at their original location from the year 2012.

[Mark Allen M]

Below is the Facebook page dedicated to the Raiders by the "Doolittle Raid Rescue Memorial"

https://www.facebook.com/DoolittleRaidR ... ial/photos

[DH82EH]

Thanks for posting Mark.
Hope you are well friend.

[lucky52]

I could swear there was another picture of that B-25B fuselage in that junk pile that showed the extended tail skid. Also, can anybody make out any numbers on the vertical stabilizer? From the original pictures I think the numbers would be even with the horizontal stabilizer.