Five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt and
military leaders decided to boost American morale by undertaking a
daring offensive against Japan.
- Forced to launch early from the aircraft carrier Hornet after being
spotted by Japanese fishing boats, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle and his 16
B-25 bombers flew to their targets.
- But the early launch forced 15 crews to bail out or ditch their
aircraft instead of landing in China as intended.
- What was supposed to be "thirty seconds over Tokyo" became an odyssey
of escape for some crewmembers that lasted fourteen months and cost
the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese patriots.
- Author Carroll Glines tells the story of Doolittle's raiders; their
bold bombing mission; their long struggle to escape their pursuers
through China, and how the raid altered Japanese thinking about the
security of their home islands and induced them to withdraw forces
from the perimeter of their far-flung empire.
Giles personally interviewed most of Doolittle's surviving raiders to
produce this dramatic and authentic story.