Led by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, sixteen B-25 bombers took off from the carrier USS Hornet in a mission considered nearly suicidal given the aircraft's limited range. The raid caused modest physical damage but delivered a profound psychological blow to Japan and boosted American morale after Pearl Harbor. Most crews crash-landed or bailed out over China, and several were captured and executed by Japanese forces.
Four months after Pearl Harbor, American military leaders desperately needed a way to strike back at Japan and prove the war was not already lost. The plan they devised was audacious: modify Army B-25 bombers, normally land-based aircraft, to launch from a Navy carrier deck, something never before attempted with medium bombers, and fly over a thousand miles to bomb Tokyo before continuing on to airfields in China.
Jimmy Doolittle personally led the mission, launching earlier than planned after the task force was spotted by a Japanese vessel, which meant the bombers would run desperately short of fuel. All sixteen planes reached Japan and dropped their bombs on Tokyo, Yokohama, and other targets, causing limited damage but stunning a Japanese public that had been told their home islands were untouchable.
With fuel exhausted, nearly every crew crash-landed or parachuted into China, aided by Chinese villagers and soldiers, an act of kindness for which Japanese forces later massacred an estimated 250,000 Chinese civilians in reprisal. Eight airmen were captured; three were executed. Doolittle, believing the mission a failure, was stunned to learn he'd been awarded the Medal of Honor and promoted two ranks.