The Doolittle Raid

The History and Legacy of the First American Attack on Tokyo During World War II

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Robert Slone

Length: 1 hr and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

"The Japanese people had been told they were invulnerable... An attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders. There was a second, and equally important, psychological reason for this attack ... Americans badly needed a morale boost." (Jimmy Doolittle)

All Americans are familiar with the "day that will live in infamy." At 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, the advanced base of the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet, was ablaze. It had been smashed by aircraft launched by the carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. All eight battleships had been sunk or badly damaged, 350 aircraft had been knocked out, and over 2,000 Americans lay dead. Indelible images of the USS Arizona exploding and the USS Oklahoma capsizing and floating upside down have been ingrained in the American conscience ever since. In less than an hour and a half the Japanese had almost wiped out America's entire naval presence in the Pacific.

The Americans would turn the war in the Pacific around in the middle of 1942, but in the wake of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, the country was in desperate need of a morale boost, and it would come in the form of the Doolittle Raid. In part to show that the Japanese were not invincible, and in part to reassure the American public that the nation would not lose the war, the Doolittle Raid included both Army and Navy units that launched 16 land-based medium bombers from an aircraft carrier, a feat that was the first of its kind but also one involving a great deal of risk.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Nice highlight of Doolittle

I wouldn't call this an in-depth book on Doolittle and even the raid itself glosses over some of the details I've learned about through other books. But for an hour and twenty seven minutes, it's a good quick read.

poorly done . do not waste your time.

First you must know that I am an honorary Raider and have worked directly with the Doolittle Raiders for 25 years. This work is more a work of fiction. in the first 5 minutes, I was appalled with the multiple factual errors... after 15 minutes I was totally disgusted with the Amateurish writing and factual errors from poor research. I have seen middle school history student projects better than this. DO NOT waste your time or money with this book.