Friday, April 1, 2011

Doolittle Raiders in Chico 69 Years Ago This Week

From the March 30th Chico (Ca) Enterprise-Record.

The first US offensive punch in World War II came five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 medium bombers took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and flew to Japan and dropped their bombs doing minimum damage but having a significant impact on both the morale of America and Japan.

After extensive training at Eglin Air base in Florida, the planes were flown to Sacramento, California, before going to San Francisco to be loaded onto the Hornet.

Bob Fish, a trustee of the Hornet Museum in Almeda, Ca., found records that show the planes flew from Sacramento to Willow Airfield by Chico for final mechanical checks and short field practice flights in the days before putting to sea. After all, they couldn't do this on board the ship.

Not much mention is made of this in history books.

Something I Didn't Know. --Cooter

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