B-25 “Mitchell”
A North American B-25 “Mitchell” today at Cable Air Show in Upland, CA. The B-25 was manufactured by North American Aviation and was a twin engine medium range bomber used in every operational theater of World War II by the Allies. The B-25 was named in honor of General Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation.
The B-25 first gained fame as the bomber used in the April 18, 1942 Doolittle Raid, in which 16 B-25Bs, led by the legendary Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, took off from the carrier USS Hornet and successfully bombed Tokyo and four other Japanese cities without loss. However, 15 subsequently crash-landed en route to recovery fields in Eastern China. These losses were the result of the task force being spotted by Japanese fishing vessels forcing the bombers to take off 170 miles (270 km) early, fuel exhaustion, stormy nighttime conditions with zero visibility, and lack of electronic homing aids at the recovery bases. Only one landed intact; it came down in the Soviet Union, where its five-man crew was interned and the aircraft confiscated. Of the 80 aircrew, 69 survived their historic mission and eventually made it back to American lines.
