On April 18, 1942, sixteen U.S. Army B-25 Mitchell bombers led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle lifted off from the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8) and flew 650 miles to bomb Tokyo and four other Japanese cities — the first attack on the Japanese home islands. President Roosevelt, when pressed by the press for the raiders’ origin, quipped that they had flown from “Shangri-La.” The true launch platform was classified: revealing that Army bombers had taken off from a Navy carrier in open ocean would have exposed both the carrier and the method. The secret held until after Hornet was sunk at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands on October 26, 1942. With the ship lost, there was no further operational reason to conceal her role. The May 1943 All Hands published this one-page announcement formally revealing that it was Hornet that had carried Doolittle’s raiders to within striking distance of Japan.
Click to enlarge
