80 years ago today, Jimmy Dolittle’s Raiders depart San Francisco, destination, Japan, for a joint USAAF/USN mission of payback for Pearl Harbor.
On 1 April 1942, the 16 modified bombers, their five-man crews, and Army maintenance personnel, totaling 71 officers and 130 enlisted men, were loaded onto the USS Hornet at Naval Air Station Alameda in California. Each aircraft carried four specially constructed 500-pound bombs. Three of these were high-explosive munitions and one was a bundle of incendiaries. The incendiaries were long tubes, wrapped together to be carried in the bomb bay, but designed to separate and scatter over a wide area after release. Five bombs had Japanese “friendship” medals wired to them—medals awarded by the Japanese government to U.S. servicemen before the war.
The bombers’ armament was reduced to increase range by decreasing weight. Each bomber launched with two .50-caliber machine guns in an upper turret and a .30-caliber machine gun in the nose. The aircraft were clustered closely and tied down on Hornet’s flight deck in the order of launch.
Hornet and Task Force 18 got underway from San Francisco Bay at 08:48 on 2 April with the 16 bombers in clear view.
Many in the TF did not know the five Radio Intelligence intercept operators from Wahiawa, Hawaii listed below were also embarked on this secret mission and that they would play a huge role in just a couple weeks!
LT Slonim, Japanese Language Officer
RM1C Howard Cain, Intercept Operator
RM1C Willie Wesper, Intercept Operator
RMC1 Roy Lehman, Intercept Operator
RMC2 Ray Rundle, Intercept Operator
3 April 2022 at 16:05
Thanks, Mario, for another great history lesson.
Jim King
CTOC Ret.
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3 April 2022 at 19:00
Thank you, Mario, for this post. Back in the 1990’s, my friend, the late Captain Harry B. Stark, told me a little about his USNA classmate, Captain Gilven M. Slonim. They were class of 1936. Some years previous to then, Captain Slonim had written an account he hoped to publish about communications intelligence in relation to Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway. The finished account was provided to NSA for review. To the best of my knowledge that manuscript was never returned to Captain Slonim. (Vice Admiral David C. Richardson was also in the USNA Class of 1936. He, Captain Stark and I discussed the 8-page handwritten letter that Admiral Richardson donated to the Navy that is now at Corry Station.) RADM Chester W. Nimitz, Jr., and Captain Thomas Kinkaid Kimmel were also classmates of Vice Admiral Richardson, and Captains Stark and Slonim.
Keep up the great work you do, Mario. Like Jim King above, I’m learning a great deal of history from you and the Station HYPO blog!
Andy McKane, 0859 (Hawaiian time), Sunday, 3 April 2022.
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