Two of the Doolittle Raiders, Bill Bower and Dick Cole. Bower piloted the 12th B-25 bomber off the deck of the USS Hornet. Cole was Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s Co-Pilot, and was the last surviving raider. Together, they discuss the famous mission that lifted America’s morale a few months after Pearl Harbor.
Jimmy Doolittle’s son John Doolittle and Granddaughter Jonna Doolittle Hoppes talk about how the flawed depiction of Doolittle in the movie “Pearl Harbor” led to her writing a biography of the famed aviator, focusing on the man as they knew him.
Doolittle Raiders
Lou Eckland was a bombardier on B-24’s in the China-Burma-India theater, where, late in World War II, he and other bombers in his unit experimented with one of the first attempts at a smart bomb. The “Azon Bomb” was a radio guided bomb used against bridges in Japanese occupied Southeast Asia.
Lou Eckland
Flying long-range missions to China could get boring for bomber crews without listening to Tokyo Rose. Paul McDowell notes that not only was she accurate in predicting their targets but she also broke a major news story.
Paul McDowell
Flying over the high mountains in the China-Burma-India Theater presented challenges for pilots. C-46 pilot Stan Miller describes how flying at high altitudes would affect the crews transporting vital cargo over some of the world’s toughest terrain.
Stan Miller
Before pilots could launch missions, an accurate weather report was essential to their safety and mission success. Air Corps
meteorologist Dick Newell tells how the weather affected pilots around his bases in New Guinea and Darwin, Australia.
Dick Newell
Joining his P-38 squadron in the late stages of the Pacific War, Saul Nova had a memorable experience upon the war’s end when he flew into a Japanese airfield soon after the surrender.
Saul Nova
B-29 pilot Bill Reynolds describes the varying accounts he and his crew have come up with while discussing their war experiences at reunions decades after they happened.
Bill Reynolds
Tony Romeo was part of a small and unusual squadron of bomber pilots in the Pacific Theater, flying alone on missions looking for naval targets of opportunity. He tells about how his unit’s tactics differed from the way most heavy bombers operated.
Tony Romeo
Flying cargo missions in the C-47 in the China-Burma-India theater often required taking off and landing from crude jungle airstrips far shorter than the planes were supposed to use. Monroe Withers tells what pilots had to do to deal with such short airfields.