Cincinnati's Doolittle Raider at War

Queen City Heritage Thomas C. Griffin, a resident of Cincinnati for over forty years, participated in the first bombing raid on Japan in World War II, the now legendary Doolittle raid. (CHS Photograph Collection) Winter 1992 Navigating from Shangri-La Navigating from Shangri- La: Cincinnati's Doolittle Raider at War Kevin C. McHugh served as Cincinnati's oral historian for "one of America's biggest gambles"5 of World War II, the now legendary Doolittle Raid on Japan. A soft-spoken man, Mr. Griffin Over a half century ago on April 18, 1942, characteristically downplays his part in the first bombing the Cincinnati Enquirer reported: "Washington, April 18 raid on Japan: "[It] just caught the fancy of the American — (AP) — The War and Navy Departments had no confir- people. A lot of people had a lot worse assignments."6 mation immediately on the Japanese announcement of the Nevertheless, he has shared his wartime experiences with bombing of Tokyo."1 Questions had been raised when Cincinnati and the country, both in speaking engagements Tokyo radio, monitored by UPI in San Francisco, had sud- and in print. In 1962 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary denly gone off the air and then had interrupted program- of the historic mission, the Cincinnati Enquirer highlight- ming for a news "flash": ed Mr. Griffin's recollections in an article that began, Enemy bombers appeared over Tokyo for the "Bomber Strike from Carrier Recalled."7 For the fiftieth first time since the outbreak of the current war of Greater anniversary in 1992, the Cincinnati Post shared his adven- East Asia. The bombing inflicted telling damages on schools ture in a full-page article entitled, "A Veteran Remembers and hospitals. The raid occurred several minutes past noon on ... 30 Seconds Over Tokyo."8 The Historical Society, Saturday. The invading planes failed to cause any damage to which has a taped interview with Mr. Griffin in its archives, military establishments? recently invited him to speak to museum-goers9 and spot- Reporters wanted information. But lighted his part in the raid with a display in the "Cincinnati Americans, starved for good news from the Pacific, seized Goes to War" exhibit. But Mr. Griffin's experiences in that the early reports, dismissed the enemy propaganda, and war include more than that single mission, no matter how celebrated their first significant victory in the war against memorable. They have particular value because they mirror Japan. The next day, in fact, newspapers all over the coun- the experiences of the generation who shaped the present, try fed the following naively optimistic headline to their a generation that diminishes in size as the anniversaries hungry readers: "Allied Offensive Indicated By U.S. Air climb in number. Those experiences also serve as a lens Attack On Japan."3 The euphoria of the day was under- through which a new generation of Cincinnatians can dis- standable. America was reeling from a series of defeats: cover that the history of some fifty years past is more than Pearl Harbor had been surprised, Wake Island and Guam just the events and dates of textbooks but the flesh and had fallen; in the Philippines, Bataan had just surrendered blood of real people like themselves. in the worst defeat of American military history, while sur- Thomas Griffin was born in Green Bay, vivors clung precariously to "The Rock," the little island Wisconsin, in 1916. He grew up there and then attended fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay. But the retaliatory the University of Alabama, graduating in 1939 with an A.B. bombing of Japan, the Doolittle Raid, as it came to be degree in political science and economics — and an ROTC called, changed all that. It had come, President Roosevelt commission as a second lieutenant in the United States later volunteered somewhat impishly, "from our secret Army because he saw that "war was coming." By 1939 base in Shangri-La" (the fictional Utopia of James Hilton's Hider had seized Czechoslovakia and turned up the propa- Lost Horizons)} The daring attack caught the imagination ganda blitz that preceded the real blitzkrieg invasion of of the American people and made them feel less impotent. Poland. Lt. Griffin — serial number 0377848, he remem- Cincinnatians knew that history had been made. One wit- bers without hesitation10 — first served with the anti-air- nessed it first-hand. craft batteries of the 61st Coast Artillery. He soon volun- Since his arrival in Cincinnati over forty years teered for the air corps, however, because he "didn't want ago, Bridgetown resident Thomas Carson Griffin has to be standing on the ground shooting up." Griffin's apti- Kevin C. McHugh, a fellow of the Ohio Writing Project and English department chairman at Finneytown Jr./Sr. High School in Cincinnati, has an M.A. in English from the University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada. Queen City Heritage tude for mathematics steered him to navigator's school, Northwest" — often at dubious risk to themselves due to which the Army conducted in Coral Gables, Florida, in the the area's treacherous weather, especially the fog. During "flying classrooms" of Pan American Airways' Commodore one such dangerous anti-submarine patrol just twenty-five flying boats. By 1941 Lt. Griffin had been stationed with miles off the mouth of the Columbia River, on Christmas the 17th Bombardment Group at Camp Pendleton, Eve 1941, Holstrom and the crew of his B-25 are credited Oregon. At that time the air corps had begun replacing with destroying a Japanese submarine, the first of the that unit's lumbering, twin-engined B-18 Bolero Bombers Pacific war to be sunk by an American aircraft.12 (military derivatives of the once revolutionary DC-2 airlin- About the same time as Lt. Griffin's unit er) with the faster, twin-engined, twin-ruddered B-25B underwent its first engagement with the enemy, President Mitchell bomber.11 This changeover, in fact, proved crucial Roosevelt was urging the soonest possible retaliation to Griffin's participation in the first and most famous of his against Japan, a bombing attack against the Japanese home many World War II exploits. islands, to boost American and Allied morale. He pressed Because the Japanese attack of December 7, his recommendation in the following weeks, particularly in 1941, had left much of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet resting light of repeated Allied disasters in the Pacific theater.13 At in the mud of Pearl Harbor, near-panic swept the West that time, only the navy had the capability of carrying out Coast. "There was simply no capability, no air defense and, such attack. To do so, however, would put at risk the with the exception of a few National Guard companies, no American aircraft carriers that had narrowly avoided ground defense," recalls fellow Tokyo Raider and 17th destruction at Pearl Harbor. (America had four carriers in Group pilot, "Brick" Holstrom. "An enemy carrier force the Pacific at that time; the Japanese had ten.) Bringing could have bombed [the U.S.] at will . ..." As a result, those vessels within their aircrafts' limited 300-mile range the 17th, the "only combat-ready medium bomb group in would put them within striking distance of the Japanese the country," and the only fully B-25 equipped unit, was home fleet, as well as land-based aircraft — which had ear- ordered "to protect the shipping and coastline of the lier proved their effectiveness by sinking the British battle- Griffin joined the ROTC while is fourth from the right; attending the University of Thomas C. Griffin Collection) Alabama because he saw that "war was coming." As a ROTC cadet he learned to load anti-aircraft guns. (Griffin helping load the gun Winter 1992 Navigating from Shangri-La ships Repulse and Prince of Wales in the Gulf of Siam on carrier deck before. And no one had ever lifted a fully- December 10. Only army bombers had the range to reach gassed, fully armed B-25 from one either.18 That the man- Japan while leaving the naval forces sufficiently distant to ufacturer's specifications called for a minimum of 1,200 feet avoid probable detection and destruction. The only of runway provided little comfort. Unlike airfields, howev- bomber with the capability and dimensions making it theo- er, carriers could be turned into the wind. This, planners retically suitable for a carrier takeoff was the B-25B — hoped, plus the ship's forward movement, would provide though it had never been done before. The challenge thus the necessary lift to get the heavily loaded planes airborne. fell to the 17th Bombardment Group and Thomas Griffin. To complicate matters even further, however, the Hornet's "They asked us to do something," said flight deck was narrower than the nearly sixty-eight foot Griffin who described how the air corps called for volun- wingspan of the B-25.19 To avoid collision with the ship's teers from the 17th for what planners would only describe island (its "control tower"), pilots would have to take off as an "extremely hazardous mission."14 "Air corps crews with their left wing hanging over the edge of the ship, the were needed . ," Griffin remarked matter-of-factly. left landing gear and nose wheel following white lines "Why were we there? Why were we trained?" By February painted on the deck.20 Nevertheless, Col. Doolittle 27, 1942, twenty-four crews began arriving at Eglin Field, resolved to add the sixteenth plane to the complement. Florida, for special training. There, in the first week in "Of course, Doolittle [intended to take] the first plane off, March, navigator Tom Griffin and the others met their and that made us all very .

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