Nebraska History posts materials online for your personal use. Please remember that the contents of Nebraska History are copyrighted by the Nebraska State Historical Society (except for materials credited to other institutions). The NSHS retains its copyrights even to materials it posts on the web.

For permission to re-use materials or for photo ordering information, please see: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/magazine/permission.htm

Nebraska State Historical Society members receive four issues of Nebraska History and four issues of Nebraska History News annually. For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm

Article Title: “You Bet I was Scared”: A Doolittle Raider Remembers.

For more articles from this special World War II issue, see the index to full text articles currently available.

Full Citation: Richard O Joyce with Samuel Van Pelt, “You Bet I was Scared”: A Doolittle Raider Remembers, Nebraska State Historical Society,” Nebraska History 76 (1995): 54-65

Notes: Richard O Joyce of Lincoln provides his recollection of the circumstances surrounding the now-famous Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942.

URL of Article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/1995_War_01_Doolittle.pdf

Photos: Richard O Joyce, 1980; Joyce and crew of plane #40-2250, Stork, Crouch, Larkin, Horton; Doolittle and Hornet commander Mitscher with Joyce and others in background; Watercolor by William D Schlaebitz; B-25 taking off from the Hornet April 18, 1942; a group of Doolittle raiders in China, including Joyce and Lt Richard Knobloch; Donald Fitzmaurice and others; Toky Raiders with Doolittle at Florida reunion in 1947 By Richard O. Joyce with Samuel Van Pelt

Introduction of his day, was chosen to plan and lead Richard O. Joyce of Lincoln, Nebraska, the mission. had vivid memories of April 18, 1942. Joyce was a member of the Eighty­ On that day he was at the controls of a ninth Reconnaissance Squadron of the 8-25, dropping bombs on the capital of Seventeenth Bombardment Group, the Japanese Empire. Another of the whose crews were among the first to eighty men in the sixteen, twin-engine, qualify to fly the new 8-25 "Mitchell" American bombers over Japan was Lt. medium bomber. After virtually every Col. James H. Doolittle, leader of the se­ man in the group responded to Jimmy cret mission launched from the deck of Doolittle's request for volunteers, the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. twenty-four aircrews and related sup­ After hitting targets in Tokyo, Joyce port personnel from among the four headed for mainland China, where he squadrons were chosen in February and his crew bailed out after their plane 1942 to participate in the mission.2 Once ran out of fuel. Like most of the other the crews had been selected, modifica­ aircrews who also bailed out over tion of the 8-25s and training for a take­ China, Joyce and his men were con­ off from the flight deck of an aircraft car~ ducted to safety in Chungking by rier occupied some three weeks. At the friendly civilians and Chinese soldiers. end of March 1942 the planes were The successful raid inflicted limited flown from the Florida training site to damage to Japanese facilities, but San Francisco, where the mission would boosted American morale during the embark aboard the new aircraft carrier dark, early days of World War II, when Hornet. the only news seemed to be of Japanese Dick Joyce, a 1940 graduate of the successes.I University of Nebraska, had participated The Doolittle Raid was conceived in in army ROTC, entered the army air the months after Pearl Harbor, when corps, and received his pilot's wings in President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his 1941. After the Doolittle Raid was com­ military planners sought away to strike pleted Joyce spent most of the remain­ back at the Japanese war machine. The der of the war training 8-25 and 8-26 idea for a raid by carrier-launched army crews in the United States. He was bombers seems to have originated with awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross a junior officer on the staff of naval op­ for his participation in the Doolittle erations chief Adm. Ernest King. Follow­ Raid. ing discussions with army air forces Richard O. Joyce, 1980. Journal-Star A Lincoln native and Lincoln High Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, it was de­ Printing Company School graduate, Joyce returned to lin­ termined that it would be possible to navy aircraft carriers operating beyond coln after the war and went into the launch army medium bombers from the range of Japanese land-based air­ wholesale hardware business. Active in craft, bomb targets in Japan, and still civic affairs, he was appointed to the Samuel Van Pelt ofHickman, Nebraska, is an manage to reach Allied airfields in Lincoln Airport Authority in 1964 and attomey and retired Lancaster County district China. Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, one later served as chairman. He died Feb­ 3 judge. of the most respected American aviators ruary 13, 1983.

54 Doolittle Raider

Joyce's recollections of the Doolittle Akron, or Goodrich?) and ordered Alameda Naval Air Station in San Fran­ Raid, excerpted below, are from a Janu­ twenty-five tanks constructed and they cisco Bay.... We cut the crew back to ary 19, 1978, interview by then were constructed in unbelievable five people. We had a pilot, copilot, two Lancaster County District Judge Samuel record time. Just a square rubber box gunners, and a combination navigator/ Van Pelt, through whose courtesy they that would sit in that hole in the back bombardier. My navigator/bombardier appear here. end of that B-2S where we had taken [Lt. Horace "Sally" Crouch] was a char­ that lower turret out. And he also acter. He teaches math in Columbia, The Recollections bought some rubber sacks, just loose South Carolina, now. He was a little tiny Joyce: Word came down from the rubber sacks, that we laid in the crawl guy and he was full of the devil, and he group headquarters, they wanted space up on top of the bomb bay and said, "Let's fly underneath the Oakland twenty-five crews and airplanes (sic), braced them with wood. We got carpen­ Bay Bridge." [I thought] What the hell, if volunteers for a very special mission. I ters in there to put wood to brace them they want to read the riot act to us, so happened to be working as the assistant so that they wouldn't go out through the what! I said, "Okay," so flying over from operations officer of ... the Eighty-ninth back of the airplane. We had to anchor Sacramento I backed off and flew that Recon Squadron. We had three bomb them to the airplanes.6 airplane underneath the Bay Bridge squadrons and a recon squadron in a Van Pelt: What were they for? there and landed at Alameda Naval Air group, and 1see the order come down, Station. and we figured we were going to Africa. Joyce: Fuel! We had to extend the The Hornet was lying in there at the We knew we were going to get shipped range on this fuel, see. dock and it looked like the biggest thing out pretty quick anyway, so I volun­ Van Pelt: [ see. I'd ever seen. We taxied right up along­ teered, picked a crew, and the next day, side the Hornet. They would throw a boy, things moved fast, the next day we Joyce: We used half of the bomb bay. crane out, lower it and hook onto the moved out to Eglin Field in north We figured well, we'll cut the bomb airplane in a couple of spots and lift the Florida from Columbia, South Carolina, load down in order to increase the airplane up and put it right on the deck with twenty-five airplanes, twenty-five range with fuel. We used the top half of of the Hornet. ... We landed at crews. And we get down there and the bomb bay with a specially con­ Alameda with twenty-two airplanes. Doolittle called in the airplane com­ structed tank, again that was, bang!, just When they got to sixteen on board the manders and told them that this was built in unbelievable time, to add fuel deck of the Hornet, Marc Mitscher, Ad­ what they were going to do, and if any­ on this airplane. I think the airplane car­ miral [Captain] Mitscher, who was in body felt that it was not feasible they ried around 900 gallons of fuel, normal, command of the Hornet, called a halt. could back out with no jeopardy. and we extended that through all these Why?, well that's all the room we've got. Mickey Mouse arrangements to over Van Pelt: He told you, you knew from The airplane was too big to take it be­ 1,200 gallons of fuel and cut the bomb low decks in the elevators. We could the beginning what the deal was all load down to around 3,000 pounds, six about? only stack sixteen airplanes on the deck SOO-pound demolition bombs and/or in­ of the Hornet and the other six were left 7 Joyce: Just the airplane commanders, cendiary clusters. ,. sitting on the dock out there. We took not the rest of the people.4 And we lost a Ed. Note: While the B-25s were being modi­ all the crews on board, in case some­ couple people that backed off, some fied, the crews at Eglin Field were practicing body got sick or something. We had a guy's wife was pregnant and all that takeoffs on airstrips painted with outlines the size of an aircraft carrier deck. A navy carrier maintenance group too. We added kind of stuff. Then we started modifying pilot was assigned as an advisor. The crews some people that were doing first ech­ those airplanes. It was going to be a low­ also made fuel consumption test flights from elon maintenance and armament and level operation, so we took out the bot­ Florida to Texas, and practiced low-level those kinds of things. tom turret. Doolittle had immense direct bombing and navigation techniques. On March authority and power from Hap Arnold. 23, 1942, Doolittle gave the order to proceed to Van Pelt: What kind of security? I think the Sacramento Air Depot in California. He could order anything done and get it the security would have been tighter done right now, you see. We took out all Joyce: We changed all the props at Sac­ than hell. Did you do all of this during the bombsight equipment because it ramento, put on brand new props to get broad daylight? was going to be a minimum altitude op­ better efficiency. We had been operat­ Joyce: We had to, we had to. Now we eration.s We took out everything we ing in the Louisiana maneuvers and the had another problem, another thing that could to save weight. We took that bot­ Carolina maneuvers out of gravel fields happened, and it bothered us the same tom turret out and put in its place a and the props were all nicked etc., so way. Our planes were camouflaged and square tank. He called, I think it was we put on all new props. Then we flew painted brown, and everything the navy Goodyear in Akron Os it Goodyear in the airplanes from Sacramento to the had was painted either blue or white,

55 Nebraska History - SummerjFall1995 everything they owned was painted blue or white. They didn't even own any brown paint. After they loaded these air­ planes on board the Hornet, they moved the Hornet out into the middle of the bay. We asked why, and they said it's easier to maintain security on a big ship out in the middle of the water than it is up along dockside. Van Pelt: Except everybody in San Francisco could look out there and see it. Joyce: Yes, I took my crew and we went to dinner at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the 'Top of the Mark." Everything was supposed to be super, super secret. We looked out and there was this great big carrier sitting there with these brown army airplanes on it. God Almighty, everybody in the whole city of San Francisco can see it. And then because of the tides, we sailed at 10:00 in the morning. God, we sailed right underneath that Oakland Bay Bridge, right underneath the Golden Lt. Richard O. Joyce (front. left) and crew of plane #40-2250 pose on the deck of the Gate Bridge, with these sixteen brown Hornet. Next to Joyce is his copilot, Lt••1. Royden Stork. Behind them are Lt. Horace A. army bombers sitting on that carrier and Crouch, navigator/bombardier (left); an unidentified crewman replaced before the everybody could look down and see mission; and Sgt. George E. Larkin, Jr., flight engineer. S/Sgt. Edwin Horton (not pic­ tured) was the fifth member of Joyce's crew. U.S. Air Force Photo, U.S. Air Force them. But what they did, they planted a Museum. Wright Patterson AFB couple of stories that they were ferrying these airplanes to Honolulu and stuff that hangar deck. They had them sus­ pended from the ceiling, and they had over, since all of a sudden our 860 feet like that, Doolittle had planted those is cut to 432 feet. And [we wanted to airplanes tucked in every nook and stories to the press. But there was a task know], "What's with this?" [He said] cranny you could think of. force sitting there which consisted of "Well, you don't have to worry because the Hornet, two heavy cruisers, four de­ Van Pelt: I guess they would have. they can grind up all this speed, see. We stroyers, and a tanker. Now that was the Joyce: Now the first thing that we no­ can always find ~ifteen or twenty knots biggest task force that had been as­ ticed was that, okay, here's the deck of of wind on the ocean and with that sembled in San Francisco Bay since war the Hornet, it's 860-some-odd-feet long, they'll put better than forty knots of had been declared two months (sic) and all of a sudden we're eating up half wind across that deck, so you don't earlier. So it attracted some attention. of it with our airplanes parked on it. We have to worry." Well, that was okay, ex­ People could look out and see all this put the arithmetic to that again. cept he was going to be up in the island stuff. And we started out as a task force. watching. . . .We steamed right north and west of Van Pelt: How's the first one going to Van Pelt: That's right, he wasn't going Hawaii and rendezvoused with another take off? [laughter] task force that came out of Pearl Har­ to be flying that thing with all that gaso­ bor. It consisted of two more cruisers, Joyce: The deck is wood, and they dug line in it. the carrier Enterprise, and four more de­ out of the wood and inlaid some cork in two spots on the deck right by the is­ Joyce: We were a little concerned stroyers and another tanker. Now the about that. reason for that was that as long as our land, the superstructure of that carrier. airplanes were sitting on the deck of the And our wingspread was such that we Van Pelt: How long did it take to get Hornet, they couldn't operate their own only had about eight feet of clearance from San Francisco to say, Hawaii? airplanes. They had a complete comple­ from the right wingtip and the island. It When you met the other task force? ment of airplanes and men down on was pretty close. So we get the navy guy

56 Doolittle Raider

Joyce: Okay, we sailed from San Fran­ to put the first nine [ten] airplanes over Joyce: No, they sure didn't. They cisco on the fourth [second] of April, if the city of Tokyo. We were going to put weren't operating any airplanes. They I remember right. Our speed was limited two over Yokohama, and one at weren't doing any aerial reconnais­ by the speed of the slowest ship, which Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, and someplace sance at all. They [the Chinese] hauled was the tanker, and the tanker was else, to create the illusion that we had a in a whole bunch of fuel in five-gallon loaded and could only chug along hell of a lot more airplanes than we did. tins and stored it underground in caves. about twelve or fifteen knots, you see. We were going to try to bomb about six We were going to land there and fuel We all had to go at a reduced speed so different cities and create the impres­ those airplanes and fly them to we wouldn't leave the tanker. We had sion that it was a hell of a big attack. Chungking, and that was the plan.s two tankers [after the two forces And the deal was that we were going Well on the morning of the eigh­ joined], we had the Cimmaron and the to take off about 5:00 in the afternoon. teenth of April, we were supervising ­ Sea Witch [Sabine]. And of course, The lead airplane, which was going to We had already loaded the bombs the they're loaded and they're riding real have Doolittle on board as the airplane day before. We hauled them up from low in the water and so we chugged commander, was going to be loaded the ammunition bomb storage areas by along at a hell of a slow speed and we with nothing but incendiaries-2.2­ elevators on the carrier, and we had steamed directly west and north of Ha­ pound thermite incendiaries-in clus­ loaded the bombs, and we were check­ waii and rendezvoused with this other ters. They drop these big clusters and ing the arming wires-and all that kind of task force. Well, it took from the fourth then the straps break and they spray, so business on the bombs, and we were (sic) of April to the eighteenth of April, they set a whole bunch of fires. He was topping off the tanks. We had fueled the fourteen days. to be the pathfinder and set a whole airplanes and the weight of that fuel bunch of fires in Tokyo for pathfinding would compress that rubber up against Van Pelt: The eighteenth of April, when purposes. We were going to bomb at the side of the [tank]. If you let them sit you took off? Okay, tell me about that. low altitude, 1,500 feet, that's low. Then there overnight, then you can top them Joyce: Well, what they did first, they re­ we were going to fly on all that night, off and get some more fuel in. [On the fueled. We used these destroyers to es­ across the South [East] China Sea, and morning of April eighteenth] They cort us. Then they were going to make a arrive in China the next morning. sounded general quarters, everybody final push, a two-day push at high You see, the Japanese had sealed up man their battle stations, that's the speed, twenty-five knots, in and back the Chinese coast. They had occupied alarm. The first thing they do, of course, out again. Theoretically they were going all the main coastal seaports and the big is shut off that supply of fuel coming up to go to within 400 miles, and we were cities up along the Yangtze River, and from the bowels of the carrier, which is going to pull a launch at 400 miles from they weren't conducting any aerial re­ a fire hazard. That's part of the proce­ the Japanese mainland. Now the de­ connaissance inland in China because dure of securing the carrier. And so we stroyers can't run at twenty-five knots for there was no need to. were unable to continue that. two days in and two days out, they don't What had happened was we were Van Pelt: Nothing there, yeah! have the fuel. So what we did was to discovered by a small Japanese patrol fuel the tankers [destroyers] and the Joyce: So what had happened was, the vessel. It looked almost like a fishing cruisers out in the middle of the ocean Americans had a military mission in boat. The [cruiser] Nas/wille pulled out going around in circles off these two Chungking, which was the inland capi­ of the convoy and opened fire with its tankers. Then we started to push with tal of free China at that time. They had deck guns and the Enterprise launched the four cruisers and the two carriers, made arrangements with the Chinese to three dive bombers from catapUlts. They that was all, just six ships. We aban­ build three crushed rock strips 5,000 spit them out of there like popcorn. We doned the eight destroyers and the two feet IQng. The way they did that was to could see this ship on the horizon just tankers back out in the ocean. And I take thousands of people with wicker faintly and they dispatched it in nothing think they subsequently went back to baskets over their backs and get out fiat, just sunk it right now. Pearl Harbor or they picked up the task there and they made a whole bunch of But then there was a big conference. force coming back.... little rocks out of big rocks and put Now "Bull" Halsey, Admiral [William F.] We made this push at twenty-five. them in their baskets, and built these Halsey, was in command of the task knots toward Japan, and the program, airstrips right underneath the nose[s] of force, and he was on board the Enter­ the way the thing was planned, first of the Japanese, within sixty miles of prise. I don't know who was the com­ all, everybody had a specific target des­ Hangchow. mander of the Enterprise at that time. ignated. I had a target for instance in the Marc Mitscher was the commander of Shiba Ward in south Tokyo, a large steel Van Pelt: Didn't they [the Japanese] the Hornet, where we were, but "Bull" complex, a huge thing. We were going pick that up? Halsey was the "Big Dog" in charge cif

57 Nebraska History - Summer/Fall 1995

pitch, we'd release the brakes and start that take-off while the deck was coming up. And it took that long to get each air­ plane [off]. Nobody could afford to wait for anybody else, so what we did was to take off, just make one circle back across the carrier and check our com­ pass against the carrier, which was hold­ ing a known course, which we knew. We checked our gyrocompass and magcompass against the known course of the carrier and took off on course for the target. Well, like I said, nobody could afford to wait for anybody else because we were all short of fuel. It so happens, originally they had scheduled me to be a guinea pig. I don't know whether it was because I had a good takeoff record on those trials down in Florida or what it was for. Any­ way, Doolittle had originally said, uWell, after we get outside of San Francisco :.r.­ about a day or so, we're going to run a I c. __ takeoff test and load your airplane and Lt. Col. James DooliHle (left) and Hornet commander Capt. Marc Mitscher prepare to see if it will go and you can fly it back to aHach a Japanese medal to a bomb that will be dropped on Tokyo. Lieutenant Joyce sits in the second row at extreme left. U.S. Air Force Photo, U.S. Air Force Museum, Alameda." Then he got to thinking, what Wright Patterson AFB the hell, it either goes or it doesn't go. If it doesn't go, the whole thing's the whole task force. So they had a Joyce: No, they left it up to Doolittle. scrubbed anyway. We needed all the blinker type conversation from one car­ He thought that so much had gone into airplanes we could get since we had rier to the next because we didn't use the preparation of this and so much been cut short six airplanes because of any radio. And it was determined ­ hinged on it as far as being an important the inability of the Hornet to accommo­ they had to assume that our presence mission was concerned that we were date them. So he said, uWeli the hell had been reported, discovered and re­ going to go and do the best we could, with it, we'll cancel that and you're go­ ported. Halsey determined it was neces­ try to stretch the fuel and if we couldn't ing to go anyway as one of the target air­ sary for the Hornet to be able to operate make it, go down on the coast, and get planes. n So that was fine with me. its own airplanes. We had to expect an into the boats and row. So we elected to I was the ninth [tenth] airplane off the attack, and it could not operate its own start taking off, so this was like, oh, 7:30 deck, or the last airplane over the city of airplanes as long as we were on board. in the morning. We started getting ready Tokyo, with a target in Tokyo.9 Actually We therefore had to make one of three to go and I think the first airplane that takeoff looked pretty hairy, it choices. We either had to commence [Doolittle's] was off the deck at a few looked like you could throw a rock off preparations to take off immediately for minutes after 8:00. Now it took about, the end of that deck while you were sit­ the target (and we still had ten hours to we were going to rendezvous over the ting in the airplane. It looked awful go and another 250 miles to go, so we task force and go into formation and short. But Doolittle was the first one to were 600 and some odd miles away, make it a simultaneous deal [attack], take off, and he didn't have any trouble which was quite a bit more than we but everybody was sweating fuel. It took getting off the deck so that instilled a planned), or we could take off immedi­ from oh, five to six minutes to get each certain degree of confidence in us. ately and fly to Midway Island, which airplane in position. We had a guy gaug­ Van Pelt: What were you thinking? was only 1,400 miles away and abandon ing the pitch of that deck, you know. Were you excited or were you scared? the mission, or we could push the air­ We would run the engines up to the planes overboard. firewall and let it sit there, and he would Joyce: Dh, I was scared. Dh, cripes, we have these flags going, you see, and Van Pelt: Did they leave it up to you were in a terrible situation. We knew we guys or Doolittle? when the deck hit the bottom of its didn't have enough fuel. I knew that

58 Doolittle Raider someplace down the line I was going to run out olluel. [ knew [ never could make it. This was the first combat mis­ sion. We were taking off ahead of time, I didn't have enough fuel. Van Pelt: You probably realized the magnitude and the importance of the whole thing. Joyce: I was scared to death, I sure as hell was scared to death, you bet I was scared. Anybody who says they weren't is a goddamn liar. Van Pelt: [Laughter] I can believe that. Joyce: Oh, of course. God, I was just a young kid, I was twenty-two years old. Van Pelt: You could do it then, but you probably could't do it now. What time did you get off? Joyce: I got off a little before 9:00 A.M., about 8:45, something like that. Van Pelt: Did you have any trouble get­ This watercolor by William D. Schlaebitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, portrays one of Doolitlle's ting off? 8-25s just after takeoff from the Hornet. Courtesy of William D. Schlaebitz Joyce: No, I didn't have any trouble get­ ting off. I never saw another airplane af­ Joyce: Well, I got over the target area up here at the university. There was no ter I left the deck of the carrier, I never about 1:30 in the afternoon, 1: 15 or way you could miss because of the mag­ saw any 01 our people. I saw a Japanese something like that. It was a beautiful nitude of the complex. If you missed a patrol plane 01 some description at a day, the sun was shining, God Almighty. hundred yards, so what? distance before I hit the mainland of Ja­ I could see some smoke from the pan, and I ran into a bunch of Zeros, Van Pelt: How many bombs did you people that had been there ahead of lighters, over the target area, a bunch, have? me, you see. We came across Japan and but I didn't see any 01 our airplanes af­ there's a peninsula before you get to To­ Joyce: I had six five-hundred-pounders. 'o ter I took off. We made a landfall, and kyo Bay. You come across a land area we operated at minimum altitude across Van Pelt: Did you put them all in [the and then across Tokyo Bay into Tokyo. the water to avoid radar detection. target]7 Van Pelt: You didn't have any trouble Van Pelt: How high? Joyce: In a pattern, all 01 them, right realizing where you were? through the whole thing. Joyce: One hundred feet. Joyce: No, we had certain orders, and Van Pelt: How much damage? Did you Van Pelt: Is that right? Is that hard, is there was a huge [aircraft] carrier lying do a lot 01 damage? that pretty tense? in the bay there in Tokyo and we had orders not to bomb that, that would be Joyce: Well, I could't tell. I was under a Joyce: No, it just requires constant at­ a waste of bombs. We had orders not to lighter attack so I wasn't watching the tention so you don't fly the airplane into bomb the Imperial Palace because that ground. I was watching the fighters. the water, it requires constant attention. might have a reverse effect. We were or­ [Laughter] We had a POI, which is a pi­ We had lour and a-half hours to figure dered to bomb our specific assigned lot directory indicator for the navigator. out what the hell was going to happen military target and there was no prob­ He would give it a course and I'd have to us. You've got a little anticipation lem finding the target or identifying it. I to keep that POI at zero in order to involved. backed off for about a three-mile bomb maintain the course and he dropped the Van Pelt: Time to think, yeah. What run and pulled up to 1,500 feet. It would bombs, I don't drop the bombs, he was the weather like? be like dropping a bomb in the stadium drops them. I'm watching these fighters

59 Nebraska History - Summer/Fall 1995

\~.

A 8-25 taking off from the Hornet, April 18, 1942. U.S. Air Force Academy Library getting ready to make a pass at me, see, to see somebody coming in, bombing off shore to where they can't plot me or so I'm not watching the ground at all. their home country. track me. And so what J did was to fly Van Pelt: Didn't you get hit, I'd think Joyce: I think they were too. We got hit, south and west around the Honshu Is­ you'd be an easy target up there like we got hit with some bullets, not seri­ land, the main island of Japan, and that? ously, but there were some holes in the across the South [East] China Sea all at wing and a couple in the engine cowl­ minimum altitude, as low as I could get, Joyce: Well, I was with one exception. within safety limits. And I ran into bad They [fighters] have got to take on some ing on the left side. The rear gunner re­ ported some bullet holes in the tail here weather then along about dusk, 5:30 in altitude in order to gain enough speed the afternoon or something like that. to make a pass. The minute that I felt and there, so we suffered some minor the bombs go, I went right back down damage. Van Pelt: Could you see how much gas on the deck again. They've got to start a I swung in back of Yokohama and you had and how much farther you pullout when they make a pass at you back out to sea again. There was some could go? like that, they've got to start a pull out cloud cover out over the ocean and I Joyce: Well, at that time it looked like I pulled up into the clouds. pretty quick or they're going to go into wasn't going to be able to make land. J the ground. I had the throttles as far as Van Pelt: Back out, you mean you're was talking to my navigator [Lt. Horace they could go up to the firewall and tied heading west? Crouch] all the time. I said to him (to in knots, and as low as I could get, I Joyce: I'm heading east now. show you what kind of a guy he was), J mean like twenty to thirty feet just over said to him, "What's our ETA for land, the rooftops and everything else-as Van Pelt: Okay, why did you do that? our estimated time of arrival over landT low as I could get. Joyce: Well, I wanted to get back out to He said, "What the hell do you care for, And there was another factor in­ the ocean, number one, get away from you're not going to make it anyway." He volved. The pilots that they had flying the land where the radar could pick me was lying back on the navigation table those airplanes I think were probably up, and I could see the cloud cover in smoking a cigar. [Laughter] students. All their top flying people were the distance. J wanted to get in those Well, what happened was we got into out in the combat areas. And these guys damn clouds and mill around in there, bad weather down there south of Japan, would make some passes but they I'll shake the fighters doing that. So I got real rough weather with a hell of a tail wouldn't really close to a killing range. into the cloud cover and milled around wind, about a thirty-knot tail wind, and We were shooting at them all the time in the clouds, and when I came out, rode that thing for five hours and that too with that top turret. They chewed at back down on the water again, the fight­ made the difference. That enabled me us all the time from a distance, but they ers were gone. I had shaken the fighters, to get over land. Without that tail wind, I wouldn't really bore in close. I suspect J had gotten rid of the fighters, so J went never would have made it. Now then he that their pilots were students. back down to the water again to avoid [Crouch] started perking up. He was Van Pelt: They were probably scared ... the radar detection and I'm far enough plotting on a dead reckoning basis and

60 Doolittle Raider he was plotting us in. I said I gotta have back. So I told them to bail out and I'd bum. All the combustibles had been a landfall because it is going to be dark keep the intercom open in case they used, but it made a hell of a bang. and I'm going to have to pull up be­ had a problem. This was a mistake I I was hanging in the chute here try­ cause there's mountains on the eastern made. I was bailing out at night over ing to see where it was [the plane] and I coast of China. So we made a landfall mountainous country and I should have hit the ground. [ never saw the ground over China, oh, late at night, it must had everybody bail out at once so we'd coming at all, never saw it coming at all. have been close to 9:30 or 10:00 o'clock be together on the ground. I never Whacko-I hit the ground, and I go ass at night, because I bailed out at twenty thought about it. I made a mental error over teacup. I was on the side of a minutes after ten that night. there, but I didn't have much experi­ mountain in some loose shale. I go tum­ Van Pelt: Is that what you did, did you ence. [ wanted to make sure they got bling for a while and I gathered myself jump out? out of the airplane. Then I had the navi­ together. There really, there is no way gator go, and I had the copilot go and I you can move if somebody just sud­ Joyce: Yeah, I figured I took off about started to get out of the airplane and it denly deposits you like that. You can't 8:30 or 8:40, something like that, and stalled. I crawled back in the seat and go back the way you came, so you're re­ bailed out at 20 minutes after 10 that recovered from the stall. We had a ally immobilized, you can't move. night. bucket [back] chute on and it was a Van Pelt: Your sense of direction Van Pelt: How far over land were you little bit hard to get in between the seats would be sC.rewed up. when you went out? and get back to the black hole ... that hatch down the [?] bottom. I was going Joyce: I knew what it was, but so what, Joyce: About eighty miles inland. to dive out that hatch, you see. So what I couldn't see the terrain. I couldn't see Van Pelt: Did you run out of gas, did happened was I got separated from fifteen feet in front of me. It was such you go until you ran out, is that what them on the ground, it was mountain­ that all I could do was hollow out a deal you did? ous country. By the time I recovered in the shale and roll up in that para­ from the stall and set the airplane in a chute and go to sleep and see what Joyce: Yes, I flew until we ran out. slight shallow climb I got back to bail goes on the next day. And I walked for What had happened, what I did, I made out, and as I was bailing out, the left'en­ about seven days then. some mistakes. I pulled up, the moun­ gine quit. tains in there according to our charts Van Pelt: You never saw the other guys, Well, you get a hell of a sensation of huh? were six to seven thousand feet above sudden silence. I had been sitting there sea level. I pulled up to about 8,000 feet, hearing that roar for fourteen hours. All Joyce: Never got with them. II maybe 8,500, and was figuring on get­ of a sudden-and I couldn't see the Van Pelt: Did they all land together? ting as far inland as I could until the red ground, it was raining, dark, blacker Joyce: As it turned out, I was dropping lights go on, that meant the fuel pres­ than the ace of spades. So the minute I them up a valley and didn't know it. sure was starting to come off, and we was clear of the airplane I opened the They went down the valley and they were running out of gas. I had about chute. I was going pretty fast and it re­ eventually got together. I'd gone over a three minutes left so I ordered my crew ally gives you a jolt. to bail out. We had already packed a couple of more ridges in the process of little musette bag full of cigarettes and Van Pelt: I'll bet you were happy, it was getting out and so I was going down an­ candy bars and a canteen of water and better to· have that than not [opening]. other valley, actually going away from a pint of medicinal. .. Joyce: I couldn't see the ground, and I them. The next day I crawled back, the airplane crashed less than a mile from Van Pelt: Knives, all that kind of stuff? didn't know how far above the ground I was. But then the airplane goes away where I hit, and so I figured I'd crawl Joyce: Yeah, all that kind of junk. But I and with that one engine out it goes into back to the airplane to see if I could sal­ figured that we could hang onto that a spiral and pretty soon here it comes vage anything out of it, food or .... To and jump out with it. There was no way back. get back to it involved going over a to get from the back of the airplane to couple of ridges and it was tough going. the front on account of the auxiliary Van Pelt: Did it come right back at It was rainy and foggy the next morning fuel arrangements we'd made. I had two you? and you couldn't see very much. I got people in the back and I had the naviga­ Joyce: It came right back at me, it back then to a ridge and I saw a couple tor [Crouch] and the copilot [Lt. J. sounded like it was right there. [Laugh­ guys walking across the ridge up in front Royden Stork] and myself up front. The ter] It went underneath me. I was scared of me and God, I was scared to death top turret gunner [S/Sgt. Edwin W. to death. Then it crashed, it hit a moun­ and so I hid in the rocks for while and Horton] was in back and the other gun­ tain and crashed. Now it didn't bum be­ finally I crawled up to the top of the ner [Sgt. George E. Larkin, Jr.] was in cause there was nothing left on board to ridge and looked over. Down in a kind

61 Nebraska History - SummerjFall1995 of clearing was what was left of that air­ So I came down off the top of that ridge, wreckage. And they pointed way down plane, scattered over about three acres and I was making signs, friendly signs, there and so they offered to lead me of ground. There were a whole bunch of smiling to beat hell. And I picked up down there. We had a terrible commu­ people picking in the wreckage, scav­ pieces of the bomb cable, the bomb nication problem. I couldn't speak a enging in the wreckage. hoist cable or something and handed it word of Chinese and they couldn't to a couple, three of the older men speak a word of English so it was a prob­ Van Pelt: Were they Chinese or Japanese? [who] came forward then out of the lem. Plus the fact that Orientals don't group. And I picked up some pieces to convey much by their facial expres­ Joyce: They were Chinese. I didn't try to indicate to them to "Help yourself, sions. An American, you can tell know it at the time so I laid up in the whatever you want, here it's all yours: whether he is happy or sad or mad or rocks and watched them for about two [break in tape] It stunned them. It glad by his looks. hours. I was scared. I didn't know what turned out they were very primitive Van Pelt: By his eyebrows and his eyes. the hell to do! I couldn't speak any Chi­ people scratching a miserable living out nese, I didn't have any money, I didn't of the worst ground you can imagine in Joyce: An Oriental has a very stoic fa­ know for sure where I was, I was alone. that mountainous country. And I think cial expression and it's very difficult to I was in enemy occupied territory. I was that what happened was that they determine what he's thinking from the in real trouble, and I was scared to couldn't figure out how that airplane external appearance .... But they ap­ death. could be in a million pieces and I was peared to be friendly and they led me So in the course of watching them, in one piece. And my clothes looked down this long trail, it took the rest of I determined there were some women odd to them. I had on a brown flying the day. with them, some children. They were suit and a helmet and goggles like a We got down there and they were liv­ not armed, they were not in uniform, so man from Mars. ing in bamboo huts and had no electric­ I figured they had to be peasants. They ity, no roads, nothing but just manmade weren't military. So finally I didn't know Van Pelt: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Did trails. And they had very little of any­ what to do and I just stood up and they take you in then? thing-no chickens. But they put me up hollered. Joyce: They pointed way down the side for the night. They got a bamboo mat Van Pelt: Did they run? of this mountain to a little, I could see a out. I slept in one of their little huts. little village down there. Obviously what They offered me food but I was afraid to Joyce: No, it froze them right in their had happened, they had heard the air­ eat it. I thought if I got sick I was really a tracks, froze them right in their tracks. plane hit the night before and they dead pigeon. So I survived on 0 Henry They just stood there and looked at me. came up to scrounge around in the candy bars that I had in my bag. I'd cut

A group of Doolittle Raiders in China. Doolittle stands at center with flag. To his left are Joyce and Lt. Richard Knobloch. Courtesy of Gen. Richard Knobloch and Pictorial His­ tories Publishing Company, Missoula, Mont.

62 Doolittle Raider up my parachute and stuffed as much of was always afraid somebody was going did the guerrillas get you there? it in my flying suit [as I could], the silk to hit me in the back of the head for the Joyce: Yes, they took me to a headquar­ panels. I had taken the silk shroud lines, rest of that silk that I had on, so I was ters. There's some more to that story those are braided shroud lines, and nervous. I had lost my gun bailing out. I that's kind of interesting. They eventu­ wrapped a whole bunch of them had a .45 in a shoulder holster and ally got me there. Eventually I got into around my waist. My belly wasn't quite when that chute snapped me, it jerked an escort of about eight or ten guerrilla as big in those days. the gun out of there. soldiers. Van Pelt: Oh, that was smart, that Van Pelt: It was probably around not Van Pelt: Did you ever see any Japa­ would be good cord. too far away, but it might not be worth nese [soldiers]? anything. Joyce: I could make belts for them, that Joyce: I never did. was money, I figured I could use that for Joyce: I couldn't find it. Anyway, I money, make a braided silk belt for walked, I spent two days doing that, Van Pelt: When did they figure out who someone. three days, I guess. The third day I ran you were and what you were? into some Chinese guerrillas that were Van Pelt: How long were you there in Joyce: Who, the Chinese? operating undercover, three soldiers. that village? That scared me half to death. I ran into Van Pelt: Yeah. Joyce: Well, overnight. Then they them on the trail. I thought they were Joyce: I found out later -I ran into an started taking me out the next day, Japanese. There wasn't anything I could American, a Chinese [who was] an down the valley which was to the north do. American citizen who was born in Ho­ up toward the Yangtze River, which is Van Pelt: Probably a good thing you nolulu and graduated from the Univer­ where "I didn't want to go because thqt's didn't have a gun, you might have sity of Hawaii [and] who was running a where the Japanese garrisons were. But started shooting at them. hospital out in this little tiny town for you couldn't traverse the country as the the Methodist Church. He was the first crow flies, you had to go that way. Joyce: I would have been in trouble. guy that I found that could speak En­ They'd take me to the next little village, Then they took me back down this glish. He told me these were the which would maybe be only a mile or mountain and locked me in a hut with Gissimo's [Generalissimo Chiang Kai­ so away, you see. We didn't move very one of them and the other two went off shek's] soldiers and they had been sent far. And they'd have a big conference at . some place. Now where they went I out looking for me and all the rest of us, that village and obviously they were ex­ don't know and the next day they came because the Japanese had put out a plaining how they had found me way back but they kept me a prisoner there price on our heads. And by the same to­ up in the mountain. I had a map printed a day and they shook me down real ken the Gissimo said that if they found in Chinese that I laid out. God! If I laid it good. And they found this holster, and me and anything ever happened to me, out once, I bet I laid it out twenty times, in my musette bag I had a couple of they were all going to get shot. So they you know, trying to find out where I clips of ammunition. They couldn't find took pretty good care of me. They oper­ was. I'd say to them, "Shanghai," and the gun. They laid the ammunition out ate in a different manner than we do. somebody'd say [panting sound] and and the holster and they made signs say­ I'd say, "Okay, Hangchow." ing, "Okay, now where's the gun?" I Van Pelt: Did the other·guys get back tried to explain that I had lost it. We had okay, your other [crew members]? Van Pelt: Did you figure out where you a terrible time with communication. But were then? Joyce: They got back ahead of me I could see what they were wondering quite a bit, by about five days or so Joyce: No, not really. Within a maybe was, where the hell's the gun? I couldn't ahead of me. fifty-mile radius I knew where I was. I'd explain to them that I had lost it. So they say, "Okay, now this place, this place shook me down pretty good to try to Van Pelt: How many of the crews right here. Where is this on the map?" I find it and they couldn't find it. didn't make it? couldn't get them to orient themselves Van Pelt: Are they the ones that got you Joyce: Well, we lost, we had sixteen to a map. They just weren't that edu­ back? crews of five guys, that's eighty people. cated. They were very primitive people. We had one crew that landed in Russia But they were friendly, and I'd pay them Joyce: Eventually. I did get out, I got against orders because Russia was not 6ff making belts for them out of silk, back to Chusien, which is where we at war with Japan. The Russians something out of that silk. But they al­ were trying to get to in the first place, wouldn't give us permission to go to ways wanted more than I gave them. which is one of those five [airfields]. Russia because they were afraid it They always made me walk in front. I Van Pelt: Did these guys get you there, would create an incident that might

63 Nebraska History - Summer/Fall 1995 jeopardize their neutrality. We lost two' people [meaning bombers and crews] who tried to crash land in the water off the coast with disastrous results. And one of them crashed, [Lt. Ted W.] Lawson was the captain of one of them, and he went right up through the top of the airplane and mangled his leg and jaw. One of his people in the rear evi­ dently was knocked out and drowned in the process. We lost another guy bail­ ing out. They found him on the ground dead. Whether his chute tangled or didn't open or what happened, we don't know for sure, but he was dead. '2 And we lost eight prisoners-eight people were captured by the Japanese. Van Pelt: Did they kill them all? Joyce: No. What they did, they sen­ tenced them all to death ... they sen­ tenced them under what they called the Enemy Airman's Act, which they passed Lincoln, Nebraska, native Sgt. Donald E. Fitzmaurice (third from left) was the engineer! in July and made it retroactive to cover gunner in Lt. Dean Hallmark's crew. Fitzmaurice died when Hallmark's B-25 ditched in [the raid]. Accused them of machine­ the East China Sea. U.S. Air Force Photo Collection (USAF Neg. No. 94605 AC). courtesy gunning civilians and bombing nonmili­ of National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution tary targets. So then the emperor com­ muted the sentences of four of them to Van Pelt: A highly successful mission. He's only about five feet, eight inches life imprisonment and ordered the ex­ tall, a wiry little guy and [with] tremen­ ecution of the two airplane command­ Joyce: But we lost all the airplanes! dous vision. ers and the two top turret gunners who Van Pelt: Well, that's true. Van Pelt: Must have been the perfect were the people that he claimed [com­ Joyce: And Doolittle thought he was go­ guy to have in command of this deal. mitted the crimes.] Now before they ing to get court-martialed for losing all could execute them, one of them died Joyce: [A] High caliber guy, really high the airplanes. He felt really bad about of malnutrition in a Japanese prison caliber guy. Great vision and great losing all those airplanes. He felt they camp, so they actually executed three. ability. were of paramount importance to Claire One of them was sicker than hell and Chennault and we lost them all. We Van Pelt: He's still alive, isn't he? didn't even know what was going on, could ill afford to lose sixteen bombers what was happening to him. They Joyce: You bet. I still hunt with him. He at that stage of the war, so he felt very propped him up against a stake and comes out and hunts in Nebraska every bad about losing all those airplanes. '3 shot him. So they executed three. Four year. He's full of you-know-what and of them were imprisoned, not as prison­ Van Pelt: It was the fault of having to vinegar. He's eighty-one years old and ers of war but as war criminals. They take off too early though, wasn't it? he can go the whole treatment, a good shot, and he's a helluva guy, a helluva kept them in solitary for four and one­ Joyce: Well, of course, of course. half years, oh, they were in bad shape. guy. There's nobody really quite like They were liberated at the end of the Van Pelt: He [Doolittle] didn't ever him. He's done so many things in the war under a very fantastic set of circum­ catch any [reprimand]? course of his career that are spectacu­ stances, which, if I had some more time, Joyce: No, hell no, he was a hero, a lar. He's a remarkable fellow, and highly I could explain to you. I could come Medal of Honor [recipient]. And he is a admired and highly respected by every­ back sometime and finish that off. So rare guy, a remarkable guy. body that either served under him or we lost what, twenty percent, we lost that came in contact with him, I think sixteen people, which was twenty per­ Van Pelt: I've never met him. without exception. '4 cent of our people. Joyce: Well, he's just-a little tiny guy.

64 Doolittle Raider

Notes 5 Another reason was to avoid the risk that the 10 See note 7 above. In this, and a few other de­ top secret Norden Bombsight would fall into en­ tails, Joyce's recollections here vaIY from his ear­ 1 Available secondaIY sources on the Doolittle emy hands. Ibid., 246. lier accounts. For example, see Glines, Doolittle Raid include Ted W. Lawson, Thirty Seconds Over Raid, 6 The larger of the two auxiliaIY tanks was a rub­ 118-20. Tokyo, ed. Robert Considine (New York: Random ber "leak-proof receptacle that fit inside a protec­ II The crew was reunited at Chusien. Glines, House, Inc., 1943); Carrol V. Glines, Doolittle's To­ tive box. All of the auxiliaIY fuel tanks were manu­ Doolittle Raid, 120. kyo Raiders (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, factured by the U.S. Rubber Company of 1964); Glines, The Doolittle Raid, America's Daring Mishawaka, Indiana. Ibid., 240. 12 None of Lawson's crew died as a result of the First Strike Against Japan (New York: Orion Books, crash landing. Two crew members of another B-25 1988); Stan Cohen, Destination: Tokyo, A Pictorial 7 The normal bomb load of 2,400 pounds for a B­ died when the plane ditched in the water off the History ofDoolittle's Tokyo Raid, April 18, 1942 25 was reduced to about 2,000 pounds (four China coast. One of these men, Sgt. Donald (Missoula, Mont.: Pictorial HistoIY Publishing Co., bombs) for the Tokyo mission. Cohen, Destination: Fitzmaurice, was a Lincoln, Nebraska, native. See 1983, 1992 ptg.); and James H. Doolittle, with Tokyo, 8; Doolittle, Never Be So Lucky, 2. The . Glines, Doolittle Raid, for a full account of casual­ Carrol V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again bombers carried various combinations of 500­ ties, and the fate of the men captured by the (New York: Bantam Books, 1991). pound demolition and 500-pound incendiaIY clus­ Japanese. ters, depending upon their targets. 2 Glines, Doolittle Raid, 28-29. The other squad­ 13 Chennault had commanded the American vol­ rons in the group were the Thirty-fourth, Thirty­ 8 The airstrips were near Chuchow in northeast­ unteer "Flying Tigers" in China, and was aviation seventh, and Ninety-fifth Bombardment Squadrons. ern China, from which the bombers were to pro­ advisor to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. ceed on to Chungking. They would then be as­ 3 Lincoln Journal, Feb. 14, 15, 1983. signed to the Tenth Air Force being formed in the 14 Gen. James H. Doolittle died at age ninety-six on Sept. 27, 1993, in California. Lincoln Journal, 4 Doolittle recalled that none of the fliers were China-Burma-India Theater. Doolittle, Never Be So Sept. 28, 1993. told the details of the mission until they were Lucky, 236-37; Cohen, Destination: Tokyo, 65. enroute to Japan aboard the carrier. He did offer 9 All the cited sources indicate that Joyce piloted to let any of the volunteers back out, no questions plane number ten. asked. Doolittle, Never Be So Lucky, 245-46.

Tokyo Raiders gather around General DooliHle at a Florida reunion, April 18-21, 1947. Richard Joyce is seated second from left In the front row; his copilot, J. Royden Stork, is third from left, and Lt. Col. Richard O. Knobloch is fourth from left. U.S. Air Force Photo Collection (USAF Neg. No. 62856 AC), courtesy of National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

65