Doolittle Raiders: From Tokyo To Torch: The Story Of Six 'Raiders' In The USAAF's 319th Bombardment Group

On 18 April 1942, less than four months after the Japanese assault upon Pearl Harbor, sixteen North American B-25 bombers lifted off from the deck of USS Hornet on one of the most audacious missions of the Second World War. Ordered to exact retribution upon the Emperor and his people, their objective was not merely to attack Japan, but to bomb its capital.

Among the men who struck Tokyo that day were five officers who, having survived the mission, quickly discovered that their war had only just begun. Within months, they would help to form and lead a new combat unit - the 319th Bombardment Group.

The 319th was one of the first USAAF formations equipped with the fast but unforgiving Martin B-26 Marauder, and was among the first American units based in the United Kingdom.

Activated at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, in June 1942 under the newly-created Twelfth Air Force, the 319th became part of General Jimmy Doolittle's expanding command for the forthcoming Allied landings in North Africa - Operation Torch .

The five Raiders brought invaluable combat experience to a fledgling group that would soon face equally dangerous missions across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean theatre.

Through a combination of letters, diaries, official reports, and previously unpublished archives, Doolittle Raiders: From Tokyo to Torch follows the intertwined fates of these five men as they trained new crews, ferried their aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, and prepared for combat under Doolittle's strategic direction.

It culminates in the tragic events of 12 November 1942, when five B-26 Marauders of the 319th were lost within hours while flying from the UK to North Africa - a catastrophic event that claimed the life of one of the original Raiders and symbolised the peril of America's first trans-Atlantic bomber operations.

This book not only tells the story of courage and endurance under extreme conditions but also reveals how the spirit of the Tokyo mission endured within the 319th Bo