So, on the 18th of this month an important anniversary passed us by without many people noticing. It was the anniversary of the 1942 Doolittle raid. In honor of that, I submit to you some more required reading about the further implications of said raid.
Like mentioned in the article, I am one of those who were taught in school the "common knowledge" relating to the event, without being told some of the finer details that might prove otherwise. Go check it out, as it's a fantastic and relatively short read. Ya read it yet? Okay. Now, time for my two cents.
One thing that they didn't mention, is the growing misconception of the target of the raid. In recent times, I have been told (and blatantly offended) by many peers who attempt to demonize and marginalize the Doolittle raid by stating that it was not very heroic because it had targeted civilians.
This is a blatant lie. Although all the factions targeted civilians at some point of the war, the Doolittle raid's target was not civilians. They were the Tokyo naval yards and other factories producing military equipment. For example, a factory producing tanks will always be a high value military target regardless of how many civilians work there. Even if that weren't the case, they still executed a very dangerous raid with little regard to their safety and a mind firmly on completing their objectives. Aircraft and crews were pushed to the absolute edge of their limits. Heck, they even removed nearly all their defensive armament to reduce weight just to reach their target, which was fairly well defended and ran the risk of being intercepted. If that aint heroic, i don't know what is.
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| Reconsidering The Doolittle Raid |
One thing that they didn't mention, is the growing misconception of the target of the raid. In recent times, I have been told (and blatantly offended) by many peers who attempt to demonize and marginalize the Doolittle raid by stating that it was not very heroic because it had targeted civilians.
This is a blatant lie. Although all the factions targeted civilians at some point of the war, the Doolittle raid's target was not civilians. They were the Tokyo naval yards and other factories producing military equipment. For example, a factory producing tanks will always be a high value military target regardless of how many civilians work there. Even if that weren't the case, they still executed a very dangerous raid with little regard to their safety and a mind firmly on completing their objectives. Aircraft and crews were pushed to the absolute edge of their limits. Heck, they even removed nearly all their defensive armament to reduce weight just to reach their target, which was fairly well defended and ran the risk of being intercepted. If that aint heroic, i don't know what is.
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