whitehall
Diamond Member
We just passed the 70'th anniversary of Doolittle's daring raid on 4/18/42. Did it have an unintended consequence of galvanizing the Japanese civilians support for the war? By all accounts the raid was just a symbolic propaganda operation designed to bolster the confidence of the American public in the black early days of the war when the entire Philippine Army was forced to surrender at Corrigador and Battan. I expect if you got into Adml Halsey's mind back then you would probably hear grumbling about risking a Carrier on a propaganda mission. After sighting a couple of Japanese boats and fearing an attack Halsey forced the bombers to launch several hundred miles before their scheduled takeoff virtually dooming the courageous pilots to death by crashing or execution.