The Turning Point
April 18, 1942
Following the Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the US military fleet comes up with a bold plan to strike back at the Japanese and show them that at US will not back down. They will launch sixteen B.25 bombers from a carrier to strike Tokyo. The B.25 bombers are not designed to land on carriers so the mission was created as a one way trip with the pilots bailing out in China. All the bomber hit their target of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe. Unfortunately many of the planes couldn't find the homing signal in China, this lead to eleven of the air crew bailing out in China as their planes ran out of fuel and the other four crash landed. the last bomber landed near the Soviet city of Vladivostok. Eight of the pilots were captured by the Japanese and three were executed. Over all the success of the raid on Tokyo, provided a great boost to the United States mind state, also provided proof to the Japan public that Japan is vulnerable to attack from other country's. This then forced Japan to maintain a strong homeland air defense and pull back some of their troops and support from other places around the pacific, making them weaker and slightly easier to attack. |
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