The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-04-22

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 lng when I boarded a destroyer that was Go na part Of the task force. Our task force was delayed one day awaiting the return from washing ton hy clipper of Admiral william .. Hnisey, our commander. Then we sailed straight for the northwest and turned from the war, calm Hawaiian waters into the cold Of co degree lon- gltude beyond Midway.
 There. on April Is. wa joined up with the Hornet and her accom- panytng ships,
 The Hornet had come almost iO.. 900 miles to shis historic rendezvous al the way from Norfolk, Va.
 Still most of us didn't know where we were going or what we planned to do. The first hint came on morning when our destroyer was delivering guard mail" = secret communications between command. CTS of the various vessels in the task force. Our destroyer came alongside the Hornet, and our mouths dropped open in astonishment.
 On the deck of the Hornet, lashed securely, were le big H-25S. Army pilots on deck waved greetings.
 We're going to bomb Tokyo" was the thought that flashed through my mind,
 Soon that hunch became a cer- tainty, Halsey's orders were to pro ceed as closely as possible to within 400-500 miles of the Japanese coast before launching, except that as circumstances dictate otherwise"
 Tho circumstances that dictated otherwise--and changed our plans was the fact that we encountered c Japa~ese trawler. One of our cruis- CTS shelled her on sight. and sank her. But the fear that she might have sent Q warning radio massage to Japan caused Halsey and Doollt- tle to change their plans.
 The original plan had been for Doolittle to take off in one plane several hours ahead of the other Bass. He was going to time his flight to reach Tokyo late in the day and loose incendiary bombs over the congssted manufacturing area. Then with the fires started by poollttle as heaconS to guide them, the other B-25s were to come over in darkness, drop their bombs and roar on through the night to Q landing in China.
 The encounter with the trawler changed all that, Instead 1t was de- cided that the B-25s would take off one by one in the early morning and hit Tokyo about noon. We were then about 300 Iniles from the Jap- anese capital.
 It was SEQ o'clock on the morning of April 18 when Doolittle led the way off the carrier. A 76.mile gale was blowing and heavy seas were running. once off the Hornet the bombers split up into groups of twos and threes.
 Then we went down into the ward room of our destroyer and gath- cred around the radio. At 1928 p. Tn. the Tokyo radio. broadcaSting in English, said enemy planes were dropping bombs on the city. That was almost an hour after the bomh- ing.
 As soon as the news came over the radio the chief quartermaster said: II bet he'll claim we hit a children's hospital and Q church"
 Sure enough. the Tokyo radio then said:
 '"Tokyo is taking the attack calmly with all people at their stations. There is q wave of indignation over this inhuman bombing of Q hos pital and two churches"
 The rest of the story learned later.
 Doollttle and his companions flew low, barely skimming the water, and at a low rate of speed to conserve fuel. They passed scores of vessels and planes in the air. One of seven Japanese planes followed Doolittle and his companions for several miles after they crossed the Japanese coast. The Americans finally lost them by flying through a deep gul- ley and making an S turn.
 The original plans called for a Chinese airfield to be lighted for the landing of the American planes, but the change is the takoff plans made 1t impossible to carry through the arrangement. Actually, the airport had its lights on when some of the American planes approached ahead of schedule, but the lights were turned off when the sound of motors was detected for fear they might be hostile aircraft.
 Doolittle's plane ran out Of fuel and he parachuted down through the black of ngil1t. It was the