but jimmy doolittle's volunteers flew anyway.ybody willing to give up his seat but there were no takers. 80 raiders took off that morning and just over a year ago at the national museum of the u.s. air force three surviving raiders met to commemorate it. the raiders may have been few that day but they weren't alone. as their motorcade rolled forward, grateful crowds came into view. as their eyes turned upward, b-25s soared overhead. . the gratitude of an entire nation there for each of them to see. so a few weeks later when the raiders met to clink goblets one last time it would have been easy to think of so many empty cups with sorrow. but i hope they remembered all that had been gained instead. morale for a nation, achieved through their bravery, freedom for millions, secured with victories of free people and bonds of enduring friendship strong as the brandy used to toast it. and there's something else, too. the gratitude of a nation that hasn't forgotten. a nation that won't forget. lieutenant colonel dick coal and staff serge

as general jimmy doolittle himself wrote years later, our country faced with the greatest adversity we were killed or executed. some were grievously wounded. some faced years of captivity. but the doolittle raiders had pierced the axis war machines and given american a reason to believe victory was reason reach. for all of the men who made it through the raid in one piece, the war was only just the beginning. with many more dangerous missions ahead. more raiders would give their lives before the final victory was won. too sure, into danger, was the motto. and dangerous it was. and i want to say something to the families to the members of the air force. now it is the air force. as i travel in europe and north africa, and my colleagues can attest to this, we visit the american cemeteries there and what is remarkable and how we look across at the tomb stones and how proud we are, we have to go to the wall to see the names of those who were in the air force. because that's the way it is. no remains. and i know that that is another gift that the families give us, not just the courage of the

jimmy doolittle, the same jimmy doolittle of the doolittle raid and 16 airplanes, is now in command ofhe world's largest air force. p51's. as a result, we were narrowing the targets. after casablanca there was a sense of targeting the german air force. targeting the german air force. there were some targets as well but principally the german air force, meaning factories. even then, even with the p 51 and long-range escort, the results were mixed in terms of the ability to hit the target and the germans were dispersing targets. but one of the impacts was, you see it in this bullet, air attrition. the germans are compelled now to fight increasing numbers of allied aircraft, the british at night and americans during the day, with fighters. and the germans are going to lose the ball of attrition. -- the battle of attrition. what i call the death of the german air force. let's look at the details of air operations i said early in the spring we were going after the german air force by factories. what is coming up in the summer of 1944? overlord. the main effort to come to grips with the germ

then it is jimmy doolittle. he will change the nature of the air war. war is as new to these guys as the common soldier. they have all the american air forces. not the america air force, it is the american air forces. he is under tremendous pressure throughout the war from roosevelt, who is under pressure from churchill. these guys cannot fly in daylight. you don't have escorts. you are getting hammered. you're getting hammered so hard your not able to have navigators get to the target properly. why don't you fold up the air force and commented bombers, learn to fly a knife and fly with us? it is safer at night. we don't try to aim specifically at this target or that target. city.e out nighttime, not being able to see doesn't matter. what matters is the luftwaffe. their casualties are staggering. , i gavee the characters onalk earlier in savannah the film we are making. these are major characters. this is rosie rosenthal. 51 missions, a jewish kid from ,rooklyn, all-american athlete baseball, football, lawyer. got a job with a law firm the day after pea

then there is jimmy doolittle. he will change the nature of the air war. the war is is new to these guys as the common soldier. doolittle was talking about arnold. it is not the american air force, it is the american air forces. in the eighth air force. he is in charge of all operations. he is under tremendous pressure throughout the war from roosevelt who is under pressure from churchill. churchill said -- you guys cannot fly in daylight. even with your combat boxes because you do not have escorts. you are getting hammered. you are getting hammered so hard, you cannot have your navigators get you to the target properly. why don't you fold up the eighth air force, and commit to british bombers, learn to fly at night and fly with us. it is safer at night. we do not try to him specifically at this target or that target. we wipe out the whole city. nighttime, not being able to see, does not matter. what matters to the pilot is that the luftwaffe cannot see either at night. their casualties were also pretty staggering. these are just some of the characters -- i

there were problems, this was a mission that was done in the same spirit as jimmy doolittle tokyo raid at the beginning of the war. it was was done in a kind of improvised way and taking weapons that were not intended to be use this way and using them, in in the hopes that it would work. in fact, the air force one and to keep this program going and use it against japan because they figured it would save pilots lives during what they thought would be the invasion of japan. >> was the celeb attempt, or were they ever successful in attacking the missile base question mark. >> this was the second to last attempt the navy made. there were several more, in all there were 18 attempts. the last of them, they gave up trying to hit the bunkers because they realize, this is a great tragic irony of the story, which i explain in the book, these bunkers they were trying to hit had already been abandoned by the germans. from the air, from aerial reconnaissance, they are built in such a way that they looked like they were still functional and the germans, realizing this put people out there to do busy