| General
History
The
B-25 “Mitchell” Bomber was named after General
Billy Mitchell who, in the 1920’s was court-martialed
for insubordination for fighting his own war within the
Armed Services. Mitchell was certain the future of warfare
lay in Aviation. He pushed hard for a strong and effective
Air Force against military cut backs and a public tired
of war. Mitchell predicted, in the early 1920’s,
that one day the US would be caught sleeping by an enemy
that would attack United States territory by air, most
likely when we were least expecting it. Sure enough, 20
years later his prediction came true, when Sunday morning
December 7, 1941 the United States was caught totally
by surprised when Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor.
President Roosevelt, wanting to retaliate, called for
a plan to bomb Japanese mainland as soon as possible.
As there were no places close enough to Japan to launch
such a raid, a plan was devised to launch bombers from
the aircraft carrier “Hornet” from 400 miles
off the coast of Japan. When the fleet was spotted 200
miles short of their planned take-off point, the bombers
launched, knowing full well that they did not have the
range to complete the mission and make it to friendly
territory in China. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led the sixteen
bombers and 80 crewmen off the carrier. After individually
successfully dropping their bombs, a fortunate tailwind
helped the crews barely make it to the Chinese mainland.
In the dark and deteriorating weather, they each bailed
out or ditched as they ran out of fuel. Only 4 months
after the Pearl Harbor attack, the effect of the “Doolittle
Raid” was to create a great moral boost for the
Americans and caused the Japanese leaders to rethink their
strategy. B-25’s went on to be used in all major
theaters of the war. It was only fitting that General
Mitchell was honored by having the bomber which had retaliated
against his prophetic attack be named after him.
To
learn about the personal history of our very own North
American B-25J as well as comments from Kermit Weeks,
please visit our beautiful art deco facility and old-fashioned
hangars.
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Current
Value: $1,700,000
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