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MWSA Review
Author Paul D. Burgess makes the drama, bravery, and bravado of the men of the April 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo relatable to everyone.
In Doolittle’s Men, the author focuses on three of sixteen Army aircrews under Doolittle’s command. They knew they would not have enough fuel to return to the USS Hornet as they flew into the unknown, but volunteered for the mission, nonetheless. The author takes us aboard their planes as we follow them through their harrowing takeoff from the carrier, their bombing raid on Tokyo, problems with the airplanes, and the aftermath once they landed at an Allied airbase in China, crashed, or parachuted to land.
Burgess relates the assistance offered by Chinese villagers and missionaries who aided the airmen, offering them whatever medical care they could, providing shelter and food, and leading them through the countryside to safety as Japanese forces relentlessly took China under its control, mile by mile.
The Chinese risked their lives to help, and they were severely punished for it. The women were raped, most of the Chinese who aided the airmen were killed, their livestock was slaughtered, and their villages burned to the ground. The author, sometimes in disturbing detail, depicts the depravities the Japanese conquerors forced on the Chinese population as well as on one captured aircrew.
The pace of the book is riveting. The end of each chapter forces the reader to turn the page. The emotions are genuine. The characters are well-drawn, and the dialog is realistic, ensuring the reader understands the closeness of each five-man crew. Each crew created bonds only those who were there at that time could ever share or fully appreciate.
This book brings the Tokyo raid to life. For those unacquainted with World War II, it provides the context for why Doolittle’s raid was so important during the first year of America’s involvement in the war. It takes the dry facts of history and breathes life into them, as we accompany these men, many of them quite young, on a mission that was a surprise attack on Japanese soil.
We owe these airmen, the Chinese villagers, and the missionaries in China a debt of gratitude for delivering a wake-up call to Japan—a call that made them realize they were not invincible. And Japan’s response to that call revealed the kind of enemy the Allies faced.
Doolittle’s Men is a book worth reading. Though written as a novel, the airmen in the book were real people, living real lives, in an extraordinary time. Their names are in history books. Their fates are in history books, too. Burgess brings them to life for us.
Review by Pat Walkow (February 2023)
Author's Synopsis
January, 1942. With Pearl Harbor still smoldering, President Roosevelt seeks to give America hope that all is not lost. The resulting mission called for renowned aviator, Jimmy Doolittle, to lead eighty men in sixteen army bombers off the deck of the carrier, USS Hornet. They would bomb targets in Japan, proceed to allied bases in China, and give America that hope. Almost nothing would go as planned.
In this novelization of the Doolittle raid, we follow three of those sixteen crews as they struggle off the storm-tossed flight deck of the Hornet, attack their targets, and escape against all odds to the Chinese mainland where their most harrowing experiences await.
Doolittle's Men is more than an edge-of-your-seat telling of an iconic war story. It is also an analysis of the human qualities required of those facing unimaginable challenges.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 351
Word Count: 89,500