The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on Saturday, April 18, 1942, was an air raid by the United States of America on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on the island of Honshu during World War II, the first air strike to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces.
Here is a very nice 5-minute video about the raid.
In addition to the related Adventure Pack scenery zip file from our downloads area, you will want to consider the following addons for this mission:
Corsair Fighter - This freeware plane is easy to fly and works well on the carrier used in this adventure.
B-25J Bomber - This freeware plane is the same model used to fly the Doolittle Raid and is easy to fly.
Carrier Catapult/Arrestor Cable - This very useful freeware addon is a great addtion for this adventure and any other carrier flights past and present (like the previous Titanic mission). It has been tested with the Corsair and the B-25 Bomber also recommended for this mission. While this mission can be flown without this addon, the landing of the Corsair back on the carrier is much easier with it. Use our own SPAARRCAB program rather than the older ARRCAB program. As the older program is NOT compatible with P3DV4 while SPAARRCAB is. Also SPAARRCAB is easier to install and use, but has less features than the older FSX version.
P3D-V4 Users:
You will want these P3DV4-compatible versions:
Corsair Fighter - This freeware plane is easy to fly and works well on the carrier used in this adventure.
B-25J Bomber - This freeware plane is the same model used to fly the Doolittle Raid and is easy to fly.
Also make sure you download the SPAARRCAB arrestor-cable program rather than the older non-compatible ARRCAB version.
Lastly, you may want to download Adventure Pack 9 zip file and install the gun effects in the subfolder in the zip file. This will allow your Corsair to actually fire at the enemy ship in Part-1 of Doolittles Raid. The folder comes with the effects, settings and instructions on how to modify your corsair's aircraft.cfg file. It's actually pretty easy.
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[Flight# AP81 (AC1-AC1)]
Carrier - Patrol Boat - Carrier (About .75 hours) - Aircraft: Corsair (recommended)
- Weather: Your choice
- Time: Daytime.
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Scenario:
For this flight we start on the carrier Enterprise in a fighter aircraft. Load saved "AP81" flight into FSX. The flight will start with you sitting on one of the carriers in the task force group in a powered kite. You may now change to the aircraft of your choice. I recommend the freeware corsair. I also recommend the addon program for launching and landing on the carrier. I recommend testing out the plane and the addon catapult/arrestor before flying the mission - especially if you'll be flying with other pilots and videoing it.
Now load the flight plan AP81, but DO NOT click ok button to move to that airport because you want to stay on the carrier! Note: The flight plan loaded into the GPS shows starting and ending at Tokyo Intl airport. This was necessary for the intermediate non-airport waypoints to show up in the GPS. You will want to change your GPS flight plan leg to the leg from the carrier waypoint where you are sitting to the target - a Japanese patrol boat, if you want to use an autopilot linked to GPS.
If you've loaded things correctly, you are now sitting on the escort carrier with the flight plan loaded that directs you to your target of the patrol boat. You'll notice that the rest of the taskforce is all around you, and the carrier Hornet with Doolittle's bombers will be to your right. Directly ahead a Japanese patrol boat was spotted and has just been attacked by the taskforce.
Take off from the carrier and fire upon the patrol boat (not the one already attacked and burning, but the one further away) until it explodes. Note: You cannot use the addon for catapulting the corsair from the deck because it doesn't work with tail-draggers, but it will be very useful upon your return to deploy the arrestor cables to stop your aircraft from rolling out over the side of the ship on landing.
Regardless of your aircraft type, the patrol boat attack is simulated if you attack it at an altitude of about 1000 ft.
. Upon successful destruction of the patrol boat, return to the carrier to complete AP8-1. -
[Flight# AP82 (AC2-RJTT)]
USS Hornet - Yokohama Oil Tanks - RJTT (About 1.5 hours) - Aircraft: B-25J Bomber
- Weather: Your choice
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Scenario:
In Scenario 2 you will load files similarly as described in AP81, but you will be loading saved flight AP82 and loading flight plan AP82. This time you'll be picking out a bomber to fly. I recommend the freeware B-25J, the type of plane that actually flew the mission.
If you've loaded things correctly, you're sitting on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in your bomber and have the flight plan loaded on your GPS. Again, you will want to have your GPS skip to the second leg of the flight plan to be from the carrier to the target, which is the oil storage tanks in Yokohama.
Take off and fly to the target. As you approach your target, the first land you'll fly over will be the Boso Peninsula. As you fly across Tokyo Bay to the target you'll want to adjust your altitude to about 1,200 to 1,000 ft. Higher than this and your bombardier will not be able to drop his bombs on the target.
As you approach the target you will see three groups of white storage tanks. Your mission is to drop bombs in a line along these three sets of tanks. Regardless of aircraft you use, the bombing of these tanks is simulated if your altitude is correct and you fly over your three targets.
Upon successful bombing, we will end this flight by landing at Tokyo Intl Airport (RJTT). During the real mission, our plane continued immediately to Russia, as the pilots would not have been well-received had they landed in Tokyo. Due to distance and time however, we will land at RJTT to complete AP82 and complete the flight to Russia in AP83.
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[Flight# AP83]
(RJTT-UHWW) (About 3 hours) - Aircraft: B-25J Bomber (recommended)
- Weather: Your discretion.
- Time: Daytime.
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Scenario:
Take off from RJTT and fly to UHWW. This 3.5 hour flight across the Sea of Japan ends flight AP83 and the Adventure Pack 8 Series. We will be landing at Knevichi Airport in Vladivostok, Primorskiy because the I don't believe the actual military airstrip in modeled.
