History That Doesn't Suck
197: The Doolittle Raid & the Bataan Death March (Spring 1942)
19 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What led to the Doolittle Raid and its significance?
Hello, my friends. It's Professor Greg Jackson. Now you can see the live tour by land and by sea because we're planning a four-night VIP cruise aboard the beautiful Celebrity Reflection. From May 18th to the 22nd, we'll sail from Fort Lauderdale to Key West and the Bahamas.
While on board, I'll not only give a special private performance of my live show, The Unlikely Union, we'll also have a night of fun history trivia, a poolside party, nightly group dining together, excursions, and the ultimate book club meeting.
Because, if you don't know, I've been working on a book for the past two years, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate its publication this spring than with my family, friends, and the best history fans. So go to htbspodcast.com and click on live shows for more information or click the link in the show notes. Hope to see you on the road or at sea.
It's a little before 8 in the morning, April 18, 1942. We're in the open waters of the Western Pacific, about 650 nautical miles east of Japan, where Lieutenant Colonel James Jimmy Doolittle is doing something highly unusual for a U.S. Army airman. He's reporting to the bridge of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. And it doesn't take long for Jimmy to read the room. Something's wrong.
Captain Mark Mitcher briefs the 45-year-old, cleft-chinned flyboy. It looks like you're going to have to be on your way soon. They know we're here. That's right. The Japanese have spotted them. There isn't a moment to lose. Shaking the captain's hand, Jimmy rushes back to his cabin to grab his things, spreading the word as he runs. Until the loudspeakers spread the word faster, that is.
Surprised flight crews rush to get ready. Debt crews snap into action, spotting the B-25s into launch positions. But wait, why are Army Air Force crews, not Navy pilots, doing the flying? And what exactly is this mission? Well, it'll take a bit to warm up these medium bombers. Let me fill you in as they prepare for the mission. Here's the deal.
Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle is leading an aerial strike on Tokyo. Yes, the capital of the Japanese empire. The plan's origins go back to last December's attack on Pearl Harbor when President Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeing the need for a national morale boost, asked his top brass to find a way to hit Japan.
That need only grew over the next few months as Japan racked up victories at Wake Island, Guam, and, ugh, Bataan in the Philippines. America badly needs a psychological win. The plan is audacious. It calls for Jimmy's armada of 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers to take off from the Hornet's flight deck, roughly 500 miles out from Japan.
Now, carrier aircraft can normally strike around 200 miles out and make it back safely, but they wanna push that range today. Moreover, launching these medium twin engine bombers off a carrier is one thing, but landing these big boys on such a ship, that would be a different story. The answer to both of these dilemmas is simple, don't come back.
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Chapter 2: How did General Douglas MacArthur respond to the Japanese advances?
It's about noon in Tokyo. Civilians look up at planes overhead. In a twist from Pearl Harbor, some on the ground even wave, thinking these must be friendly aircraft, at least until the B-25s start dropping their four 500-pound bombs, some of which are incendiary. But the targets aren't random. flying over the imperial capital, as well as Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka.
They hit factories, an oil tank farm, warehouses, steelworks, and power facilities. They never used their machine guns. Jimmy Doolittle has specifically prohibited that. Likewise, they stayed clear of the imperial palace, though they could easily hit it. And with their work done, the Americans dodge scrambling fighters and push on toward China. Hours pass. It's late at night.
With no response from Chow Joe Airfield, Jimmy's crew fly a dead reckoning course in what they hope is the right direction until it's time to abandon ship. One by one, each man perishes into the darkness. Jimmy splashes down in the cold wet of a rice paddy. No crew in sight. But he sees a light. A farmhouse. Yes! Yes! Sloshing through the mud, he reaches the door. He knocks. Nothing.
Jimmy hollers. This phrase, he was told, means I am an American. But is this the right dialect? Is he even saying it correctly or did Jimmy just spout complete gibberish? Whatever the case, the lights go out as he hears a bolt slide shut. It's now the next morning.
After a sleepless, frigid night, Jimmy encounters a Chinese officer, a major, who speaks a little English, but the major doesn't buy his story. So, here's our flyboy, walking under military escort back to the rice paddy, where he swears he can show the major and his men his abandoned parachute. There's just one problem. When they get there, there's no parachute.
The soldiers question the nearby farmhouse. The family insists no one knocked last night. Nothing happened. The Major's men tighten their circle around Jimmy, ready to disarm and detain this supposed American. But just before things turn ugly, a few soldiers return from the farmhouse, holding the parachute the family had tried to hide. That changes everything.
With Jimmy's story confirmed, the Chinese major smiles, extends a hand in friendship, and officially welcomes Jimmy Doolittle to China. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story. Flying in five-man crews on 16 separate B-25s, 80 daring men, including Jimmy Doolittle himself, participated in the Doolittle raid.
Incredibly, only four were killed in action. Eight were taken prisoner by the Japanese. One B-25 landed in Russia, and after a year's detention, its crew makes it back to the States. The rest of these flyboys get back home relatively quickly, thanks to the assistance of Chinese civilians. but the Chinese suffer dearly.
Japanese reprisals escalate into something far more as a campaign of violence leaves tens of thousands of Chinese dead. Meanwhile, Japan is psychologically shaken as it feels a new level of vulnerability. And as for the United States, well, Uncle Sam is feeling a massive morale boost.
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Chapter 3: What were the conditions like for American and Filipino forces in Bataan?
Almost literally. Even when Doug MacArthur disappears to Australia on the White House's orders. Even when no help follows, leaving them feeling completely abandoned. These boys don't stop until there's truly no other choice. It's with good reason they'll be known as the Battling Bastards of Bataan.
As we'll see, they'll display a perseverance that only makes their horrific, inhumane fate, a death march to an even deadlier prisoner of war camp, all the harder to hear. On that note, if you're listening with the kids, maybe preview this one on your own first. The tales from this march might not be for the littlest of ears. It's a dark tale, but a necessary tale.
So on that note, let's leave Jimmy and his Doolittle Raiders in China and get to it by heading back to Washington, D.C. of December 1941. You know how we do that. Rewind. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is right. December 7th, 1941 is a date that will live in infamy. And the nation responds to that reality immediately.
In fact, as FDR is delivering this instantly famous speech, calling on Congress to declare war but one day later on December 8th, our most prominent proponent of isolationism in many a past episode, Charles Lindbergh, is coming to the same position.
Speaking in Chicago at the headquarters of the America First Committee, the famous aviator concedes that what happened in Hawaii means it's time for war. To quote Lucky Lindy, we have been stepping closer to war for many months. Now, it has come, and we must meet it as united Americans regardless of our attitude in the past.
Our country has been attacked by force of arms, and by force of arms we must retaliate. Congress agrees and acts swiftly. That same December 8th, to be exact. Following Franklin's speech, the Senate takes a mere 25 minutes to vote unanimously to declare war on Japan, and the House follows just 10 minutes after that.
Across both chambers, the sole vote against this joint resolution comes from the same lone voice that stood against President Woodrow Wilson's call for war two and a half decades ago in April 1917. Montana's recently returned to Congress representative, Jeanette Rankin.
The boos and hisses from her peers extend beyond the halls of Congress, and her political career will end as a result of this vote. The next day, December 9th, 1941, Franklin returns to one of his favorite methods of communication, the fireside chat. In his broadcast, FDR makes it clear that this war isn't just against Japan. Rather, it's a concerted effort against all the Axis powers.
The sudden criminal attacks perpetrated by the Japanese in the Pacific provide the climax of a decade of international immorality.
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Chapter 4: What was the strategy behind the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo?
Fleet will pass to Admiral Ernest J. King early next year. No relation to the young soldier just mentioned, by the way. Command of the Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor goes to Admiral Chester Nimitz that same December. Meanwhile, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific is hardly finished. As we learned in episode 194, the Empire of the Rising Sun launches several concurrent attacks.
These include British Malaya, Hong Kong, and Singapore, as well as several American territories. By 5.45 in the morning on December 10th, the Japanese force US troops on Guam to surrender. On Wake Island, 422 Marines and 58 enlisted men initially hold off continual air raids, but they too surrender to Japan later that month. The Japanese have also launched air raids on Midway.
And as all of this goes on, General Douglas MacArthur is doing all he can in the ongoing fight for the Philippines. Ah, the Philippines. It's been a while since we first acquainted ourselves with this group of almost 7,100 islands and islets that extends 1,150 miles from north to south back in episode 107's coverage of the Philippine-American War. Let's get you up to speed before we get too deep.
First, I trust you recall that the Philippine-American War ended in 1902 with an American victory. Well, mostly ended. Some fought on, but 1902 is our official end date. Yes, that was a brutal war. Nonetheless, relations between the Philippines and the United States have strengthened significantly since then. In fact, independence is now in sight.
Particularly ever since 1934, when Filipino representative and advocate Manuel Quezon succeeded in convincing Congress to pass the Tidings-McDuffie Act. This made his country an all-but-autonomous commonwealth under congressional oversight on a 10-year path to full independence as a sovereign nation and republic.
One year later, in 1935, General Douglas MacArthur became the Commonwealth government's military advisor. In brief, this seasoned World War I vet, whose own father once fought on these islands in the Philippine-American War, was to help modernize the Philippine military and get it into shape before the nation went fully independent.
Doug continued to serve in this advisory role even after his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1937. A retirement that ended as the looming threat of war with Japan brought him back to the U.S. Army in July 1941 as commander in the Far East.
And I'd say that gets us up to speed on the Commonwealth of the Philippines, its relationship to the United States, and Douglas MacArthur's past and current role on the archipelago when the Japanese landed that devastating blow against Doug's still-on-the-ground planes on December 8, 1941.
I'm sure you recall that initial attack from Episode 194, and with this background, we're now ready to continue the tale of the fight for the Philippines. That same December day, the Japanese spread throughout the archipelago. They hit the island of Luzon and the Davao region of the island of Mindanao.
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Chapter 5: How did the Bataan Death March unfold after the surrender?
No people, no livestock. Just huts perched on bamboo stilts, surrounded by coconut palms gently whispering in the wind. With no visible enemy forces, the cavalrymen push forward into Morong. with their horses' heads in line with the roofs of the huts. Ed and his troops maneuver through eerily empty dirt paths.
Pedro Uperio, the 19-year-old Filipino cavalryman riding point on today's mission, looks behind the only stone building in town, the Catholic Church. Then suddenly, the monotonous sound of horses' hooves is interrupted by an explosion. Amid a flurry of rifle and machine gun fire, Pedro gallops back, his horse covered in blood.
It's the Japanese army, all right, entering the town from the opposite side. Startled, Ed looks up to see their far more numerous enemy, the hundreds of Japanese soldiers dressed in drab khaki uniforms, wading their way through the river. Ed knows he has exactly one chance to stop this. It's by no means a guarantee, but they have to act now and fast.
Raising his pistol in the air, Ed shouts to his 26 cavalrymen to make a line. The men snap, too, and with every man and horse formed up, he brings down his arm while shouting the command, Charge! Bent down over their horses' necks, each man pushes his steed to a hard gallop as they fire pistols at nearly point blank into their foe. It's a truly terrifying sight, and utterly unexpected.
A cavalry charge. An actual, old-fashioned, yesteryear, or rather yesterwar, cavalry charge. A few Japanese soldiers attempt to fire back, but most are so caught off guard, they flee in confusion, running into the river or swamps. As Ed will later recall, to them, we must have seen a vision from another century. Wild-eyed horses, pounding headlong, cheering, whooping men, firing from the saddles.
What we just witnessed was the last American cavalry charge, or at least the last of the century. Yeah, century. In 2001, U.S. Army Special Forces will ride with Afghan cavalry against the Taliban. And does that classify as a charge? Well, let's not worry about that. We're getting way ahead of ourselves.
Sticking with our present of January 1942, Lieutenant Edwin Ramsey's charge is instantly seen as the stuff of legend. Between his bravery and shot up knee, he's awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. But alas, it only buys the American and Filipino forces at Morong 24 hours. The 26th Cavalry suffers heavy losses and ultimately must abandon the town to the advancing Japanese.
Taken to medical on account of his need, Ed learns of the loss of Morong when he wakes the following morning. The news is crushing. As he explains, we had been promised relief, but none was coming and all of us in Bataan shared a sense of betrayal. We were fighting as hard as we could just to stay alive. And with each of us who died, that fight became more desperate.
January 1942 continues like this, with heroic moments like Ed's charge, followed by yet another retreat deeper into the peninsula, all while American and Filipino forces wait and pray for deliverance. Aircraft, battleships, any help at all from Uncle Sam. General Skinny Wainwright even leads a counterattack of his own.
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Chapter 6: What were the experiences of POWs during the Bataan Death March?
Just then, a bullet rips through John's hand, taking off a finger. Firing erupts in every direction as the men try to locate and kill the Japanese snipers. Leroy's tanks attempt to continue advancing, but an enormous banyan tree with huge jutting roots and draping of flanged branches blocks the way.
Next to this halted tank, Bill Bianchi fires his rifle, but soon suffers the same fate as the communications officer. Two bullets rip his left hand apart. Still standing, he drops the rifle and switches to his pistol. It's in this moment, as bullets fly and blood pours from his mangled hand, that Bill notices a machine gun nest on the far side of this enormous twisted tree.
So, the one-handed soldier throws two grenades at him. His excellent aim silences this nest. but still more guns farther back are firing from the jungle tree's cover. Bill climbs on top of the tank as it attempts to maneuver. He reaches toward the anti-aircraft machine gun, and suddenly two more bullets come his way, tearing into his chest.
Somehow still conscious and not incapacitated, the Bullet Riddle, one-handed Minnesotan, steadies himself, grabs the machine gun, and fires into the brush. And that's when an explosion throws him from the top. Miraculously alive, Bill is dragged to safety as the singed tank crew crawls from their burning vehicle under rifle cover.
Only when another tank arrives do other grenade-lobbying infantrymen finally clear the last of the Japanese troops from behind the bandage that started it all. Later in the night, the wounded American and Filipino soldiers are loaded into a truck bound for evacuation to a hospital. Among them is Bill Bianchi. He not only survives, he's back fighting a month or so later.
Bill receives the Medal of Honor for his one-handed shot through the chest courage under fire. That's the third Medal of Honor awarded amid the action here on Bataan so far. Meanwhile, the Battle of the Pockets drags on for days. Sometimes there are direct attacks. Other times, the Allies sit in foxholes waiting for Japanese soldiers to pass in the darkness.
Medical doctor Captain Paul Ashton describes one night, Very slowly and quietly, I brought my arm out into the complete darkness and touched the end of a rifle, then brought my hand along it and felt a nose and face. I managed to grasp the rifle and hold it long enough to plunge the bayonet again and again deep into his neck.
I cringed as deeply into my foxhole as I could and listened as the gurgling and choking gradually slowed. After 19 straight days of fighting, with almost no artillery and barely any rations, the Americans and Filipinos stopped the Japanese from linking the pockets and managed to reform the Abukai Line on February 17, 1942.
Bataan is still theirs, and for the first time since the first torpedo struck in Pearl Harbor's shallow waters, the Japanese have not only been stopped, but pushed back. But the good news doesn't last. General Homa responds with a blockade around the peninsula.
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Chapter 7: What were the consequences of the Bataan Death March for the soldiers involved?
Navy's top brass in Australia are voluntold to do better, and three days later, on the evening of March 16th, two brand new flying fortresses arrive. Still one plane short from what was planned, the MacArthur's only take their clothes and a mattress for little Arthur, who's feeling seasick.
This mattress generates rumors later that the general has stuffed it with gold coins that he's smuggling into Australia. In reality, he's importing straw. Flown by a pilot operating on eight cups of coffee and nerves, the B-17 is no better for motion sickness than the PT boats.
The battered metal behemoth backfires and stutters through the skies, but survives enemy fire over the Dutch East Indies. Nor is that the end of their troubles. As the 10-hour, over 1,000-mile flight nears Darwin, Australia, word arrives that the Japanese are attacking the city. As a result, they're rerouted to nearby Bachelor Airfield.
Finally on Australian soil, Gene MacArthur shouts, Never, never again will anybody get me into an airplane, not for any reason.
Oh, the irony. Moments later, they learn that the Japanese are moving in on Bachelor Airfield. With no other choice, the MacArthur's are once again back in the air for another 1,000-mile flight to the safety of Australia's outback. Landing yet again, a train awaits them in the small town of Alice Springs.
On March 18th, seven days since their initial departure, Doug rests his head on Jean's shoulder as the train carries them over 1,000 miles south. She tells his aide, Sid Huff, that's the first time he's really slept since Pearl Harbor. But his rest is brief, as this journey of just under 5,000 miles nears its end. Doug encounters a cheering crowd at one of his last stops in South Australia.
It's about two in the morning, March 20th, 1942. The train carrying Douglas MacArthur, his wife, his son, and his entourage is coming to a stop in the small town of Tarawi in South Australia. They're here to change rail cars. The 62-year-old general in a laurel-wreathed cap, a loose hanging tan jacket and slacks rises from his wooden train seat, ready to stretch his legs.
And then he hears something. Is that a cheering? Stepping onto the platform, Doug is stunned to see his supposedly secret car surrounded by a crowd. An excited one at that, shouting, welcome to Australia. As Doug looks on in surprise at his kind Aussie hosts, someone seizes his hand. It's his deputy chief of staff, Dick Marshall.
Dick has arranged for a new, more comfortable private car to carry Doug the last 600 miles to Melbourne. But he couldn't do it without attracting some attention. No matter, Doug immediately asks if it's true what he's heard about American troop numbers in Australia. Dick confirms it. Barely over 25,000. Doug feels gutted. He left his boys back on Bataan, believing help was coming.
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Chapter 8: How did the fall of Bataan impact the overall war in the Pacific?
An understandable sentiment. But more people give a damn than Baton's defenders, or the battling bastards, as the poem calls them, might feel.
With Doug MacArthur running the bigger picture from Australia, General Skinny Wainwright is giving all the dams he can as he steps up as commander of all American and Filipino forces in the Philippines, leaving General Edward King as the field commander over Bataan. As Skinny tells one of his aides, Lee marched on Gettysburg with less men than I have. We're not licked yet.
Nice thought, Skinny, but Robert E. Lee lost that one. And right now, the Japanese are determined to ensure that aspect of the comparison holds true as well. Frustrated that Bataan hasn't fallen as quickly as Burma, Singapore, the East Indies, and Java, the Empire of the Rising Sun withdraws thousands of troops from other areas to flood the peninsula with an additional 50,000 men.
This renewed attack begins at the end of March and continues into April. General Skinny Wainwright mournfully notes later that the Japanese attacked the Second Corps, quote, with bared bayonets and were met by the bayonets of malarial men with not enough food in their bellies to sustain a dog, close quote.
The American and Filipino soldiers do their best to muster a counterattack, but many are so weak they can barely carry a weapon 100 yards. General Edward King refuses to watch these starved boys get mowed down. He feels compelled to make a hard choice. Disobeying orders, he surrenders Bataan on April 9th, 1942.
Meeting with General Holmuth's representative, Colonel Nakayama Motoh, Edward does so unconditionally, but with assurances that his men will be treated properly.
After all, when he asks if Japan will abide by the rules of the Geneva Convention, a fair question since the land of the rising sun signed but didn't ratify the 1929 conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war, the colonel's translator answers, of course, we are not barbarians. Let us be clear, this is a commitment.
Article 2 of the 1929 Geneva Convention states, "...prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated and protected." Article 3 guarantees the respect of their person and honor, and Article 4 requires the capturing power to provide for their maintenance. The convention goes on, specifying proper evacuation procedures, how POW camps should work, and more.
It is with this understanding that General Edward King feels confident that surrender is the ethical decision, that it is the best way to save the lives of the over 75,000 men under his command. But this is not the reality these men soon experience. Many of these starving, exhausted, and malaria-infected soldiers will never reach their soon-to-be POW camp, Camp O'Donnell.
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