Jimmy Doolittle: a pilot and leader_美文_双语阅读-查字典英语网

Jimmy Doolittle: a pilot and leader

Jimmy Doolittle's test flight had shown that instruments could help pilots fly. He proved that flying could be safe in almost any kind of weather.

On December seventh, nineteen forty-one, Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was the beginning of World War Two for the United States. In the next several months, the Japanese won victory after victory in Asia. Many people began to believe the Japanese could not be stopped. Many Americans believed the West Coast of the United States was in extreme danger.

President Roosevelt asked American military leaders to attack Japan as soon as possible. He said the American public needed a victory, even a small one, against Japan.

This would be extremely difficult. Japan controlled the Western Pacific area. Any attack would have to begin deep in Japanese-controlled territory. The only possible way to attack Japan was to fly large, two-engine bombing planes from a Navy carrier ship. It had never been done. American military leaders began looking for someone to lead the attack. They chose Jimmy Doolittle.

The chosen airplane was called the B-Twenty-Five Mitchell. It carried five men. From the beginning, Jimmy Doolittle knew the airplanes might be able to take off from a carrier. But he knew they could never land there. They were too big. The planes would have to fly from the carrier to Japan and then land in China.

The attack plan was a carefully guarded secret. The airplane crews did not know anything about it. They were only told the flight would be extremely dangerous. The sixteen airplanes and their crews were placed on the aircraft carrier Hornet near San Francisco. Jimmy Doolittle told his crews where they were going only after the carrier was at sea.