B-25 Lands in Santa Barbara

And thanks to the Mitchell (flying pillbox) the US won the battle for Midway 6 weeks after the extraordinary Doolittle (who did much more than little, if you get the joke) raid.
The "tactical" impact of the raid was very limited but the psychological impact on the Japanese was tremendous !
Until then (and for much of the previous 10 years) they had scored nothing but victories in their military actions in South East Asia and now, all of a sudden and totally unexpected Tokyo itself was being bombed ! Imagine the shock for this country who thought of itself as totally invincible.
As a result they shifted some of their military resources to protect the homeland, had less available for their attack to Midway and got a tremendous defeat in Midway (4 attack flattops sunk in one hour !!!) also with the help of the incredible genius of American Intelligence who tricked them to reveal the point of the attack the US had foreseen but couldn't whether it was Midway or the Aleutian Islands.
When the US code breakers decoded the "AF has water supply problems" message from Tokyo HQ to the fleet they went : "Bingo, we got them". Their genius had tricked the Japanese to reveal where they were headed and allow the US to concentrate all of their forces to defend Midway.
On top of that the Japanese thought that Yorktown , having been heavily damaged a month earlier at the battle of the Coral Sea was out of action but the incredible and heroic crew of Pearl Harbor shipyard put it back in commission in 3 days of non-stop of 24 H work and, surprise ! surprise ! the US had 4 flattops at Midway rather than the 3 the Japanese expected.
Much of all of this is unfortunately unknown nowadays and should be taught and admired !
Thanks Doolittle who engineered the raid, thanks the 80 heroes who volunteered and flew the raid, thanks to the genius intelligence people and code breakers, thanks to the shipyard workers ! Thanks, of course to all the heroes who gave their lives fighting for (and saving) Midway, thanks to all you : Midway was THE turning point of the Pacific war and from then on the outcome was in the bag !

My father was a flight instructor for both the B-25 Mitchell and B-26 Martin Marauder in WWII. He loved the B-25 and said it was one of the easiest and most dependable aircraft he flew both during and after the War. I loved the times he would tell me that when the 75mm nose cannon was fired in the "G" and "H" versions, the plane would literally stop in mid-air for a couple of seconds. When you step into one of these planes, they seem incredibly small and cramped to house a crew of five. In regard to the engine noise, he never mentioned that there was a loss of hearing in any of the crew he flew with and he lived to be 96 with sharp hearing even at that advanced age. Cheers to all of the pilots and crew who flew these wonderful planes and helped this country win WWII and maintain the freedoms and liberty many of us seem to have forgotten or dismissed.

Thanks for this, Max!

Also known for having extremely loud engine noise, resulting in long-term hearing loss for crewmembers in the forward fuselage.

Max thank you for sharing these great photos and info. I don't know much about planes but when you hear one of these older planes like B-17 flying fortress or the B-25 there is no mistaking that engine sound.....some history of this particular plane here - https://b-25history.org/aircraft/4430801.htm