First Heroes, The
- Book Review,
by Craig Nelson
From Publishers Weekly
Planned in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor at the behest of President Roosevelt, the U.S. bombing raids on Japan in spring 1942 were the first U.S. strikes of the war. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle of the Army Air Force, in consultation with the U.S. Navy, planned for B-25 medium bombers to take off from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet, hit targets including Tokyo and land at airfields in unoccupied China. The project was innovative and risky, as no medium bomber had ever taken off from an aircraft carrier, and at the time, Allied forces were being constantly beaten by the Japanese. Nelson (Let's Get Lost), whose father was a WWII Air Force pilot in New Guinea and whose mother served as a wartime air traffic controller in Atlanta, digs deeply into the planning, training and carrying out of the mission, sometimes awkwardly employing military slang, but infusing the account with infectious enthusiasm and numerous engaging first-person accounts. All the planes successfully took off and bombed their targets, but a last-minute hitch left them without enough fuel; most reached Allied lines, but eight crew members were captured by the Japanese and tried as war criminals: three were executed. The fates and subsequent careers of all the veterans quoted in the book are warmly detailed, making this an involving account of a lesser known period of the war.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The Doolittle Raid in April 1942 consisted of 16 B-25 bombers, crewed by 80 volunteers, who made the first air raid on the home islands of Japan. Four months after Pearl Harbor, they struggled off the USS Hornet, flew halfway across the Pacific, bombed Tokyo, and carried on into China. The attack went well and had strategic overtones far out of proportion to the modest damage inflicted: American pride was rejuvenated and Japanese overconfidence pricked. Fifteen of the planes crashed in China, while one crew landed safely in Vladivostok and was interned for a year. Of the participants, 80 percent survived, and most went on to other wartime duties. Nelson ably picks out the threads of the operation, from training to recovery of the flyers. There is interesting pre- and postwar biographical information about the 80 airmen, but the author is much less comfortable discussing grand strategy and the conduct of the war in the Pacific and European theaters. Although at times overly enthusiastic and overwritten, this book will find a place in every substantial World War II collection. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KSCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
Just four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a flight of brave aviators led by Jimmy Doolittle launched B-25s from the aircraft carrier HORNET to drop the first bombs on Tokyo. Against horrible odds, the surviving pilots faced torture, imprisonment, disease, and death upon landing in occupied China. The author tapped the memories of 20 living crew members and surveyed thousands of documents to compile the most complete and riveting account of the raid ever written. Raymond Todd's clear words, comfortable pace, and vocal inflections maintain an aura of patriotic excitement throughout the story, in which brave men and women, just doing their jobs, change the course of history. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
In April 1942, 16 American bombers under the overall command of James Doolittle attacked Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The military effects of the Doolittle raid were negligible, but the psychological effects were enormous. For the Americans, still reeling from the shock of Pearl Harbor, it provided a great emotional lift. The Japanese, supposedly impregnable in their home islands, now felt vulnerable, which probably led their high command to blunder into defeat at Midway. Nelson is the son and nephew of World War II veterans, and this work is clearly a labor of love. With unstinting admiration, he describes the heroism of the various crew members; in Nelson's view, they illustrated how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things when properly led and motivated. The most interesting part of the book is the harrowing story of survival as crew members are forced to ditch their planes on the Asian mainland. This is a thrilling real-life saga that both informs and inspires. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The Doolittle Raiders, as they became known, were a squadron of eighty scarcely trained young men led by the famous daredevil aviator Jimmy Doolittle. Their mission-the daring World War II bombing raid of Tokyo and other cities in April 1942-was successful until Japanese spies forced most of the squadron to crash-land in enemy-occupied China, where pilots were ferried underground across the country to safety. One plane landed in the Soviet port of Vladivostok, where the crew was eventually smuggled out of the country through Persia. Others were captured by the Japanese, confined to years of imprisonment and torture. The fact that 90 percent of the men involved came home alive was little short of a miracle.
Extensively researched, including interviews with twenty of the twenty-seven remaining survivors, The First Heroes vividly recreates America's first great victory of World War II. Craig Nelson follows the Doolittle Raiders from their secret training on a Florida airfield to their tense days in transit across the Pacific to the bombing itself and finally to their courageous accounts of survival against astonishing odds. This story of America's striking back at its enemies after a vicious surprise attack will resonate widely with the general public today and is sure to appeal to all readers of Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation.
From the Inside Flap
Advance praise for Craig Nelson's THE FIRST HEROES:
"The Doolittle Raid was Franklin Roosevelt's answer to Pearl Harbor. The gutsy mission shocked the Japanese, electrified America, and determined the shape and tenor of the entire Pacific War. If you want to read one book to understand how a humbled America rose to defeat mighty Japan, you hold that book in your hands. Read about the original 'Mission Impossible' of World War II. Read about the boys who flew off into history, believing they would never come back. Read about the boys who were the first heroes." (James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers)
"The First Heroes is epic in sweep. The story of the Doolittle Raid lifts off the page, as rich and engrossing as any legend, and Craig Nelson proceeds to bring to vivid life the dramatic story behind the story. This is an astonishing feat - the hours breathe with even the tiniest gesture of young men desperately fighting to stay alive, against the panorama of modern war and a turbulent century in the making. Nelson is an amazing storyteller." (Doug Stanton, author of In Harm's Way)
"In this passionate and intimate history, Craig Nelson reminds us that America's first response to Pearl Harbor was neither tepid nor undramatic, but rather one of warfare's boldest chapters of righteous revenge." (Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers)
"I vividly remember as a boy, in the demoralizing months following Pearl Harbor, the disbelief and elation that greeted news that American bombers had actually struck Tokyo! Now Craig Nelson has given us every detail, every secret, every story behind this raid, which first taught an insecure nation that we could hit this enemy and, in time, defeat him." (Joseph E. Persico, author of Roosevelt's Secret War)
"Craig Nelson has produced a book that is, quite simply, unforgettable. The First Heroes lives and moves with staggering power and vitality. I never wanted it to end." (Leon Bing, author of Do or Die)
"The First Heroes is the best kind of history: important, thoughtful, and wonderfully gripping. Craig Nelson has done a splendid job of making America's first victory in World War II seem so vital, so relevant, that reading it feels like living it." (Susan Isaacs, author of Long Time No See and Compromising Positions)
About the Author
Craig Nelson is the author of three previous books, most recently Let's Get Lost. His writings have appeared in Salon.com and a host of other publications. He was an editor at HarperCollins, Hyperion, and Random House for almost twenty years and has been profiled by Variety, Interview, Manhattan File, Inc., The Daily News, Publishers Weekly, and Time Out New York.
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