Doolittle B-25 engine mods?

[heated ice detector]

Purnells History of WWII indicates that it was a T/O run of 467 feet for Doolittle,
heading into a 40 knot gale, it reports that a Japanese patrol boat spotted the carrier group and relayed a message to expect an air strike the following day.
Three aux fuel tanks, ten 5 Gallon tins and a collapsible 360 gallon tank additionally installed.
An air raid drill was underway on their arrival but no fighter opposition and only one a/c was slightly damaged by anti aircraft fire. factory's, oil storage, military installations were bombed and 1 bomb from Lieutenant McElroys a/c put a bomb on the carrier Ryurho which was in dry dock, Norden bombsight removed for security reasons .
50 aircrew parachuted, 1 was killed , 8 captured by Japanese, 3 executed for deliberately bombing civilians, 1 other died as a POW

[RJM]

It looks as though once again PPRuNe has come through with the required information. It looks as though they leaned up the carbies and to hell with burnt valves or holes in pistons.

I found the following on

The Doolittle Raid, 1942

- another superb site for whiling away those otherwise profitable working hours...

After dropping their bomb-loads on their assigned targets, the attackers flew on until they ran out of fuel. Fifteen of the crews landed in Japanese-occupied China and made it to friendly territory with the aid of Chinese peasants. One crew landed in the Soviet Union and was immediately interned. Eight airmen were captured by the Japanese, four of whom were later executed.

There's also a good description there of Lt Lawson's beach landing.

[Brian Abraham]

We need to remember the price paid by the Chinese in aiding and abetting the downed Raiders. The Japanese army conducted a massive search for the airmen and in the process whole towns and villages that were suspected of harboring the Americans were burned to the ground and many civilians executed. The Japanese also wanted to occupy the area to prevent American air forces from establishing bases in China from which they could reach the Japanese mainland.

When Japanese troops moved out of the Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas in mid-August, they left behind a trail of devastation. Chinese estimates put the death toll at 250,000 civilians. In retaliation, the Japanese Army had also spread cholera, typhoid, plague and dysentery pathogens

[heated ice detector]

A bit of a thread shift re the Japanese use of biological warfare but Google unit 731 if interested

[pasir]

...
further to the related thread shift - Any Chinese who came under
Japanese cruel and barbaric domination could expect little mercy. Whether
or not aiding and abetting allied downed fliers made little difference - As Singapore discovered when estimated thousands of innocent Singapore Chinese were driven into the sea amd gunned down at about the time of the Tokyo raid - Not being related to the Doolittle raid made little difference - Any one of Chinese ancestry could or would be at risk !

...

[Load Toad]

The Doolittle raid was 18th April 1942.
The fall of Singapore was 15th February 1942.

I'm going to hazard a guess that the Japanese atrocities in Singapore spanned those dates with ease unfortunately and were not specific to the Doolittle raid. From what reading I've done.

[pasir]

..... It would take too long to list all Jap attrociies - heres just a fraction of
what many downed US airmen went through when taken alive by the Japanese in SE Asia and Pacific -


4 Downed US Pilots first paraded naked around Singapore city
then publicly beheaded.

At Handow - US Pilots tortured and burnt alive.

At Kendobo US aircrew were decapitated, cut up, fried and then eaten by
150 Jap Officers.

Captured B29 aircrew taken to Jap Medic centre - Cut up alive - blood
flow stopped up to time how long taken to die.

Macarthur came into considerable critiscism after the war for failing to bring to trial many of those Japs responsible for the above.


.....