| Original caption: “Air Force personnel and equipment. Major General James Doolittle pilots a plane into the airport at Oujda, North Africa.” United States Army Air Force Major General James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) piloted Martin B-26B Marauder 41-17600 of the 449th Bomb Squadron, 322nd bomb Group, 12th Air Force. 41-17600 was previously assigned to the 2nd Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command, New Castle Air Force Base, Wilmington, Delaware, in May 1942. The 12th Air Force was activated at Bolling Field, Washington, District of Columbia, on August 20, 1942. Doolittle assumed command on September 23, 1942. Within 3 months of activation, 12th Air Force was in active combat in Africa. Doolittle directed the movement of men, materiel, and aircraft from the United States and the United Kingdom to African airfields. The Martin B-26 Marauder was a notoriously unforgiving airplane with a reputation among pilots that was not to be taken lightly. A champion of the Martin B-26 Marauder, Doolittle had flown it around the country to training fields to dispel myths that the type was a “widowmaker.” Doolittle made many demonstration flights to prove that it was a safe airplane if flown correctly. He flew it on 1 engine, stalled, and recovered, then answered questions to encourage pilots and aircrew to sign up to fly it. Eventually, Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) were trained on the type to shame men into flying it. Doolittle recalled in his memoir, “During those beginning weeks, we were having a very high rate of training accidents in the B-26 Marauder. The word was out that it was a “killer,” and I suspect that many crew members were convinced they could never survive the war in that airplane, not because of the enemy but because they would meet their maker in a noncombat accident. Having thoroughly tested the airplane before many of the combat crews had ever seen 1, I knew it was my job to show them that it was an airplane to be respected, but not feared. Master Sergeant Paul J. Leonard (June 19, 1912 – January 5, 1943), my faithful crew chief on the Tokyo raid, was still with me. I took him along as my copilot to the various B-26 units to demonstrate that it could be easily flown as a 1-pilot airplane, although regulations required 2 pilots on every flight. When they saw Paul in his mechanic’s coveralls refueling and caring for the plane and found that there was no 1 else aboard, they had their 1st lesson in B-26 management – it could be flown just as easily with 1 pilot as with 2. Proper training and confidence in the equipment were the answers, and I stressed this to the group commanders and the pilots. I then put on a show for them to prove that single-engine operation was as easy as flying with both engines operating.” “In theatre, Doolittle flew combat missions in the B-26. He recalled writing home in 1943 in his memoir, “Have been on a half dozen missions recently and thoroughly enjoyed them. Got a bang out of watching our fine American boys in action. They are tops. On one occasion, with flak bursting all around us, we were taking violent evasive action. One burst went off right in front of the bombardier in the nose of the plane, a B-26. I was in the copilot’s seat and watched as he threw up his hands and fell back. Thought he was hit, but it was only a close miss. He promptly glued his eye to the bombsight and said, calmly, ‘Hold her steady now, sir.’ Every indication was to call for further evasive action, but he had a job to do, so he requested straight and level flight. It was the most intense and accurate flak I or any of the rest of the gang had ever seen. We lost two ships to enemy fighters, and one was severely damaged by flak. The latter got home with only one badly wounded crew member.” But the missions were inherently dangerous. Leonard, his crew chief since before the war, was Killed in Action on January 5, 1943, while fighting against an air attack. Doolittle recalled in his memoirs: “There was one B-26 trip that Paul Leonard, my crew chief, and I took to Youks-les-Bains, Algeria, that I have tried to forget but can’t. I had to go into town to attend to some business with the ground commanders there. I left Paul to take care of the airplane. About midnight that night, the Germans came over and bombed the airfield. I tried to get out there to see if our plane had been damaged, but couldn’t because an ammunition dump had been hit along the road and ammunition was exploding all over the place. The next morning, I found the airplane. Paul had moved it to the other side of the field. The plane was there, but Paul was not. I found that he had operated the top turret machine gun in the plane as long as the batteries held out and had shot back at the German planes that were bombing and strafing the field. Empty .50-caliber shells were all over the place beneath the plane. Finally, I found a bomb crater nearby. It was part of an older one, and I pieced together what had happened. Paul had fought the attackers as long as he could and then leaped into the crater for protection. But another bomb, aimed at the plane, had missed its mark and had hit the old bomb crater instead. I found what was left of Paul. It was his left hand off at the wrist, with a wristwatch still in place. This was all that remained of the wonderful boy who had tried to cheer me up in China in my saddest moment. I had to write to his widow to tell her the bad news. I said, ‘The softening point of this tragedy is that he never knew that it was coming and never knew that it hit him. If he had to go, it was the way he would have preferred, quick, clean, and painless.’ Paul’s loss was my greatest personal tragedy of the war.” Doolittle took command of joint Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) air assets to form the Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF) on February 18, 1943. United States Army Air Force Lieutenant General Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz (June 28, 1891 – July 14, 1974) replaced Doolittle as Commander of the 12th Air Force on March 1, 1943. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0975.jpg |
| Image Size | 947.99 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2928 x 2365 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 29, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Oudja |
| State or Province | Oudja |
| Country | Morocco |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NRE-338-FTL(EF)-2700(1) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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