Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo 18 April 1942

[casey jones]

At 1230 hrs Saturday 18 April 1942 the hopes and dreams of Japan
to defeat America went up in smoke as Lt Robert Clever USAAF
lined up his 20 cent bomb sight on or near the Japanese carrier
Ruyo that was in dry dock before her shake down cruise.

Casey Jones

 

[SSI01]

Indeed. That was yesterday east of the Intl Date Line.

Dad was in the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco at the time. He told me although everyone in his battery was happy to hear about Doolittle's strike, he said they also halfway expected the entire Imperial Japanese Navy to come steaming over the horizon as soon as possible thereafter. They were on pins and needles for a while after the Doolittle attack. I seem to recall a story about his whole command being sent into a combat alert status early one morning (pre-dawn) because Coast Artillery radar had picked up an unidentified target 40 or 50 miles miles outside the Golden Gate Bridge - well beyond the Farallons. Presumably it never went beyond that since no more has been said of it.