The B-25 Mitchell was a US twin-engined bomber which was used extensively by the American Army Air Corps during the Second World War in the Pacific and the European Theaters of operations. Almost 10,000 B-25 bombers were manufactured in several variants, the B-25A being the first one and the B-25J the last one to come out of the factory. Taking off from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, 16 B-25B bombers were used by commander Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle to carry out the first American air raid over Tokio in April 1942.
The North American B-25 Mitchell was designed by John Leland Atwood, who named his brainchild after General Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation, and was manufactured by the North American Aviation from 1940 to 1947. The B-25 was propelled by 2 Wright R-2600 Cyclone, 14-cylinder radial engines (1,850 hp each). It had a maximum speed of 275 mph and a range of 2,000 miles. It had also the capacity to extend range by using one-quarter wing flap settings. It had a crew of six.
The B-25 Mitchell was armed with twelve 12.7 mm machine guns and could carry up to 6,000 lb of bombs. It turned out to be a highly flexible medium bomber as it was used as a low-level attack aircraft. In the Southwest Pacific theater, a modified B-25 was used for treetop-level strafing and parachute-retarded fragmentation bombing against Japanese targets in New Guinea and the Philippines. It was also flown by several Allied nations during the war.
[...] the public morale, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle himself planned the air raid, choosing the B-25 Mitchell as the ideal bomber to execute that type of mission. 16 B-25B Mitchells took off from the aircraft [...]