DroneScapes | From The Doolittle Raid To Air Commandos. An American Hero: Colonel Richard Cole @Dronescapes | Uploaded May 2024 | Updated October 2024, 3 days ago.
The story of Colonel Richard E. Cole. His participation in the Doolittle Raid, as co-pilot of the first B-25 Mitchell medium bomber (Aircraft Number One) that raided Tokyo after Pearl Harbor, to flying C-47 Skytrains to transport supplies from Burma to China over the dangerous Himalayan mountains known as The Hump, to being a volunteer for Project 9 of Air Commandos.
Richard Eugene Cole (September 7, 1915 – April 9, 2019) was a United States Air Force colonel. During World War II, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, Japan, on April 18, 1942. He served as the co-pilot to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the lead airplane of the raid by sixteen B-25 bombers, which for the first time took off from an aircraft carrier on a bombing mission.
Cole remained in China after the raid until June 1943 and served again in the China Burma India Theater from October 1943 until June 1944. He later served as operations advisor to the Venezuelan Air Force from 1959 to 1962. He retired from the Air Force in 1966 and became the last living Doolittle Raider in 2016.
Cole enlisted as an aviation cadet in the United States Army Air Forces on November 22, 1940, in Lubbock, Texas.
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1941 and rated as a pilot, when he was awarded his pilot wings at Randolph Field, Texas, on July 12, 1941. His first assignment was as a B-25 Mitchell pilot with the 34th Bomb Squadron of the 17th Bomb Group at Pendleton, Oregon, in July 1941.
Cole was assigned as the co-pilot of the first B-25 Mitchell medium bomber (Aircraft Number One), plane # 40–2344, for the famous "Doolittle Raid" in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor after two other pilots became ill. The raid was daring not only because of the intended targets, the Japanese homeland and its capital, Tokyo, but because the pilots trained to take off in a B-25 bomber from the deck of an aircraft carrier, something neither the designers of the B-25 nor the aircraft carrier, ever envisioned. Cole was co-pilot in the first bomber to depart the deck of the USS Hornet during the mission, and it was piloted by the leader of the raid, then-Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, giving him, and the plane, the very least amount of runway available.
On April 18, 1942, Doolittle and his B-25's four crewmembers, took off from the Hornet, reached Tokyo, Japan, bombed their target, then headed for their recovery airfield in China. Doolittle and his crew bailed out safely over China when their B-25 ran out of fuel after flying 2,500 miles (4,000 km). By then, they had been flying for about 13 hours, it was nighttime, the weather was stormy, and Doolittle was unable to locate their landing field in Quzhou. He and his crew linked up after the bailout and were helped through Japanese lines by Chinese guerrillas and American missionary John Birch.
B-25 General characteristics
Crew: 5 (one pilot, navigator/bombardier, turret gunner/engineer, radio operator/waist gunner, tail gunner)
Length: 52 ft 11 in (16.13 m)
Wingspan: 67 ft 7 in (20.60 m)
Height: 16 ft 4 in (4.98 m)
Wing area: 618 sq ft (57.4 m2)
Airfoil: root: NACA 23017; tip: NACA 4409R
Empty weight: 19,480 lb (8,836 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 35,000 lb (15,876 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Wright R-2600-92 Twin Cyclone 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial piston engines, 1,700 hp (1,300 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 272 mph (438 km/h, 236 kn) at 13,000 ft (4,000 m)
Cruise speed: 230 mph (370 km/h, 200 kn)
Range: 1,350 mi (2,170 km, 1,170 nmi)
Service ceiling: 24,200 ft (7,400 m)
Armament
Guns: 12–18 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns and 75 mm (2.95 in) T13E1 cannon
Hardpoints: 2,000 lb (900 kg) ventral shackles to hold one external Mark 13 torpedo
Rockets: racks for eight 5 in (127 mm) high-velocity aircraft rockets (HVAR)
Bombs: 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) bombs
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#Doolittle #aircraft #aviation
The story of Colonel Richard E. Cole. His participation in the Doolittle Raid, as co-pilot of the first B-25 Mitchell medium bomber (Aircraft Number One) that raided Tokyo after Pearl Harbor, to flying C-47 Skytrains to transport supplies from Burma to China over the dangerous Himalayan mountains known as The Hump, to being a volunteer for Project 9 of Air Commandos.
Richard Eugene Cole (September 7, 1915 – April 9, 2019) was a United States Air Force colonel. During World War II, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, Japan, on April 18, 1942. He served as the co-pilot to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the lead airplane of the raid by sixteen B-25 bombers, which for the first time took off from an aircraft carrier on a bombing mission.
Cole remained in China after the raid until June 1943 and served again in the China Burma India Theater from October 1943 until June 1944. He later served as operations advisor to the Venezuelan Air Force from 1959 to 1962. He retired from the Air Force in 1966 and became the last living Doolittle Raider in 2016.
Cole enlisted as an aviation cadet in the United States Army Air Forces on November 22, 1940, in Lubbock, Texas.
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1941 and rated as a pilot, when he was awarded his pilot wings at Randolph Field, Texas, on July 12, 1941. His first assignment was as a B-25 Mitchell pilot with the 34th Bomb Squadron of the 17th Bomb Group at Pendleton, Oregon, in July 1941.
Cole was assigned as the co-pilot of the first B-25 Mitchell medium bomber (Aircraft Number One), plane # 40–2344, for the famous "Doolittle Raid" in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor after two other pilots became ill. The raid was daring not only because of the intended targets, the Japanese homeland and its capital, Tokyo, but because the pilots trained to take off in a B-25 bomber from the deck of an aircraft carrier, something neither the designers of the B-25 nor the aircraft carrier, ever envisioned. Cole was co-pilot in the first bomber to depart the deck of the USS Hornet during the mission, and it was piloted by the leader of the raid, then-Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, giving him, and the plane, the very least amount of runway available.
On April 18, 1942, Doolittle and his B-25's four crewmembers, took off from the Hornet, reached Tokyo, Japan, bombed their target, then headed for their recovery airfield in China. Doolittle and his crew bailed out safely over China when their B-25 ran out of fuel after flying 2,500 miles (4,000 km). By then, they had been flying for about 13 hours, it was nighttime, the weather was stormy, and Doolittle was unable to locate their landing field in Quzhou. He and his crew linked up after the bailout and were helped through Japanese lines by Chinese guerrillas and American missionary John Birch.
B-25 General characteristics
Crew: 5 (one pilot, navigator/bombardier, turret gunner/engineer, radio operator/waist gunner, tail gunner)
Length: 52 ft 11 in (16.13 m)
Wingspan: 67 ft 7 in (20.60 m)
Height: 16 ft 4 in (4.98 m)
Wing area: 618 sq ft (57.4 m2)
Airfoil: root: NACA 23017; tip: NACA 4409R
Empty weight: 19,480 lb (8,836 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 35,000 lb (15,876 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Wright R-2600-92 Twin Cyclone 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial piston engines, 1,700 hp (1,300 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 272 mph (438 km/h, 236 kn) at 13,000 ft (4,000 m)
Cruise speed: 230 mph (370 km/h, 200 kn)
Range: 1,350 mi (2,170 km, 1,170 nmi)
Service ceiling: 24,200 ft (7,400 m)
Armament
Guns: 12–18 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns and 75 mm (2.95 in) T13E1 cannon
Hardpoints: 2,000 lb (900 kg) ventral shackles to hold one external Mark 13 torpedo
Rockets: racks for eight 5 in (127 mm) high-velocity aircraft rockets (HVAR)
Bombs: 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) bombs
Watch more aircraft, heroes, and their stories and missions ➤ youtube.com/@Dronescapes
To support/join the channel ➤ youtube.com/@Dronescapes/join
IG ➤ instagram.com/dronescapesvideos
FB ➤ facebook.com/Dronescapesvideos
X/Twitter ➤ dronescapes.video/2p89vedj
THREADS ➤ threads.net/@dronescapesvideos
#Doolittle #aircraft #aviation
