It is pretty common knowledge that the Raiders had to take off early due to Japanese fishing boats spotting the USS Hornet. The plan was to land in China but not all made it to dry land. My question is, were there any talks with the Soviets to let the American bombers land on Russian soil? Landing on Russian soil would have taken off hundered of miles off the mission. I heard this mentioned on a program on The Military Channel yesterday evening and I am curious as if this has any merit? FT
The planners initially wanted to use the Vladivostok area as the landing site, but the Soviets would not relent citing unwillingness to provoke Japan, and thus the China sites were selected.
Stain's Soviets were pretty leery concerning landing rights in the east, even the B-29s which were forced down in Soviet territory were "confiscated" and later retro-engineered. The crews were returned to American control, but in a very round about fashion, and this was nearing the end of the war when Japan was far less of a threat to the USSR than it had been in 1942.
Wouldn't that involve Russia in an act of war with Japan? Historically when one B-25 showed up unexpectedly and was interned, Russia was acting correctly as a neutral nation with regard to Japan, but planning ahead of time to recieve the entire force would be a distinctly hostile act. Russia did not need war with Japan at that point, and I don't think the US wanted them in that war either. Our principal route for Lend-Lease to Russia was via Vladivostok, which the Japanese could easily cut off (strange as it seems, almost half the LL we sent to Russia to help her fight Germany passed through Japanese waters). We needed Russo-Japanese neutrality to hold until Germany was defeated. We wanted the B-25s to go to the Chinese air force, where they would be a significant addition, and Doolittle and his men back in the war. Did the program suggest what would happen to them after landing in Russia? The Russians were legally obligated to intern them unless they wanted war with Japan. More to the point, until we sighted the Japanese picket boats, we had no reason to think we couldn't launch the B-25s close enough to make it to China.
Carronade, The program did not mention what would become of the men and planes if indeed a landing was made in Russia. I understand the points made why the Russians did not want war with Japan (until Japan was defeated). People say "The Red Army tore the guts out of the Whermacht etc". But it just seems to me they could have been more help to the Allies in the PTO..IMHO FT
I thought the original idea was to return to the carriers and ditch alongside, before Doolittle sugested Vladivostok. Nit-picking, I know.
The Soviets had valid reasons for not allowing the mission to land in its territory, as Carronade pointed out. Still, the distance from Tokyo to Vladivostok was about 650 miles as opposed to the +1300 miles to the Chuchow area as intended. The mission profile called for 1900 miles with fuel planned for 2100 miles to allow reserve on either end. The added distance required that bomb weight be traded for fuel weight. The crews were told specifically during mission briefing that under no circumstances should they go to Vladivostok.
