How Jimmy Doolittle nearly revealed the biggest American secret of WWII

Today, April 18, marks the 77th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, the United States’ first counterattack on the Japanese mainland after Pearl Harbor. Eighty airmen in 16 modified B-25B Mitchell bombers launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet, about 650 nautical miles east of Japan, to strike Tokyo. While it only caused minor damage, the mission boosted morale on the U.S. homefront a little more than four months after Pearl Harbor, and sent a signal to the Japanese people not only that the U.S