History Book: The daring Doolittle raid

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, April 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Ten years ago, a chemical fire in Texas turns deadly. But first, two anniversaries from World War II: one in Europe and the other in Japan. Here’s World Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: We begin today on April 18th, 1942, just four months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Audio here from a Castle Films newsreel and commentator Basil Ruysdael:

NEWSREEL: Packed on the afterdeck of the Hornet are sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers. Never before have these huge planes been launched from a carrier.

U.S. forces speed toward Japan—for a surprise counter-attack on Tokyo and surrounding areas. The bomber pilots and crews have trained for months and only now discover why:

NEWSREEL: Not until they are miles at sea do these men know definitely the mission for which they have volunteered.

Due to discovery by a Japanese patrol vessel, the pilots and their crews decide to launch sooner than originally planned. But Colonel Doolittle and his bombers all make it to their Japanese targets without harassment. The squadron drops nearly 14 tons of bombs.

Seven of the 80 crew members die in the raid, or soon after. But the successful attack boosts Allied morale. The raid prompts Japan to keep four fighter groups close to home for defense during 1942 and 1943 instead of sending them to the South Pacific.

Doolittle’s raid becomes an effective recruiting tool. Capt. Ted Lawson’s book on the mission is later adapted into a successful feature film starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson.

MUSIC: [FROM FILM]

Meanwhile, in Europe, about 400,000 Jews live together in a Warsaw, Poland ghetto. Not long after the Doolittle Raids, German SS units begin mass Jewish deportations.

From July 22nd until September 12th, 1942, German forces and police units conduct the “Great Action”—killing as many as 35,000 Jews in their homes while “relocating” about 265,000 Jews to so-called “work camps,” most of whom later die. Over the next few months, those left behind in the ghetto begin constructing bunkers and underground shelters to hide from German authorities.

On April 19th, 1943—the eve of Passover—German forces arrive to begin the next phase of the Jewish purge. They discover stiff resistance. Nearly 700 Jewish fighters begin a coordinated attack—armed mainly with pistols, a few automatic weapons, and Molotov cocktails. The Warsaw ghetto uprising lasts twenty-seven days, sometimes devolving to hand-to-hand fighting.

In the end, the occupying German forces set fire to the ghetto. 7,000 Jewish residents are killed in the conflict. Another 7,000 are rounded up and executed. 42,000 survivors are captured and deported.

SOUND: [FROM MEMORIAL]

Last week, the presidents of Poland, Israel, and Germany gathered in Warsaw to mark the 80th anniversary of the uprising.

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier became his country’s first head of state to speak at a Warsaw ghetto uprising commemoration:

FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER: [SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

President Steinmeier told attendees: “I stand before you today and ask for your forgiveness for the crimes committed by Germans here, I bow to the dead in deep sorrow.” Then speaking to the presidents of Poland and Israel he added: “many people in your two countries have granted us Germans reconciliation despite these crimes.” Steinmeier called that a “miracle of reconciliation to be preserved into the future.”

SOUND: [FROM MEMORIAL]

And finally this morning—we mark the 10th anniversary of a fatal chemical fire in the city of West, Texas. On April 17th, 2013, many residents of the small Texas town are trying to get a good look at a large fire at a fertilizer plant on the edge of town. The facility is a stone throw away from the school and neighboring nursing home.

SOUND: [FATHER AND DAUGHTER SITTING IN TRUCK WATCHING FIRE]

Derrick Hurtt and his daughter Khloey want to snap a few photos so they pull into the local highschool parking lot. They are casually chatting in their pickup truck 300 yards from the fire. Hurtt is holding his cellphone outside the driver's side window videoing the blaze. When all of a sudden, the fertilizer explodes.

SOUND: [FATHER AND DAUGHTER SITTING IN TRUCK WATCHING FIRE]

The shockwave and debris shatter the windshield, throwing Derrick against his daughter.

The two are unharmed, but the explosion destroys a hundred homes and surrounding buildings leaving a 93-foot-wide crater. 15 people die in the blast—most of them fire-fighters. 160 other people are injured by flying metal and glass or collapsing homes.

The facility had previously been cited and fined for improper storage of ammonium nitrate and inadequate safety protocols.

In 2015, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that regulates storage and inspection of ammonium nitrate. It also gives greater authority to local officials to enforce regulation.

SOUND: [FROM MEMORIAL EVENT]

Last weekend hundreds turned out for a public ceremony at the city park memorial…featuring speeches, musical performances, and the screening of a new documentary.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

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