The Doolittle Raid, also known as Doolittle's Raid, as well as the Great Tokyo Air Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japanese archipelago. Although the raid caused comparatively minor damage, it demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attacks. It served as an initial retaliation for the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was planned by, led by, and named after Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle.
Under the final plan, 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, each with a crew of five, were launched from the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet, in the Pacific Ocean. There were no fighter escorts. After bombing the military and industrial targets, the crews were to continue westward to land in China.
On the ground, the raid killed about 50 people and injured 400. Damage to Japanese military and industrial targets was slight, but the raid had major psychological effects. In the United States, it raised morale. In Japan, it raised fear and doubt about the ability of military leaders to defend the home islands, but the bombing and strafing of civilians created a desire for retribution, this was exploited for propaganda purposes. The raid also pushed forward Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plans to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific, an attack that turned into a decisive defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the US Navy in the Battle of Midway. The consequences of the Doolittle Raid were most severely felt in China: in reprisal for the raid, the Japanese launched the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign, killing 250,000 civilians and 70,000 soldiers.
Of the 16 crews involved, 14 returned to the United States or reached the safety of American forces, though one man was killed while bailing out. Eight men were captured by Japanese forces in eastern China (the other two crew members having drowned in the sea), and three of these were later executed. All but one of the B-25s were destroyed in crashes, while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union.*
Because the Soviet Union was not officially at war with Japan, it was required, under international law, to intern the crew during the war, and their B-25 was confiscated. However, within a year, the crew was secretly allowed to leave the Soviet Union, under the guise of an escape, they returned to the United States or to American units elsewhere by way of Allied-occupied Iran and North Africa.
Doolittle initially believed that the loss of his aircraft would lead to his court-martial,instead he received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two ranks to brigadier general.

*After departing Japan, fifteen of the 16 aircraft then proceeded southwest off the southeastern coast of Japan and across the East China Sea toward eastern China. One B-25, piloted by Captain Edward J. York, was extremely low on fuel, and headed instead for the Soviet Union rather than be forced to ditch in the middle of the East China Sea. Several fields in Zhejiang province were supposed to be ready to guide them in using homing beacons, then recover and refuel them for continuing on to Chongqing, the wartime Kuomintang capital. The primary base was at Zhuzhou, toward which all the aircraft navigated, but Halsey never sent the planned signal to alert them, apparently because of a possible threat to the task force.
The raiders faced several unforeseen challenges during their flight to China: night was approaching, the aircraft were running low on fuel, and the weather was rapidly deteriorating. None would have reached China if not for a tail wind as they came off the target, which increased their ground speed by 25 kn (29 mph) for seven hours. The crews realized they would probably not be able to reach their intended bases in China, leaving them the option of either bailing out over eastern China or crash-landing along the Chinese coast.
All 15 aircraft reached the Chinese coast after 13 hours of flight and crash-landed or the crews bailed out. One crewman, 20-year-old Corporal Leland D. Faktor, flight engineer/gunner with 1st Lt. Robert M. Gray, was killed during his bailout attempt over China, the only man in that crew to be lost. Two crews (10 men) were missing.
The 16th aircraft, commanded by Capt. Edward York (eighth off – AC #40-2242) flew to the Soviet Union and landed 40 miles beyond Vladivostok at Vozdvizhenka. As the USSR was not at war with Japan, and a Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact was officially in force, the Soviet government was officially unable to immediately repatriate any Allied personnel involved in hostilities, who entered Soviet territory. Furthermore, at the time, the Soviet Far East was vulnerable to military action by Japanese forces. Consequently, in accordance with international law, the crew members were interned, despite official US requests for their release, and the B-25 was impounded. York would later report that he and his crew had been treated well by the Soviet authorities. Several months later, they were relocated to Ashgabat (Ashkhabad), in what was then the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, 20 miles from the Soviet-Iranian border. In mid-1943, they were allowed to cross the border into Allied-occupied Iran. The Americans presented themselves to a British consulate on 11 May 1943. A cover story was concocted that York had bribed a smuggler to assist them in escaping from Soviet custody. The fact that the "smuggling" had been staged by the NKVD was later confirmed by declassified Soviet archives.
Doolittle and his crew, after parachuting into China, received assistance from Chinese soldiers and civilians, as well as John Birch, an American missionary in China. As did the others who participated in the mission, Doolittle had to bail out, but he landed in a heap of dung (saving a previously injured ankle from breaking) in a paddy in China near Quzhou. The mission was the longest ever flown in combat by the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, averaging about 2,250 nautical miles.

Pic #1 - Description on photo. 

Pic #2 - Doolittle Crew - L-R, Front - Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, Pilot - Lt. Richard E. Cole, Copilot - Back - Lt. Henry A. Potter, Navigator - SSgt Fred A. Braemer, Bombardier - SSgt. Paul J. Leonard, Flight Engineer/Gunner - 4.18.1942

Pic's 3 & 4 - Doolittle B25B Mitchell Taking Off From The USS Hornet (CV-8) Doolittle Raid On Japan - 4.18.1942

Pic #5 - Doolittle Raid - Nose Art (40-2249) - 'Hari Kari-er'

Order Of Launch and Disposition of the Doolittle Raid B-25B Aircraft

Pic #6 - Aft View Of The USS Hornet (CV-8) Doolittle Raid On Japan - Visible Are 8 Of 16 B-25B Mitchell Bombers And 4 Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bombers - Gleaves Class Destroyer USS Gwin (DD-433) Coming Alongside With Light Cruiser USS Nashville (CL-43) To The Left Rear - 4.18.1942

Doolittle Raid Over Tokyo WWII Newsreel (Great Original Footage)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=575&v=-yXzYxUC93A