In Their Words; Oral History with Robert Hite

Well then those lights or anything beepers. Mine in a car. OK. Bob you entered the service September the night 1940. Yes. And Lubbock Texas right. You got an appointment from the senator to attend aviation school. Tell us about your time in school. Well they took all of the taxes I sent to the west coast and of course I'd hope to go to Randolph. So they sent me to Santa Maria California to the handguard school of aeronautics. So all of my training was on the west coast Santa Maria California was hand-carved school of aeronautics and that's where we did the P-T 13 Stearman.

Trainer and that's where we started. And then Basic we went. To San Jose and it rained so much there we couldn't get in our training. So they sent us down to Bakersfield and we lived in tents for our bikes. So and then you fly different types of aircraft. Yeah BT 13 at the base the peak the 13th was Sterman at primary hand-carved Spu. And then when we finished the basic They sent us to Stockton and we flew the American T6 aircraft which the Navy has. They did the same thing. What how did that come about that you had joined the service prior to September or December 7th 1941 before Pearl Harbor was bombed and how when this mission that we're gonna talk about with the do little raid. How did you become involved with that

mission. Those were all volunteer pilots is that correct. That's true. And did you volunteer for the mission. Yes but no so the way that all came about we were assigned all of the people that were pilots that were on this raid were. Graduating from flight school and my. And I graduated in May and my lower class men graduated the next month. And so we just came off right and we went on maneuvers all summer in the south and Carolina and Georgia and all of that. And then we graduated and we course graduated in May and we were second lieutenant. And then they sent us to the 17th bomb group which had. The first MI 25. And when and where was that located. And that was in Spokane Washington. The first time. And then.

We also did coast patrol from after the war broke out we did coast patrol after we'd been on maneuvers all summer down in the south Georgia and Carolina. And then I see after the after the Japanese bombed. Pearl Harbor. Then. We were going to say we were actually at the present at that particular time. We had gone to. Perfect ourselves at Alameda Naval Air Station I think it was. And that was what B-25 with the B-25 and we did all the bombing raids and you know fictitious bombing raids. And I want to learn how to use our B-25. They were new aircraft we had 75 B-25 and

with four squadrons at a medium range bomber. It was a medium. So how did you get the word about doing looking for volunteers. Well we had we had finished our maneuvers all those different places that we were all that summer. And. On. And we were reassigned down to. Columbia South Carolina. That by that time the intelligence and everything had worked out a deal. We had the bomb the president had requests. You know we've got to hit on the Japanese. So Doolittle came to our group and asked for volunteers for a special mission. And he said I cannot tell you anything about it. So our whole group just about volunteered down at Columbia not knowing

what the mission was not knowing what the mission was or anything. And then of course we trained we were sent down to Hegland feel that was. And down in Florida. And we were sent down there to do all this training and we had they had you know little fields about four or five fields around Egland. And. We had over 25 you know I think there were we had 20 to be 25 that were. They came out of the 17th bomb you for this special mission. Did you guys say you were training down there to get off that little deck of that ship. What we were training to make short field takeoff. We had no worth. The idea that there would be an aircraft carrier involved and we did all of that training in.

Florida and you know in the Florida area. And. Then so then we were told Doolittle was with us and he was working with the. The leaders of the group and squadrons and all of that. And all we were doing was practicing short field takeoff and then we also practiced. Fuel consumption runs to find out how. Many gallons of gas we could get down. You know people we didn't know all the details so you just knew that he was you know kind of squeeze the last hour or so. And so they finally put 200 gallons above the bomb by 200 gallons in the bomb by. They put a 60 gallon tank in the rear of the B-25. And gave us 10 five gallon cans of fuel. So that but this was after we knew what we were going to do. You know I mean

went into the up to the guys upstairs Doolittle and the Navy knew what we were going to do. And when did you find out what the mission was. We found that on the second day of April as we were going under the Golden Gate Bridge on an aircraft carrier Hornet. So when you said well after we got out from under the Golden Gate Bridge you said no announcement came on and everybody came together and said This force is bound for Tokyo and that was the first time that we knew who we thought we were going to go back and bomb the Germans or fly out of Europe. Yeah. So that was. And that was on April the well April the 2nd as we were going on of 1942. Did you go directly from San Francisco to the Tokyo Bay. Did you stop and.

Oh no way. Oh we picked up another carrier as we bypassed Honolulu on our direction west toward toward Japan. And the second carrier was enterprise a hornet and we were on board the Hornet and the Enterprise was the other part of the task force. And we picked up after we left San Francisco. And we're nearing the Honolulu area. We picked up all the rest of the Force tankers. And. While I don't know the name of all the different kind of ships that the Navy uses. Destroyers. And I don't know what other kind of ships they have. You guys talk a lot about the mission on the way. Here. Oh yeah. We were briefed daily by the Navy to the Navy customs and. About the aircraft carrier and all of

that. We were briefed on it and then our own people you know matter of fact. When they finally decided to take the they couldn't take the 22 aircraft they cut us down to 16 aircraft. My aircraft was cut so I didn't think I was on an aircraft 16 and 16 was all that could go. And you would number 16. Well you know I have a friend of mine who had also trained the same as I had. I got a little upset with his. Co-pilot. So he asked me if I'd go. I said yes. By airplane advents crash. I thought it was all over. For me as far as the mission was concerned. And by this time you knew what the mission was and you still wanted to go yeah. I didn't want to play a board that dagum character. Yeah but no one had

mentioned and knowing what your chances were safely landing anywhere. You know what was it like that morning when you flew off of that ship. Oh yeah. What was that like. Oh you guys were flying over that water low altitude approaching. Well you do to be. What happened as we had intended to go in and within about four hundred miles or 500 miles. And we had intended to be in a lot closer. And so we were going to make that takeoff around 4:00 p.m. in our 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon to make our raid and make a. Raid on. I am not right. And. Anyhow. We ran into Japanese shipping. And so the destroyer. And we did away with a Japanese ship right quick. And. We were ordered to take our the aircraft commander said we got to get these airplanes

off of the ship so he can fight our battle if we have to. You know because they had just sunk they just sunk this. Japanese vessel that they had discovered. And so. The first aircraft off with Jimmy Doolittle when he was off the aircraft carrier 8:20 a.m.. And we were number 16 and we were off the care at 9:20 a.m.. And each crew was assigned a target. Our target was no go. Now I think jiménez was Tokyo and. Osaka and Cobie I think where the other two nogo you. Osaka Yeah. And anyhow there were four different targets. And our aircraft were divided up among them the different targets that you had all day. Well you had all everybody hit their targets. We got aircraft factories and oil storage tanks.

At our targets and the go you. And we used incendiary clusters. And. We flew a little bit lower than we normally think we were hoping that everybody could bomb from fifteen hundred three. But I think we felt safer and better thought we could do our job is over in every other way. So anyhow we flew a little lower and we're supposed to. But we did get direct hits on all of our old storage tanks and aircraft factories. We had four different. Four different four bombs you know 500 pound sand or a cluster. Of 16 bombers that left the Hornet that day flying a mission trying to make it into China. How many aircraft were any of the aircraft able to reach the actual destination where they were when I landed China.

I don't I don't believe a single airplane did. We got to the. We were supposed to be in. We've flown to a target and been refueled. But the communications had been knocked out by the Japanese as they bombed everything you know. And so we were just on our own. We didn't everybody scramble for survival. Yeah. So. We bombed our targets and then we were just we knew that South was toward free China and West was toward our final destination which was actually PAY PAY not pay plane order. I can't remember our. Final destination but John King Nanking. And King was we were we were going to be refueled at a little point 190 miles outside of China. That

place was bombed out and there was no communications. So we were strictly on their own. We knew that South Korea China which was called final destination so we picked out a oh. Oh you'll be back. Of course. OK. OK. You are after you made your raid over Tokyo. You had a destination in China and you know I guess nobody made that final destination. They went to the four winds from there. That's right. Well as I said we knew that the South was from China and west toward our final destination. So we took up a south west coast. And I think there was only two airplanes that ended up in our vicinity and some crash to own a Coltons and many were they were pretty well scattered inside of a range of probably from.

A few miles to two hundred. And we were we were about 600 miles inside the coast of China. We were further. Inside the coast of China. Because we bailed out in a way where we ran out of fuel and had to bail out. We bailed out in an area that was occupied by the Japanese. So how many pilots or crew members total was captured by the Japanese. Of all five of my crew were captured and through three people off of crew number six. So were you at home are they homework homework's crew. And but the reason only three were captured off are here. The others were killed and bailed out.

So how many people survived that. How long were you in captivity. First of all. We were 40 months forty nine. I'm a long time. Yeah. How many people survived that captivity all the eight out of the three were executed by the Japanese. One died in prison. So there were four I was said to have lived. You and George Barr the navigator on my crew. Was too sick to come home when the war was over and they can't pay him and they didn't get him home for another month or so. The one who was shot was taken into custody by the Russians I understand. Yeah I don't know. I don't know their number right off the top. Do you have know what happened to them where they were. Yes. They were captured and held and they bailed out around.

I mean they landed in Vladivostok Russia which is you know right across the border right across the border there. Good day. They really captured a war. Oh well they yes they were moved to a different place and they actually escaped. Oh about a year and a half later. They escaped then and got free and got in the hands of the Americans. You want to talk about the end of your captivity. You talk about any of it. Well anything that you would like to tell all. This. I guess. The first year we were kept in Shanghai after you know after being we were interrogated. For about 70 days in Japan. They carried us Japan to Japan and interrogated us. For that long. They couldn't believe we told them we came from Alaska. Know.

What we told them we came from Alaska and they went to the carrier anyway and though. I don't think they were but they finally found out that's where we did come from they found our luggage and stuff. The stuff that we were in the crash cruise you know they found out. Well that was one of the biggest morale boosters of the war after Pearl Harbor. Do little raid over Tokyo not only hurt the morale of the Japanese but it really enhanced the morale of the U.S. forces special forces and it was a crime. That you know we had and nothing had happened offensively and so we flew off of that carrier during the. Course that it will be 25 out of 60 70 foot wingspan itself. So we didn't have much room to get all that is so amazing. A

recent carrier that. I saw. B-25 was sitting there and it just looked like a fighter plane on board. But you know army 25 was just. From the left edge of the deck to the island. There wasn't any space they were just enough room to bypass the island. You know that's the control tower the center of the of the carrier yes that would explain the question I had earlier took an hour between the last plane and the first point. General Doolittle plane yeah took a lot of prep time to get those up on deck what is supposed to be. Yes. Well they they told us into position. We all took off from the same point you know. So we were all told to the take off position. Did you farm up after that and you stay strong strong out like that after you took off. Oh we stayed sprung on stressed out between one another. You know. Everybody was on individual mission

mission and from then on we didn't fly in formation or anything. This was a one way trip. Most people that was on that mission knew the risk. They knew that the chances of coming back was not really good. Why did you. Obviously your situation was was to say the least most difficult after you became a prisoner of war when you were before you became a prisoner of war. Were you really afraid some of that stuff might happen. Well of course I thought I had you know bailed out at night. It was raining and cold and we bailed out and at about 11 I think it was late 1:30 p.m. at 9:00 and it was raining. And all of that. And. So I have someone around during the night and I finally found out about daylight. I went through a little old graveyard and I was in the rice paddies with you know my boat up

to the end all that mud and everything. We got it. And then you get on those little levees that they have and you can walk in. I walked to Johnny's house by morning. And so I had my knee pocket before I bailed out I had a lucky strike cigarettes and Baby Ruth candy bar and Lucky Strike cigarettes. So when I found this little farmhouse. Man and his wife and three children. And I gave them my candy bars and the old man and the father and mother they like the cigarette. So I gave them the cigarette and I told them I wanted to go to Chunkin UK you know. And I thought he understood. And so he put on a shawl and his hat and motioned for me to follow him. And so I followed him and he took me right to a little Japanese outpost. And it was a.

Little Chinese house and they were Chinese Chinese came out and met me in uniform Chinese uniform. And. He introduced himself and I introduced myself and I told him I want to go to John King. And about that time there was about 15 Japanese came out of that little cluster of houses back there and surrounded me with being air traffic. So. I was pretty sure I was a prisoner of war. But they tried to make believe that they were Chinese. Now we don't. Yeah. And I tried to be friendly you know and they used they were used in the Chinese that met me was a chinese of color. And you know they're about the same size and they had the same kind of uniforms. The only difference was that the cap on the Chinese had a round cogwheel. And the Japanese had a

little star. That was I want to diverge on the uniforms. And so I didn't know for sure who's in it. But they tried and they tokers put us in a 1938 Ford put me in a 1938 model Ford truck. In the back with the rest of the Japanese guards around me. And carried me to the little Headquarters in this little town where I was captured. And I thought I was by myself. And they had they caught all five of our crew. And it was the next day before they brought us all out and had us all together and told us then the head Japanese came in and said You are now prisoners of the Japanese. We didn't know that till the next morning. Rude awakening you know. And they called the first man that they called off my crew was caught within an hour

after bail. And that was George Barr the navigator on my hair Wow Ray did it. He didn't get to get ready. Yes. They probably just had people all over the Japanese occupied so wouldn't matter which way you went to war anyway. Oh well it sounds. Like the crew right in front of me was when they were on the other side of the lake that we were on that where they called us on this boat. All of our crew. And he was on the air. We were the lead. We were in front and he was back here. Just He wasn't over five miles. And they all got out with the Chinese help