Doolittle Raid
McGurl was assigned to the 95th Bombardment Squadron of the 17th Bombardment Group. McGurl participated in the Doolittle Raid, a military operation that was dramatized in the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. McGurl flew in the Doolittle Raider Crew No. 5 piloted by Captain David M. Jones.
Despite a leak in the bomb bay gas tank, Captain Jones took off safely off of the flight deck, the crew proceeded to Tokyo. On 8:37 a.m local time 18 April 1942 McGurl and the rest of his crew flying in their North American Aviation B-25B Mitchell proceeded to Tokyo where bombing from 1200 feet, they made direct hits with three demolition bombs and one incendiary cluster on power stations, oil tanks, a large manufacturing plant and the congested area Southeast of the Imperial Palace. One factory bombed was a new building which covered approximately two city blocks.
Bad weather prevented the fliers from finding their prearranged landing fields in China. Captain Jones flew on instruments until he estimated he was in the vicinity of Chuhsien. The crew bailed out near and just Southeast of Chuchow. All crew members were safe. Their crew was the first of the raiders to reach Chuhsien.
McGurl remained in the China-Burma-India Theater after the Tokyo Raid. McGurl was killed in action on 3 June 1942 when his plane crashed into a mountain after bombing Lashio, Burma en route to Kunming, China.
McGurl's decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart (posthumous) and the Chinese Army, Navy, and Air Corps Medal, Class A, 1st Grade.
After McGurl went missing, his Distinguished Flying Cross was presented to his father Owen McGurl by Army Air Forces Colonel John I. Moore, in a February 1943 ceremony held at the Arlington Town Hall.
Read more about this topic: Eugene Francis Mc Gurl
Famous quotes containing the words doolittle and/or raid:
“We knew their line invincible
because there fell
on them no shiverings
of the white enchantress,
radiant Aphrodite’s spell.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)