Ted W. Lawson - World War II

World War II

In early 1942, Lawson, now a First Lieutenant, was assigned to the 17th Bomb Group (Medium), flying antisubmarine patrols out of Pendleton, Oregon. The 17th was the first Army Air Corps group to receive the B-25 Mitchell and had the most experienced pilots, so was ordered from Oregon to Lexington County Army Air Base at Columbia, South Carolina, ostensibly to fly similar patrols off the East Coast of the United States but in actuality to prepare for the mission against Japan. The group officially transferred effective 9 February to Columbia, where its combat crews were offered the opportunity to volunteer for an "extremely hazardous" but unspecified mission. On 17 February the group was detached from the Eighth Air Force. Lieutenant Lawson was accepted as a volunteer for the mission led by then-Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle to bomb Tokyo with 16 carrier-launched B-25 Mitchell bombers from aboard the USS Hornet (CV-8) - the first air raid on mainland Japan during World War II following the Pearl Harbour attack. The aircraft that he flew on the raid was nicknamed "The Ruptured Duck" (AAF serial #40-2261). According to Lawson in his book, the plane's unusual name evolved from a minor training accident where the aircraft tail scraped the ground on take-off. Soon after Lawson found someone had written "ruptured duck" in chalk on the fuselage. Inspired, he had a crewman create the now-famous caricature of Donald Duck with crutches and pilots headphones.

After launching the mission 170 miles (275 km) further out than planned, all of the aircraft ran out of fuel short of their intended destination in non-Japanese occupied China. Lawson and his crew were forced to ditch their plane off the coast of the small island of Nantien. Lawson and his co-pilot were both thrown clear of the B-25, with Lawson suffering a lacerated left leg in the process. All five crew survived the crash, however all but flight engineer/gunner David J. Thatcher received serious injuries. Bombardier Robert Clever would be returned to the U.S. only to die in another plane crash in November, 1942. After he was transported throughout several provinces in China, Lawson's leg was surgically amputated. The nose-art of the crashed bomber, "The Ruptured Duck", was later salvaged by the Japanese and put on display in Tokyo.