USAAF B-25B bombers tied down on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), while the carrier was en route to the mission’s launching point. View looks aft from the rear of Hornet’s island.
The plane in the foreground is tail # 40-2203 (mission plane # 9). Partially visible at far right is tail # 40-2250 (mission plane # 10). Piloted respectively by Second Lieutenants Harold F. Watson and Richard O. Joyce, these B-25s attacked targets in the Tokyo area.
This week in the War, 13–19 April 1942: Thirty Seconds over Tokyo—The Doolittle Raid