Thirty Seconds over Tokyo

Ted W. Lawson's classic Thirty Seconds over Tokyo appears in a new edition for the sixtieth anniversary of the famous Doolittle Raid. Undertaken in April 1942 in retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the raid saw sixteen normally land-based B-25 bombers launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet to bomb enemy industrial targets and, with any luck, to land behind enemy lines in China. This is the inside story of the daring mission in the words of Capt. Ted W. Lawson, one of the "Tokyo Raiders" under the command of legendary aviator Jimmy Doolittle. This anniversary edition features a new foreword by aviation historian Peter B. Mersky and a new introduction by Mrs. Ellen R. Lawson, the author's widow, as well as many new photographs, several published here for the first time. Book jacket.

Ted W. Lawson (1917-1992) was a native of California. He joined the Army Air Corps while working for Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica and received his wings in November 1940. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he volunteered for a secret mission that evolved into the raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Random House published his account of the raid, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, in 1943. Lawson subsequently served as technical advisor to MGM during the making of the popular wartime movie based on his book. After retiring from military service in 1945, he reentered private industry and worked on several projects that involved aircraft and space programs