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During the months following the Pearl Harbor, American aircrews made a number of daring air raids against the Japanese in an effort to make their presence felt as quickly as possible. The wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean dictated these raids would be conducted over long distances, the most famous of these early sorties being the Doolittle Raid. Though eclipsed somewhat by the publicity following Doolittle's attack on Tokyo, the Royce Raids were none-the-less courageous, and arguably inflicted more physical damage to the enemy.
In early April 1942, under the command of General Ralph Royce, and almost a week before the Doolittle raid; seven B-25C Mitchells and three B-17 Fortresses of the 5th Air Force, lifted off from their base in Australia and headed for the staging field at Del Monte on Mindanao, in the Philippines. For three days from 12 April, this small fleet of intrepid aircrews flew bombing missions against Japanese shipping, docks, and ground installations in Manila, Cebu, and Davao, the Royce Raids being among the very first to inflict air strikes against the Japanese in World War II.
Richard Taylor's dramatic painting shows one of Royce's 5th Air Force B-25C Mitchells taking off from the Del Monte on the island of Mindanao on Sunday 12 April 1942, en-route to hit the harbor and shipping targets at Cebu. In the three days of Royce's raids, the Mitchells flew over twenty sorties, sinking and seriously damaging three Japanese transport ships, and shooting down three enemy fighters. In a triumph of surprise aerial strikes, all seven B-25s and their crews returned safely to base.
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