Jacob DeShazer (15 November (1912-2008) "Doolittle's Raiders", After Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle

Jacob DeShazer (15 November (1912-2008) Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Corporal DeShazer, along with other members of the 17th Bomb Group, volunteered to join a special unit that was formed to attack Japan. The 24 crews selected from the 17th BG received intensive training at Eglin Field, Florida, for three weeks beginning on Sunday 1 March 1942. The crews undertook practice carrier deck takeoffs along with extensive flying exercises involving low-level and night flying, low-altitude bombing, and over-water navigation. Their mission would be to fly modified B-25 Mitchell bombers launched from an aircraft carrier to attack Japan. The unit formed to carry out the raid on Japan soon acquired the name, "Doolittle's Raiders", after their famous commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle. Staff Sergeant DeShazer was the bombardier of B-25 #16, the "Bat (Out of Hell)", commanded by Lieutenant William G. Farrow, the last of the 16 B-25s to launch from the USS Hornet. The raid was a success despite the task force being sighted and forced to launch the bombers earlier than planned, but part of the plan included flying the airplanes to bases in China, where they were to be refueled and made part of the Tenth Air Force. After bombing Nagoya, Japan, the "Bat" attempted to reach safe haven in China. DeShazer and the rest of the B-25 crew were forced to parachute into enemy territory over Ningbo, China when their B-25 ran out of fuel because of the extra distance it was forced to fly by early launch of the raid. DeShazer was injured in his fall into a cemetery and along with the rest of his crew, he was captured the very next day by the Japanese. During his captivity, DeShazer was sent to Tokyo with the survivors of another Doolittle crew including Robert Hite, and was held in a series of Prisoner-of-war camps both in Japan and China for 40 months – 34 of them in solitary confinement. He was severely beaten and malnourished while three of the crew were executed by a firing squad, and another died of slow starvation. DeShazer's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Emperor Hirohito. As the war came to an end, on 20 August 1945, DeShazer and the others in the camp at Beijing (Peiping), China were finally released when American soldiers parachuted into the camp. On his return to the United States, Staff Sgt. DeShazer was awarded both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart for his part in the Doolittle Raid.

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Notes: As received from DeShazner. See photos, not graded

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6" x 0.01" x 4"

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