11/15/96 Contact: Doug McCabe or George Bain, Ohio University, 614/593-2715 or 593-2713

ATHENS, Ohio -- The Ohio University Libraries Department of Archives and Special Collections is the new home to a donation of artifacts, letters and photographs surrounding the famous Doolittle air raid on Tokyo during World War II.

The April 18, 1942 air raid was America's first offensive strike against the Japanese home islands during the war. Former Ohio University student Richard E. Cole, co-pilot to Gen. Jimmy Doolittle during the raid, donated the materials. Cole attended the university from 1937 to 1940 before enlisting in the Army Air Corps as a flying cadet. A native of Dayton, Ohio, he now is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel living in San Antonio.

The 16 B-25 bombers used in the air raid took off from an aircraft carrier -- another first -- and attacked several targets around Tokyo before flying on to China. Most of the pilots had to crash-land on the mainland, and some of the crew members were captured by the Japanese.

Among the donated materials are a photograph of Doolittle's crew members and their Chinese protectors, and several letters from Cole to his family, including one written after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and another written after the Tokyo raid. Also included is a letter from Doolittle to Cole's mother, which says her son had "recently completed a very hazardous, extremely important and most interesting flight -- the air raid on Japan," and notes Cole was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Two books -- Doolittle's autobiography and the story of the raid, both signed by the survivors of the air raid -- were donated earlier to the Archives by Cole through Leona Hughes, a 1930 graduate of Ohio University and a longtime friend of Cole's.

The Richard Cole and Tokyo Raiders materials, including the two books, complement the university's Cornelius Ryan Memorial Collection of World War II papers: 12,000 research files for the books The Longest Day, The Last Battle and A Bridge Too Far. The collections are housed in Alden Library on the Athens campus.

For more information and to obtain photographs, contact Doug McCabe or George Bain at 614/593-2715 or 593-2713.