The Royce Raid

Richard's painting shows Royce's 5th Air Force B-25C Mitchell taking off from the Del Monte staging field on the island of Mindanao on Sunday 12 April 1942, almost a week before the Doolittle raid, en-route to hit the harbor and shipping targets at Cebu.

In the three days of Royce's raids, the Mitchell's 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. Though somewhat eclipsed by the publicity following Doolittle's attack on Tokyo, the Royce raids were nonetheless courageous and inflicted extensive physical damage on the enemy.

Signature:

• Senior Master Sergeant VERNON MAIN