HANGZHOU, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) — A small piece of steel from a Doolittle Raid bomber throughout World War II was reunited on Monday with fragments from its sister plane, reviving reminiscences of a heroic rescue that has linked China and the United States for greater than eight a long time.
The fragment from B-25 bomber No. 8 was donated by George Retelas, a descendant of a Doolittle Raid participant and a consultant of the USS Hornet Museum in California, to the Doolittle Raid Memorial Hall in Quzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province.
On April 18, 1942, a gaggle of 16 U.S. bombers took off from the USS Hornet and bombed Japan in retaliation for the assault on Pearl Harbor.
After the raid, 15 planes heading for an airport in Quzhou ran out of gasoline and crashed in varied localities in east China. B-25 bomber No. 8 was the one one which diverted to the Soviet Union.
Chinese villagers risked their lives to rescue the parachuting airmen and helped them evacuate to security. Of the 75 airmen aboard the planes, 64 have been rescued by the Chinese folks.
Their rescue, nonetheless, got here at an amazing price. Many locals have been suspected of sheltering the Americans, and a few have been tortured and even killed by Japanese troopers.
In China, the Doolittle story has lengthy been thought to be a logo of the friendship cast between the Chinese and American peoples throughout their joint combat in opposition to fascism.
Today, the memorial corridor in Quzhou preserves fragments from 11 of the 16 bombers, whereas the wreckage of 5 others was not discovered. China has designated the memorial corridor as a brand new nationwide patriotic training base.
“The fragment enriches this unique collection,” stated Tong Lijuan, director of the memorial corridor, noting that the memorial corridor will correctly protect and doc the artifact, conduct additional analysis and put it on show at an acceptable time.
Tong added that it’s going to assist inform the story of how Chinese and American folks labored collectively throughout World War II to withstand fascism and safeguard peace.
Retelas’ connection to the raid runs deep. For him, the return of the fragment represents each a chunk of historical past and part of his household story.
His grandfather was a U.S. Navy sailor who helped load bombs onto the USS Hornet earlier than the mission.
“My grandfather and those men in Alameda couldn’t believe that they were part of history,” Retelas stated, including that they’d solely be taught later that the bombers have been making ready for the primary U.S. air strike on Japan after the assault on Pearl Harbor.
“That mission meant so much to Americans at that time because it boosted morale. At that point in World War II, it seemed like there was no hope. And the success of the Doolittle Raid gave people hope,” he stated.
Decades later, whereas volunteering on the USS Hornet Museum, Retelas found a 16mm movie reel donated by a descendant of one of many Doolittle Raiders. The footage captured the Raiders coaching with their B-25 bombers earlier than the mission.
Around the identical time, he obtained an invite to journey to China.
“What if we could exchange? What if we could create a cultural exchange to bring our two countries a little bit closer through the shared memory and sacrifice of our two peoples?” he recalled.
That discovery led him to Quzhou for the primary time in 2025. He introduced the movie to the Doolittle Raid Memorial Hall as a part of a cultural alternate and was given a fraction from B-25 No. 9, Whirling Dervish, recovered in China.
The go to modified his notion of China.
“China had always been a mystery to me as a place. But now I’ve found myself falling in love with the people,” he stated. “I know what that friendship felt like when those Doolittle Raiders were rescued by Chinese people. They must have had that same feeling of affection.”
Back on the USS Hornet Museum, Retelas got here throughout a plaque containing a fraction from B-25 bomber No. 8. The piece had been recovered in Russia within the early Nineties and ultimately entered the U.S. museum’s assortment.
Knowing that Quzhou held items from a number of different bombers that reached China, he noticed a chance. “So why not complete the collection?” he stated.
The donation closed a circle that started along with his grandfather greater than 80 years in the past. “As a grandson of a sailor who helped load those bombs and to be here, now, eight decades later, to help bring those aircraft back together in a very sentimental way, is very heartwarming,” he stated.
During his visits to Quzhou, Retelas additionally befriended native volunteers who helped get better fragments from Doolittle Raid bombers.
“They’re like a version of me I see over in China,” he stated. “Seeing someone that you see a little bit of yourself in across the Pacific brings that ocean closer.”
Retelas is engaged on a documentary known as The Great Doolittle Raid Rescue, specializing in descendants, witnesses and volunteers who’ve helped preserve the story alive. He hopes the movie will attain wider audiences on each side of the Pacific.
The 16 U.S. bombers that left the Hornet in 1942 couldn’t be bodily reunited, because the whereabouts of 5 stay unknown.
But for Retelas, the small fragment from bomber No. 8 has already introduced collectively one thing else: a household reminiscence in California and a wartime story preserved in China. It additionally carries the burden of shared historical past and the friendship throughout the Pacific.