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Lot 338
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Jimmy Doolittle Re: Air Tactics to Director of "The Longest Day": "…doing infinitely more damage…to the Hun than his airplanes were doing to our ground troops"
Jimmy Doolittle Re: Air Tactics to Director of "The Longest Day": "…doing infinitely more damage…to the Hun than his airplanes were doing to our ground troops"
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Description:

James Doolittle
n.p., August 5, 1943
Jimmy Doolittle Re: Air Tactics to Director of "The Longest Day": "…doing infinitely more damage…to the Hun than his airplanes were doing to our ground troops"
TLS
Superb content, war-date typed letter signed with initial "J", two pages, 8" x 10.5", August 5, 1943. On letterhead with a typed heading "HEADQUARTERS NORTHWEST AFRICAN STRATEGIC AIR FORCE APO 510" to filmmaker, Darryl Zanuck, then a Colonel in the U.S. Army.

In part:

"…When I last saw you, you had just completed a session of dodging Hun bomb fragments, had seen but few U.S. Air Force airplanes, and felt that they were doing little to give direct protection to the beleaguered ground troops.

"We could have endeavored to give continuous fighter cover to the ground troops but the Huns' more advantageous airport locations could have made this most difficult and extremely costly. This would have meant using our Air Force defensively which in the case of air operations means inefficiently. Instead, we elected to use it offensively. We attacked Hun planes on the ground, and in the air. We put his docks and marshalling yards out of commission and sank his supply ships. We reduced his fighting ability and will to fight by destroying his supplies and his means of getting supplies. The wisdom of these attacks has been indicated by the successful results obtained. But – this all took place behind the enemy lines. All our soldiers on the ground knew was that he was getting the hell bombed out of him and that he didn't see any U.S. airplanes doing anything about it. All he thought was ‘Where are our airplanes?' ‘Does the Hun have complete air superiority?' He didn't know that we had air superiority behind the enemy lines and were doing infinitely more damage, both immediate and for the long haul, to the Hun than his airplanes were doing to our ground troops.

"Finally the ground troops learned how to protect themselves from enemy air attacks. Instead of jumping into shell holes, they stood by their guns and shot the raiders down the same way the Hun stood up to our strafing attacks.

"From the little aerial beginnings which you witnessed, we have advanced to a formidable and better understood force. Our score is over 3000 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air and on the ground, over 200 enemy ships sunk or seriously damaged and innumerable trains, trucks and tanks destroyed. This for the loss of less than 500 of our aircraft and the crews were saved from many of these…"

While Darryl Zanuck is well-known for his wartime Academy Award-winning World War II film "The Longest Day," he is lesser known as a combatant in both World Wars. In 1941, Zanuck was commissioned as a colonel in the Air Signal Corps but, instead of active duty, found himself assigned to Queens to produce training films. Zanuck had already had a share of fighting during World War I when he lied about his age and enlisted at 15 in the Nebraska National Guard. Now, in his second go and frustrated with stateside work, Zanuck stormed Washington and demanded a more active role in combat. George C. Marshall sent Zanuck to London to produce films with the British Army film unit, where he worked during the Blitz and while being bombarded by the Luftwaffe -- or dodging "Hun bomb fragments," as Doolittle quipped. Still unsatisfied, Zanuck then convinced Bernard Law Montgomery to allow him to accompany him in a daring nighttime raid on a German radar site. This was followed by a stint in North Africa, covering the invasion for the Signal Corps. Zanuck mustered out shortly thereafter to continue his Hollywood career.

In March, 1943, Doolittle was promoted to Commanding General of the Northwest Africa Strategic Air Forces and no doubt was irked by the filmmaker's desultory attitude towards early air tactics. In September, 1943, Doolittle would lead a raid against the Battipaglia in the Salerno area of south-west Italy that would forever erase any doubt the filmmaker had about the Air Force's capabilities when the bombing razed the city nearly to the ground. General Carl Spaatz would humorously quip to Doolittle of his success: "You're slipping Jimmy. There's one crabapple tree and one stable still standing."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8" x 10.5"
  • Medium: TLS

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