North American B-25 Mitchell

In 1937, the US Army Air Corps began to look for a new twin-engine attack bomber to replace the single-engine types it had on hand. The USAAC solicited for several designs, three of which ended up seeing war service: the Martin XA-22 Maryland, the Douglas A-20 Havoc, and the North American NA-40. North American’s design was initially rejected, but it was re-worked for the Army’s new medium bomber requirement in 1939 and the North American B-25 Mitchell was selected as the winner.

The B-25, named for aviation pioneer BGen William “Billy” Mitchell, initially had a crew of five: pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, and gunner. It had tricycle landing gear, something of a novelty for the time, and distinctive twin tails. It was powered by two of the dependable Wright R-2600 engines. It could carry a maximum bomb load of 3,000lb over 2,000 miles. The B-25 began to enter service in 1941, and the first groups equipped with the Mitchell began to ship out for the Pacific in early 1942.

The B-25 made its combat debut during the “Royce Mission”, when a detachment of 10 Mitchells purloined from a consignment destined for Dutch service flew to the Philippines in April 1942 and carried out a series of clandestine bombing missions, before evacuating dozens of men. A few days later 16 B-25s flew one of the most famous missions of World War II, the Doolittle Raid, when they took off from the carrier Hornet to bomb Tokyo.

B-25s soon became one of the most important aircraft in the Pacific, serving a variety of roles. When medium altitude bombing results proved poor, the 5^th Air Force pioneered low level “skip-bombing” attacks which proved very successful at sinking Japanese shipping. Specialist variants of the B-25 were equipped with extra machine guns and even 75mm guns to make them even more deadly during low altitude attacks. Mitchells were a core component of the 5th, sweeping across New Guinea and into the Philippines as part of MacArthur’s famous return. 

Several countries were provided with Mitchells via lend-lease, including Britain, China and the Soviet Union. British B-25s were used in Burma alongside their American counterparts, often being used as transports – Orde Wingate, leader of the famous ‘Chindits’ died when the Mitchell he was travelling in crashed. B-25s were also allocated to the US Marine Corps, which designated them as PBJ Mitchells under the Navy designation system.

B-25s continued in service long after the war ended, with the air forces of several countries continuing to fly them into the 1970s.