"Richard" wrote in message
...
I was just reading through some stuff on the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo:

"...After dropping their bombs, mainly on or near their intended
targets, Doolittle's sixteen B-25B bombers left Japanese airspace,
essentially unhindered by enemy air interception and anti-aircraft
gunfire. One of them, suffering from excessive fuel consumption, had
no hope of reaching China and so headed for the closer Soviet Maritime
region. After landing north of Vladivostok, this plane and its five
crew members were interned by the then-neutral Soviet authorities. The
crew ultimately returned to the U.S. by way of Iran...."

I'm wondering why they didn't ALL head for Vladivostok... seems a
safer alternative in my mind...


The idea was to land in China and then use the aircraft for further strikes
on the Japanese, the problem was that due to a combination of
an early launch and a screw up in China none of the aircraft was able
to make it to a safe landing on a Chinese airfield.

Had the Soviets followed the letter of international law any pilots
and aircraft landing in the USSR would have been interned for the
duration of the war.

Keith