Editing Jimmy Doolittle (section)

==World War II, post-raid==
[[File:Doolittle1.jpg|thumb|left|Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle (left) with Maj. Gen. [[Curtis LeMay]] (right), standing between tail booms of a [[Lockheed P-38 Lightning]] in Britain, 1944]]

In July 1942, as a [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]]—he had been promoted by two grades on the day after the [[Tokyo]] attack, bypassing the rank of full [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]]—Doolittle was assigned to the nascent [[Eighth Air Force]]. This followed his rejection by General [[Douglas MacArthur]] as commander of the [[South West Pacific Area (command)|South West Pacific Area]] to replace Major General [[George Brett (general)|George Brett]]. Major General [[Frank Maxwell Andrews|Frank Andrews]] first turned down the position and offered a choice between [[George Kenney]] and Doolittle, MacArthur chose Kenney.{{sfn|Wolk|2003|pp=21–22}} In September, Doolittle became commanding general of the [[Twelfth Air Force]], soon to be operating in North Africa. He was promoted to [[Major general (United States)|major general]] in November 1942, and in March 1943 became commanding general of the [[Northwest African Strategic Air Force]], a unified command of U.S. Army Air Force and Royal Air Force units. In September, he commanded a raid against the Italian town of [[Battipaglia]] that was so thorough in its destruction that General [[Carl Andrew Spaatz]] sent him a joking message: "You're slipping Jimmy. There's one crabapple tree and one stable still standing."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Second World War|year=2012|isbn=978-0-7538-2824-3|author=Antony Beevor|page=503|publisher=Orion Publishing Group, Limited |author-link=Antony Beevor}}</ref>

Maj. Gen. Doolittle took command of the [[Fifteenth Air Force]] in the [[Mediterranean Theater of Operations]] in November 1943. On June 10, he flew as co-pilot with Jack Sims, fellow Tokyo Raider, in a [[B-26 Marauder]] of the [[320th Air Expeditionary Wing|320th Bombardment Group]], 442nd Bombardment Squadron on a mission to attack gun emplacements at [[Pantelleria]]. Doolittle continued to fly, despite the risk of capture, while being privy to the [[Ultra (cryptography)|Ultra]] secret, which was that the German encryption systems had been broken by the British.<ref>{{cite web|title=Enigmatic Man|url=http://www.ghspaulding.com/enigmatic_man.htm|author=G.H. Spaulding, CAPT, USN (Ret)|access-date=November 20, 2010|archive-date=October 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019184714/http://www.ghspaulding.com/enigmatic_man.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> From January 1944 to September 1945, he held his largest command, the [[Eighth Air Force]] (8 AF) in England as a [[Lieutenant general (United States)|lieutenant general]], his promotion date being March 13, 1944, and the highest rank ever held by an active reserve officer in modern times.

===Escort fighter tactics===
Doolittle's major influence on the European air war occurred late in 1943—and primarily after he took command of the Eighth Air Force on January 6, 1944<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.8thafhs.org/combat1944a.htm |title=WWII 8thAAF Combat Chronology –January 1944 Through June 1944 |date=July 28, 2012 |access-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728100504/http://www.8thafhs.org/combat1944a.htm |archive-date=July 28, 2012 |quote=Thursday, 6 January 1944 – Strategic Operations  (Eighth Air Force): Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle assumes command, replacing Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker who will go to Italy as Commanding General Mediterranean Allied Air Force (MAAF). }}</ref>—when he changed the policy of requiring escorting fighters to remain with their bombers at all times. Instead, he permitted [[escort fighters]] to fly far ahead of the bombers' [[combat box]] formations, allowing them to freely engage the German fighters lying in wait for the bombers. Throughout most of 1944, this tactic negated the effectiveness of the twin-engined ''Zerstörergeschwader'' heavy fighter wings and single-engined ''Sturmgruppen'' of heavily armed [[Focke-Wulf Fw 190|Fw 190As]] by clearing the [[Luftwaffe]]'s [[bomber destroyer]]s from ahead of the bomber formations. After the bombers had hit their targets, the American fighters were free to strafe German airfields, transportation, and other "targets of opportunity" on their return flight to base. These tasks were initially performed with [[Lockheed P-38|Lockheed P-38 Lightnings]] and [[Republic P-47|Republic P-47 Thunderbolts]] through the end of 1943. They were progressively replaced with the long-ranged [[North American P-51 Mustang]]s as the spring of 1944 wore on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.combatsim.com/printer.php?action=review&id=570&page=1|title=Effect of the North American P-51 Mustang On the Air War in Europe|website=www.combatsim.com|access-date=18 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/james-h-doolittle|title=James H. Doolittle|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->s|website=history.com|date=August 21, 2018 |access-date=18 December 2019}}</ref>