Japanese Couldn't Believe This Shot-Up B-25 Sank 2 Ships — Then Saved His Squadron
Why Major Raymond Wilkins attacked a second ship with a shot-up B-25 during WW2 — and saved 25 men who made it home. This World War 2 story reveals how one pilot's sacrifice over Rabaul changed skip bombing tactics forever. November 2, 1943. Major Raymond Wilkins, 26, led eight B-25 Mitchells toward Simpson Harbor, Rabaul — the most heavily defended Japanese base in the Pacific. After destroying his first ship, his vertical stabilizer was shot away. Every training manual said withdraw with mission accomplished. His squadron commander expected him to break off and head for safety. They were all wrong. What Wilkins discovered that morning wasn't about completing his mission. It was about protecting five B-25s full of men being tracked by a Japanese heavy cruiser. By the end of that day — Bloody Tuesday — surviving crews started doing what Wilkins had done: drawing fire to save others. And they survived. This technique spread unofficially through Fifth Air Force bomber squadrons, crew to crew, saving hundreds of lives before appearing in any training manual. The skip bombing tactics discovered over Rabaul in 1943 became standard doctrine by December and were used across the Pacific theater until war's end. 🔔 Subscribe for more untold WW2 stories: / @wwii-records 👍 Like this video if you learned something new 💬 Comment below: What other WW2 tactics should we cover? #worldwar2 #ww2history #ww2 #wwii #ww2records
They Had Him Trapped — What Happens Next is Unbelievable
When 30 German Fighters Attacked One P-51 — This Pilot's Lone Stand Saved 300 Bomber Crewmen
Why Germans Were Stunned by the M36 Jackson's 90mm Gun Shooting Down Tiger Tanks at 3,000 Yards
How the Tuskegee Airmen Sank a German Destroyer With 50 Caliber Machine Guns
Japanese Hit This Destroyer 10 Times in 80 Minutes — What Happened Next Shocked Japan
Japanese Ships Ignored PT Boats — Then Four Torpedoes Sank Nine of Them Overnight
U.S. Pilots Hated This "Useless" Plane — Until Its 37mm Nose Cannon Ripped Japanese Ships Apart
Japanese Couldn't Hit This "Slow" Bomber — The Pilot Shot Down 3 Zeros and Sank Their Carrier
Japanese Pilots Were Terrified When They Could Not Outrun or Outclimb the P-38 Lightning
What Japan's Admiral Never Expected When Spruance Walked Into His Perfect Trap
Germans Couldn't Believe This "Invisible" Hunter — Until He Became Deadliest Night Ace
Japanese Forces Were Terrified by America's P-51 Mustang Dominance Over Japan
They Called This B-17 "Cursed" — Until One Crew Destroyed 17 Japanese Zeros Alone
Why Göring Knew The War Was Over When He Saw One US Fighter
How America's Smallest Warship Crushed Japan's Fleet in 12 Days
They Called It a 'Mine' to Hide Its Secret — It Sank 37 U Boats Without Missing
Japanese Destroyers Couldn't Believe This Submarine Charged Them — Until It Sank 19 Ships Alone
The Raid that Ended the Kamikaze
They Said He Was Surrounded — Until 65 Japanese Were Eliminated
