Doolittle’s Raiders: A Final Toast, the latest documentary film from Tim Gray Media and the non-profit World War II Foundation will make its premiere at the Capitol in Washington, DC on May 18th as part of the 2015 GI Film Festival.
Film overview: The bottle of 1896 Hennessy Cognac was uncorked in front of hundreds of people.
The surviving World War II veterans from one of history’s greatest military missions were about to raise their silver goblets one last time ending a decades long tradition.
It was time for the veterans to hold this final toast. They could wait no longer. Their numbers had dwindled to just a few.
Many of the names of the 80 flyers who took part in the April 18, 1942 raid on Japan may not be familiar to most, but collectively they will always be known in history as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.
Long ago these American flyers, aboard 16 B-25 bombers, had accomplished a daring mission that changed the morale of an entire nation.
The aviators, led by famed commander Lt. Col. James Harold Doolittle, had taken the fight directly to the enemy for the first time in World War II and delivered payback for Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
“The film is a tribute to the men who were there and the few flyers who still remain of the original 80,” said Tim Gray, Producer, Director and Writer of the documentary.
“On the day of the premiere there will be just two Doolittle Raiders of the original eighty who are still alive,” Gray continued. “One of the greatest chapters in our military history is about to close. We hope people never forget the courage of these men and the mission they went on that changed the morale of an entire nation,” Gray emphasized.
Doolittle’s Raiders: A Final Toast is the 13th film from TGM and the WWII Foundation. Two other films, The American Saint Nick and War Journal: The Incredible World War II Escape of Major Damon Gause, are currently now in post-production.