Doolittle Raid fragment returns to China, completing shared China-U.S. wartime history

HANGZHOU, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- A small piece of metal from a Doolittle Raid bomber during World War II was reunited on Monday with fragments from its sister aircraft, reviving memories of a heroic rescue that has linked China and the United States for more than eight decades. The fragment from B-25 bomber No. 8 was donated by George Retelas, a descendant of a Doolittle Raid participant and a representative of the USS Hornet Museum in California, to the Doolittle Raid Memorial Hall in Quzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. On April 18, 1942, a group of 16 U.S. bombers took off from the USS Hornet and bombed Japan in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the raid, 15 planes heading for an airport in Quzhou ran out of fuel and crashed in various localities in east China. B-25 bomber No. 8 was the only one that diverted to the Soviet Union. Chinese villagers risked their lives to rescue the parachuting airmen and helped them evacuate to safety. Of the 75 airmen aboard the planes, 64 were rescued by the Chinese people. Their rescue, however, came at a tremendous cost. Many locals were suspected of sheltering the Americans, and some were tortured or even killed by Japanese soldiers. In China, the Doolittle story has long been regarded as a symbol of the friendship forged between the Chinese and American peoples during their joint fight against fascism. Today, the memorial hall in Quzhou preserves fragments from 11 of the 16 bombers, while the wreckage of five others was not found. China has designated the memorial hall as a new national patriotic education base. "The fragment enriches this unique collection," said Tong Lijuan, director of the memorial hall, noting that the memorial hall will properly preserve and document the artifact, conduct further research and put it on display at an appropriate time. Tong added that it will help tell the story of how Chinese and American people worked together during World War II to resist fascism and safeguard peace. Retelas' connection to the raid runs deep. For him, the return of the fragment represents both a piece of history and a part of his family story. His grandfather was a U.S. Navy sailor who helped load bombs onto the USS Hornet before the mission. "My grandfather and those men in Alameda couldn't believe that they were part of history," Retelas said, adding that they would only learn later that the bombers were preparing for the first U.S. air strike on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. "That mission meant so much to Americans at that time because it boosted morale. At that point in World War II, it seemed like there was no hope. And the success of the Doolittle Raid gave people hope," he said. Decades later, while volunteering at the USS Hornet Museum, Retelas discovered a 16mm film reel donated by a descendant of one of the Doolittle Raiders. The footage captured the Raiders training with their B-25 bombers before the mission. Around the same time, he received an invitation to travel to China. "What if we could exchange? What if we could create a cultural exchange to bring our two countries a little bit closer through the shared memory and sacrifice of our two peoples?" he recalled. That discovery led him to Quzhou for the first time in 2025. He brought the film to the Doolittle Raid Memorial Hall as part of a cultural exchange and was given a fragment from B-25 No. 9, Whirling Dervish, recovered in China. The visit changed his perception of China. "China had always been a mystery to me as a place. But now I've found myself falling in love with the people," he said. "I know what that friendship felt like when those Doolittle Raiders were rescued by Chinese people. They must have had that same feeling of affection." Back at the USS Hornet Museum, Retelas came across a plaque containing a fragment from B-25 bomber No. 8. The piece had been recovered in Russia in the early 1990s and eventually entered the U.S. museum's collection. Knowing that Quzhou held pieces from several other bombers that reached China, he saw an opportunity. "So why not complete the collection?" he said. The donation closed a circle that began with his grandfather more than 80 years ago. "As a grandson of a sailor who helped load those bombs and to be here, now, eight decades later, to help bring those aircraft back together in a very sentimental way, is very heartwarming," he said. During his visits to Quzhou, Retelas also befriended local volunteers who helped recover fragments from Doolittle Raid bombers. "They're like a version of me I see over in China," he said. "Seeing someone that you see a little bit of yourself in across the Pacific brings that ocean closer." Retelas is working on a documentary called The Great Doolittle Raid Rescue, focusing on descendants, witnesses and volunteers who have helped keep the story alive. He hopes the film will reach wider audiences on both sides of the Pacific. The 16 U.S. bombers that left the Hornet in 1942 could not be physically reunited, as the whereabouts of five remain unknown. But for Retelas, the small fragment from bomber No. 8 has already brought together something else: a family memory in California and a wartime story preserved in China. It also carries the weight of shared history and the friendship across the Pacific.