Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

The film begins in February 1942 as the United States Army Air Forces plan to retaliate for the Pearl Harbor attack by bombing Tokyo and four other Japanese cities. Lt Col "Jimmy" Doolittle (Spencer Tracy), the leader of the mission, assembles a volunteer force of aircrews who begin their top secret training by learning to take their B-25 Mitchell medium bombers off in the short distance of 500 feet or less to simulate taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. After depicting the squadron's month of hazardous training in Florida, the story goes on to describe the raid's successful launch from the carrier USS Hornet, the harrowing attacks on Japan by the 16 B-25s, and the raid's aftermath.

While en route to Japan, the Hornet's task force is discovered by Japanese picket boats, and the bombers are forced to take off twelve hours early at the extreme limit of their range. After their successful attack on Japan, all but one of the planes run out of fuel before reaching their recovery airfields in China. As a result, their crews are forced to either bail out over China or crash land along the coast (one plane landed safely in Russia and its crew was interned for over a year). Lawson's B-25 unexpectedly crashes in the surf while trying to land on a beach in darkness and heavy rain. He and his crew survive, but then face tremendous hardships and danger while being escorted to American lines by friendly Chinese. While still in China, Lawson has a leg amputated by the mission's flight surgeon as a result of his serious crash injuries. The film ends with Lawson being reunited with his wife Ellen in a Washington, DC, hospital. Wikipedia