Drone Attack on Moscow; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"

Several more drones attacked Moscow on Tuesday.¹  Ukraine has denied that the drones are theirs, though I would certainly have no problem if Ukraine was sending drones to attack Moscow.  Russia is attacking Kiev and so many other cities in Ukraine with rockets, etc.  Why shouldn’t Ukraine do the same?

But regardless of the actual physical effects of the drone attack, one wonders about any psychological effects of the attacks.  Which, of course, brings to mind the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April, 1942.  The story of the raid was told in the book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and the film of the same name that came out in 1944.  (Back in the late 1950s or early 1960s, I read a version of the book that was aimed at young adults.)

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States wanted to come up with a way to attack Japan in return.  The concept came from a Navy officer who thought Army bombers could be launched off the deck of an aircraft carrier.  Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle was designated to plan and lead a raid of sixteen B-25B bombers to bomb Tokyo.  The planes took off from the deck of the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942.  While the damage that the bombing caused in Tokyo was minor, the psychological effect was huge.  It was a great boost to American morale at home.  And it had a big effect on Japan, too.  Japanese leaders realized their homeland was not safe from attack,

I doubt the drone attacks on Moscow will have the same effect as the Doolittle Raid had in World War II, but they are still a good idea.  Vladimir Putin is engaged in what is, in effect, terror bombing of Ukrainian civilians with artillery, missiles, and drones.  While Ukraine can’t, and shouldn’t, do the same, drone attacks on Moscow, aimed at appropriate targets, are an excellent idea.
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¹ Anatasia Stognei, Max Seddon, and Christopher Miller, “Moscow’s elite takes shelter from air raids that brought war to their door,” Financial Times, June 1, 2023.