The Douglas Dauntless & an Eye Witness Story

the first Douglas A-24, S/N#41-15746
(US Air Force photo)

The SBD dive bombers were the main dive bombers of the US Navy and Marine Corps from late 1940.  Some of them, known as A-24 Banshees were employed by the US Army, but they had no arresting hooks and used different tires.  In early 1941, the variant SBD-3  went into production and offered increased protection, self-sealing fuel tanks and 4 machine-guns.  During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Dauntless bombers took part in the destruction of the Japanese carrier Shoho and in Midway they were involved in all 4 sinkings of Japanese fleet carriers.

Army A-24 Banshee

A SBD Dauntless crew veteran recalled ______

The Dauntless was a charm; rock steady in a vertical dive, completely responsive to the controls and ready to absorb punishment and still get you home.  I was worked over by 2 Japanese Type 97 fighters over Maloelap on the afternoon of 1 February 1942 and came out of it unconcerned with 50 holes through the tail surfaces and left wing tip, a hole in the gas tank in the root of my right wing and one small calibre that broke apart when it hit the back of my armoured seal.

 

Our greatest vulnerability was the inadequate protection of the rear seat gunner.  At Midway, a good number of our torpedo plane losses must have come from after the gunner was killed.  At that point, the dive bomber or torpedo plane is dead…It was my observation that as long as the tail gunner was firing, the attacking fighter tended to break off the attack before getting into killing range.

 

USS Enterprise crewmen load a 500 lb bomb onto a SBD scout bomber

 

The 2-man crew were powered by one Wright R-1820-66 Cyclone 9-cylinder radial engine rated at 1,350 horsepower and possessed an armament of two 12.7mm machine-guns, two 7.62mm machine-guns, an optional 1,600 pounds of bombs to be held under the body and an optional 650 pounds of bombs under their wings.

7 SBD Dauntless dive bombers flying in formation

After the Coral Sea and Midway battles, the US Navy developed a highly efficient tactic with the SBD Dauntless; the ability to attack at a steep grade with the “helldiving” technique, while torpedo bombers attacked in conjunction to distract the Japanese gunners.  Defensively, the heavy armament of 4 machine-guns posed a serious threat for Japanese fighters, which generally lacked armor protection.  After being key participants of the various battles near Guadalcanal and around the Solomon Island area, they took their last major action during the Battle of the Philippine Sea.  Their successors, the SB2C Helldiver bombers took over the main role.

During the production life of the SBD Dauntless, 5,936 aircraft were built and they sank more Japanese shipping in the Pacific than any other Allied aircraft.

Click on images to enlarge.

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Humor –

Our NEW Air Force ???

 

Our new Air Force

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Charles Bullock Sr. – Orlando & Delray, FL; US Army, WWII, 7th Combat Engineers

Clinton Crow – Oxnard, CA; US Army, WWII, ETO / US Navy, Korea (Ret.)

Ronald Ferrie – Victoria, CAN; RC Signal Corps, WWII, Major, ETO

Steven Haase – Olympia, WA; US Army, Iraq, pilot, Warrant Officer, (Ret.)

Philip Laino – Worchester, MA; US Army, Vietnam & Korea, Sgt. Major, (Ret. 41 years)

John McNutt – Tequesta, FL; US Navy, WWII, PTO & CBI

Sean P. Neal – Riverside, CA; USMC, ISIS Campaign

George Pokorny – Thornton, CO; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, C-47 radio operator

Edmund Pollak – Des Moines, IA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, HeadquartersCompany3/511th Regiment

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