the dauntless dive bomber of world war two
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Characteristics
| ISBN-10 | 0-87021-569-8 |
| Book cover finish(es) | Hardcover ( round back binding ) |
| Special Features | • Dust jacket |
| Condition | Very good |
| Author(s) | Barrett Tillman |
| Publisher | Naval Institute Press |
| Number of pages | 232 |
| Published date | 1976 |
| Language(s) | English |
| Size | 16 x 23.5 x 2 cm |
| Categorie(s) | • AVIATION MILITAIRE • SECONDE GUERRE MONDIALE • AVIATION NAVALE |
Description
The Douglas aircraft plant received an order for 144 SBD dive bombers in April of 1939. As was the custom with Douglas products, an alliterative name was chosen for the SBD. The Army's B-23 bomber was to become known as the Dragon, and the TBD torpedo plane became the Devastator. And so it was for the SBD, which later became popularly known as the Douglas Dauntless. Seldom has any airplane been better named.
Considered obsolete at the time of Pearl Harbor—its first day at war—the SBD was headed for replacement by the bigger, faster Curtiss Helldiver. But the Helldiver fell far behind its development schedule, and the Dauntless made its name and its mark on history over the broad blue curve of the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day. At war’s end, it was the only U.S. carrier aircraft still in service which had been operational at Pearl Harbor.
Dauntlesses saw their most important combat from May through November 1942. In that seven-month period, carrier-based SBDs fought the Japanese Navy to a standstill at the Coral Sea and won the war’s most dramatic victory at Midway. Then Marine SBDs played a crucial role in holding Guadalcanal. At one point during the grim campaign, a single SBD was the only strike aircraft available to the island’s beleaguered defenders.
Dauntlesses flew in all five naval engagements fought exclusively by aircraft carriers, the only U.S. Navy aircraft to do so, and sank more enemy carriers than any other aircraft. SBDs were credited with sinking the first Japanese fleet submarine and dropping the first bombs on Japanese-occupied soil in the Pacific War. They not only flew thousands of tedious “milk runs” against bypassed enemy strongholds, but were active in the Atlantic as well, sinking Vichy French shipping at Casablanca and German vessels in Scandinavian waters.
But in between the accounts of missions flown and tonnage sunk, the author tells the rousing story of the men who took the “slow but deadly” Dauntless into combat, loving her for her ruggedness and dependability while wishing for more speed and firepower. Here is an account of the SBD squadron which flew unexpectedly into the Pearl Harbor attack; of the pilot who almost single-handedly knocked out a Japanese carrier and died in the process; and of the air group commander who could have lost the Pacific War for the United States.