050cal M2 machine guns and rear gunners twin 0.303cal ones, SBDs were used as anti-torpedo aircraft fighters as well, downing several Japanese aircraft trying to attack USS Lexington and Yorktown. SBD's first major appearance was at the Battle of the Coral Sea where they sank one and damaged another carrier. The design started in mid-30's and the Marines received SBDs in 1940 while the Navy got theirs the next year. Scout Bomber Douglas was also known by the nickname Slow But Deadly and is famous by its actions against Japanese fleet at the Battle of Midway. It had been hit by at least nine 20 mm cannon shells and sixty-four 7.7 mm machine gun bullets.SBD was a scout and dive bomber aircraft produced by Douglas from mid-1940 to mid-1944. 00380 was returned to Pearl Harbor for inspection. Ferrier (then Aviation Radioman 3/c) wrote that following the Battle of Midway, TBF-1 Bu. Naval Institute article, survivor Commander Harry H. 00380 (8-T-1), the only aircraft of Torpedo Eight to survive the Battle of Midway. 0308, of VT-6 (Torpedo Six) drops a Mark XIII aerial torpedo during practice, 20 October 1941. Those who were left dropped their torpedoes at short range. Plane after plane was shot down by fighters, anti-aircraft bursts were searing faces and tearing out chunks of fuselage, and still the squadron bored in. Mitscher (later, Admiral) wrote:īeset on all sides by the deadly Zero fighters, which were doggedly attacking them in force, and faced with a seemingly impenetrable screen of cruisers and destroyers, the squadron drove in valiantly at short range. In his After Action Report, Hornet‘s commanding officer, Captain Marc A. One of Torpedo Eight’s Douglas TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers, Bu. The Imperial Japanese Navy, up to this time on the offense all over the Pacific and Indian Oceans, never recovered from the loss of the experienced pilots that died when those carriers went down. Soryu received major damage, and was sunk by its escorting destroyers later in the day. The aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga and Hiryu were bombed and sunk. When the SBD Dauntless dive bombers from USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown arrived a few minutes later, there were no Japanese fighters at high altitude to interfere with their attack. In the enigmatic ways of warfare, the attack by Torpedo Eight caused all of the Japanese fighters defending their aircraft carriers to descend to low altitude in their efforts to shoot down the American torpedo bombers. On 4 June, Rick’s gun turret was operated Seaman 2/c Jay D. Ernest, and Aviation Radioman 3/c Harry H. 00380), left to right, Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Basil Rick, Ensign Albert K. Navy) The crew of Grumman TBF-1 Avenger 8-T-1 (Bu. Gay, Jr., United States Navy, and radio operator/gunner ARM3c George Arthur Field, with their Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, Bu. The torpedo bombers failed to score any hits on the Japanese ships, and their machine guns did not bring down any of the Zeros. Ensign Earnest and Radioman Harry Hackett Ferrier, were the only survivors of the 18 men from the Midway detachment of VT-8. Gay, of the thirty pilots and gunners of Torpedo Eight who had launched from USS Hornet, survived. It was the only aircraft of Torpedo Eight to survive the Battle of Midway.¹ The torpedo bomber was able to return to Midway but crash-landed. The sixth, flown by Ensign Albert Kyle Earnest, was badly damaged and its gunner killed. Five were shot down by intercepting Zero fighters. Fieberling, also attacked the Japanese fleet. These six torpedo bombers, led by Lieutenant Langdon K. All fifteen TBDs were shot down.Ī detachment of VT-8, flying Grumman TBF-1 Avengers, had been sent ahead to Midway from Pearl Harbor. Without any fighter escort, the slow flying torpedo bombers were attacked by Japanese Navy A6M2 Type 0 fighters and defensive anti-aircraft fire from the warships. Waldron sighted the enemy fleet at a distance of 30 miles and ordered his squadron to attack. Waldron, Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) flew at low altitude toward the expected position of the attacking Japanese fleet, while the fighters escorted the dive bombers at high altitude. Lieutenant Commander John Charles Waldron, United States Navy. Navy photograph published in LIFE Magazine)Ĥ June 1942: At the Battle of Midway, beginning at 0702 hours, fifteen Douglas TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers were launched from the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) along with squadrons of Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers and Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters. The pilots of Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) aboard USS Hornet (CV-8) shortly before the Battle of Midway.
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