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Douglas SBD Dauntless: America’s Carrier Killer

The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944) was the last major engagement of the carrier-borne SBDs. All SBDs made it back to the carriers, whereas over half of the Helldivers didn't, most running out of fuel.

SBD-6 Dauntless production ended in 1944.

BTW - The SB2C-4 had a lower power/gross weight ratio than the SBD-5 which had 20% increase in horse-power than previous models, and the -6 had a 35% increase.

The SB2C Helldiver had major faults.

By the end of the war, the SBD Dauntless had sunk more Japanese shipping in the Pacific than any other Allied aircraft.. and had the lowest loss ratio of any U.S. Navy carrier-based combat aircraft in World War II.

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Don't forget the Dauntless on display in Chicago's Midway airport! It crashed on a training flight in Lake Michigan in 1944, and was raised and restored in the '90's. I took this photo last year on the way to one of my grandson's ice hockey tournaments.


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I had an SBD/Helldiver pilot (Silver Star winner) - Gill Cathey as a member of a church I attended years ago. He originally flew off the USS Lexington (VB-2?). I had the opportunity to speak at his funeral. I highlighted his service and the experience he would have had flying a mission. His family had no idea. His widow passed on to me his K-Bar that he carried thru the war.
 
My dad was a Navy combat air crewman. I believe he trained as the back seat crew member on these. He spent the rest of his time as crewmember on a PBY where he flew submarine patols out of bases in Florida across the Caribbean. They often had to refuel at Guantanamo Bay in order to make it back. Here's a souvenir from one of those stopovers.
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Talyn said:
By the end of the war, the SBD Dauntless had sunk more Japanese shipping in the Pacific than any other Allied aircraft.. and had the lowest loss ratio of any U.S. Navy carrier-based combat aircraft in World War II.
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Thank you, sir, for PROPER use of the word "sunk." I cannot remember the last time I heard anyone, anywhere, use it correctly. ;)
 
One question I've always had is, why didn't the SBD have folding wings? I think it's the only WWII-era carrier airplane that didn't. Apparently it fit on the carrier elevators without them. ;)
 
At the time it was designed, no US aircraft had folding wings. The designers at Douglas wanted it to have more structural integrity.

Even the version of the Wildcat in service at the start of the war had rigid wings, The F4F-3 didn't have folding wings. The F4F-4 introduced them.

There were several reasons why later versions of the SBD did not get a wing fold.

First, due to the loads encountered when pulling out of a dive bombing attack it would have been difficult to redesign the wing structure to accommodate a hinge, and the attachment points for the hinge, capable of handling the stress. The weight of the wing-fold mechanism would have reduced the bomb load (the wing fold on the F4f-4 added more than 750 pounds to the airframe).

But the SBD was fitted with hoisting points so it could be hung from the overhead in the hangar deck, thus allowing for more to be stored, like earlier naval aircraft.

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However, this practice/arrangements were either removed or not used from late 1942-early 1943 due to the danger of battle damage and newer aircraft with folding wings.

www.armouredcarriers.com

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Post on Yorktown airgroups separated out of the "Debunking Slade & Worth's essays" section by Robert Morgan. Overall, I really respect your analysis. One area I would debate, however, regards the load out of the Yorktowns in the early war period. The spares were usually pretty muc
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My dad was an "Airdale" who really liked the Dauntless and didn't the Helldiver from a design/maintence point of view( he worked on their engines), he also was "volunteered" to be the rear gunner on sub spotting missions out of a navel air station in Texas.
 
Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Douglas SBD Dauntless: America’s Carrier Killer” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/douglas-sbd-dauntless-americas-carrier-killer/.

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I totally disagree with the authors implication that the Dauntless was not the right tool for the job. Seems like an opinion and that’s it an opinion. The rest if the article completely make’s the statement out to be a bold faced lie. It was the right tool for the job and probably the best tool for the job. Now if he said that about the Devastator I would agree.
 
My dad flew this plane off the USS Wasp. Had to ditch the plane after a bombing run. He and his gunner both made it into the life raft and they were picked up by the sub Seawolf. They were dropped off an island and later returned to duty on the Wasp. Not long afterwards, the Seawolf was sunk by friendly fire. They were part of the battle in the book MISSION BEYOND DARKNESS. RIP to all the souls that fought in WWII.
 
Correct Tayln. I've got quite a few photos of the men on the decks and one is of President Bush on his carrier. The coolest photos I have are my dad and his gunner boarding the Seawolf from shots in the life raft to both dad and his gunner heading down into the sub. It's pretty sad to look at them as the sub captain is next to my dad as they descended down and to know that not too long after these photos were taken, the entire sub crew went to the bottom of the Pacific. One never knows when your clock stops ticking. Another prized item is my dad's gunners diary that goes into his reflections on the minute by minute bombing runs they did on the Japanese ships. MISSION BEYOND DARKNESS goes into that excursion and my dad was awarded the Navy Cross not long after those missions. His bomb sent a Jap destroyer to the Pacific depths.
 
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