THE DAUNTLESSES OF JUNE

  

 

It happens every June.

 

I get thinking about two epic battles of World War II that occurred two years apart:

 

Midway in June 1942

And

Philippine Sea in June 1944.

 

Aside from the second and fifth aircraft carrier engagements (there’s not been one since) both featured my mental-emotional icon: the Douglas SBD Dauntless (Scout Bomber by Douglas).  It was the only American tailhook aircraft engaged in all five flattop duels.

 

The Japanese of course had more representation.  Their Mitsubishi “Zero” fighter, Aichi “Val” dive bomber and Nakajima “Kate” torpedo planes flew from Imperial flight decks in all five battles, though the 1944 event featured new strike aircraft, the Yokosuka “Judy” dive bomber and Nakajima “Jill” torpedo plane. 

 

SBDs were first to last Pacific warriors, from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day although the 1945 contribution was land-based mostly in Marine Corps squadrons.

 

In order, the Dauntless’ carrier battles were:

 

Coral Sea, May 7-8, 1942 (shared sinking a Japanese carrier)

Midway, June 4-7, 1942 (sank four Japanese carriers)

Eastern Solomons, August 24, 1942 (shared a Japanese carrier)

Santa Cruz, October 27, 1942 (damaged a Japanese carrier)

Philippine Sea, June 19-20, 1944 (damaged two or three Japanese carriers)

 

Over the years (OK, decades) I have described the SBD as “the plane that won the war.”

 

Wow!  Does that rile the B-17 fanboys.

 

But here’s some facts versus emotion:

 

The B-17 was incidental in the Pacific, and it was outproduced by the B-24/PB4Y Liberator family by over 40 percent: 12,700 versus 18,400.  We would have defeated the Empire of the Sun without B-17s.

 

We would have lost without SBDs.

 

That’s right.  Without Dauntlesses, the United States of America would have been defeated by Japan in the years after Pearl Harbor—and beyond.

 

What were the options?

 

Oh lord…

 

The only other scout-bomber committed to combat in that period was Vought’s fabric-covered SB2U Vindicator.  In 1937 it had been one of the first two American carrier-based monoplanes with the Douglas TBD Devastator.  Both showed their age five years later, especially the “Wind Indicator.”  A meager 260 were produced, including those to foreign buyers.  In the Vindicator’s June 4 Midway mission, 12 land-based SB2Us suffered four losses without inflicting damage on Japanese warships. 

What was the backup?

 

The trouble-plagued Curtiss SB2C Helldiver finally entered combat in November 1943.  You can do the math as to how long that entry compared to Pearl Harbor.

 

So:

 

The Dauntless was the plane that won the Pacific war.  Three days after Pearl Harbor an Enterprise SBD sank a submarine, Japan’s first naval loss.  Then in 1942 SBDs sank or wrecked, in whole or in part, six Japanese carriers, a battleship, two cruisers, a destroyer and a boatload (!) of vital transport ships trying to reinforce Guadalcanal.

 

The Pet Dauntless

 

Between 1972 and 1974 my father acquired and oversaw restoration of the world’s only airworthy Dauntless.  I helped, spending part of a summer on my head in the rear cockpit with a rivet gun in one hand and a shop light in the other.  The full story of the restoration is another blog’s worth, but I’ll just say that I benefited from several hours flying with Dad, leading to my first book. 

 

In order, my SBD volumes were:

 

The Dauntless Dive Bomber of World War II.  Naval Institute Press, 1976.

 

Dauntless: A Novel of Midway and Guadalcanal.  Bantam, 1982.

 

SBD Dauntless Units of World War 2.  Osprey (UK), 1998.

 

Along the way I was fortunate to know Edward H. Heinemann, the intuitive genius who designed the SBD and a later generation of naval aircraft including the A-1 Skyraider, A-3 Skywarrior, A-4 Skyhawk, F4D Skyray, and two record-setting “X planes.”  During one of our visits at Rancho Santa Fe, I was oafishly proud to tell Ed something he didn’t know about his most important design.  Each of the 318 holes in the dive and landing flaps was exactly the diameter of a tennis ball. 

 

How I discovered that esoteric fact was due to my younger brother’s girlfriend, a top-rated Oregon player.  Details for a later time.

 

By coincidence, this month I’ve been re-reading Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot (Caliber, 2005.). Though the title emphasizes the Grumman Hellcat’s lopsided triumph in the two-day battle off Saipan, the SBD contributed to the victory.  (See above list of Dauntless successes).

 

It holds up well.  Among other things, the appendices include the most complete table of organization for U.S. and Japanese forces engaged, and it was harder to confirm more American ship captains than Japanese.

 

I took time to investigate all 102 ships in Task Force 58 and found that 87 of them had been commissioned in the two and a half years since Pearl Harbor.

 

Yeah.

 

Some historiography: when Clash was published 13 of the 41 veterans (representing 17 ships) already were deceased.  My lone Japanese contributor, dive bomber leader Zenji Abe, died in 2006.  The last of those I could track passed in 2018.  I’ll probably never know details of the remaining four.

 

I’ve not heard of a subsequent full-length book devoted to the fifth carrier battle, though additional Japanese sources have emerged.

 

I’ll close with a brief description of the SBD’s reason for existence:

 

At about 14,000 feet the pilot reduced throttle, extended the dive brakes, and nosed into a 70 degree dive, tracking the target through his optical sight.  About six feet behind him—contrary to almost every depiction—the radioman-gunner rotated his seat forward rather than deploying his guns sternward.  The back-seater had a partial instrument panel including altimeter so he could call the descent to the pilot.

 

Few fighters could stay with an SBD in a dive, making 240 knots (275 mph) for the 30 to 35 seconds descent.  It was a very busy half minute: acquire the target, making upwards of 30 knots in an evasive turn that constantly changed the crosswind component, with stick hands and rudder feet jockeying Ed’s beautifully balanced controls to track the target.

 

Approaching 1,500 feet, the pilot pressed the red B button atop the control stick and/or pulled on the double-handle manual bomb release.  Freed of 500 or 1,000 pounds, the Dauntless bucked in response and the pilot began a high-G recovery, sometimes pulling nearly nine Gs.  Blackouts were fairly common while audio clues told him: shove up the power, pull in the flaps, and get out of AA range soonest.

 

Repeat as necessary to win the war.

 

And someday I might write another SBD book:

 

Dauntless: The Heartwarming Story of a Boy and His Dive Bomber.

 

Today ours is displayed in original A-24B configuration at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.