Originally Posted by
Gunny
Those are SBD Dauntless divebombers. Almost every one was shot down. They didn't give an inch.
Yes, they are Dauntlesses. But many of them made it back to their ships after striking the enemy at Midway. The ones that didn't make it back, mostly ditched when their fuel ran out. They had been launched at extreme range, and then sent after the Japanese in a relatively uncoordinated attack.
You may be thinking of the torpedo bombers, nearly all of which WERE shot down. Out of three squadrons (one per carrier), I think four planes total made it back.
Normal doctrine was to send in the fighters and dive bombers (Dauntlesses) first, to keep the defending fighters busy, and then have the torpedo bombers slip in at wavetop height to deliver the fatal blow to the enemy ships (a "coordinated attack"). But it didn't work out that way at Midway on June 4, 1942.
Due to slow launches and other problems, the Dauntlesses went in first, without the torpedo planes or escort fighters. And many of them got lost on the way, so milled back and forth across the ocean. The torpedo bombers (which were slower and launched later) went relatively straight to the target, and attacked first. They were easy prey, with only a few American fighter planes along to defend them, and the Japanese Zero fighters annihilated them. NONE of the Japanese ships suffered any damage from American torpedo planes.
ALL the Japanese Zeros came down to wavetop level to chase the torpedo bombers - big mistake. So when the Dauntless dive bombers showed up overhead, the upper sky was undefended, and they were able to make accurate, uninterrupted bombing runs, destroying three of the four Japanese carriers. They got the fourth one the next day - a clean sweep of the Japanese carriers.
The most amazing part of the Midway battle on June 4, was that the torpedo bombers kept attacking the Japanese carriers, even though they were almost helpless while making their necessarily slow and straight torpedo runs, while hordes of tough, experienced Japanese fighters swarmed all over them. The pilots watched nearly ALL of their friends and comrades getting slaughtered, blown out of the sky one after the other, and they still kept on boring in. This caused the Japanese to concentrate all their defenses against them (wiping them out), and distracted the Japanese enough that they forgot to defend against attack from above. The bravery of those torpedo bomber crews (most of whom died) turned the tide of the battle, and of the whole Pacific war.
Last edited by Little-Acorn; 06-04-2015 at 11:44 PM.
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