The most obsolete first-line strike aircraft in any carrier force in 1942 was the American Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber (206mph, 2 x.303 mg. 1,000lbs of a torpedo or bombs, range 716 miles). Despite — or because of — being the first monoplane on any carrier air-wing (1937!), it had never been a very good aircraft. Fully loaded with a torpedo (a much lighter torpedo than used by anyone else), it had a hard time getting off the deck, and had a much reduced speed and range. In fact its attack speed was actually slower than a [British Fairey] Swordfish, and it lacked the Swordfish’s maneouvrability or capacity to take damage. Used in daylight (the only way it could be used), it was an absolute death-trap if there was any airborne opposition at all. In fact the role played by the Devastators at the Battle of Midway was as [unintentional] kamikaze decoy targets to draw the Japanese fighter forces out of place. A point made even clearer by the fact that the few Devastators which had managed to attack at Coral Sea had usually seen their torpedoes fail to work anyway. (The American carrier fleet would not get a successful airborne torpedo until mid 1943!)
The next most obsolete was the Japanese Aichi D3A “Val” dive-bomber (266mph, 3 x 7.7 mg, 1 x 500lb and 2 x 60lb bombs, 970 mile range) which had also entered service in the mid 30’s. It was a fixed landing gear dive-bomber modeled on the famous Junkers Ju87 (183mph, 1 x 7.7mm mg, 1,000lb bomb load, 621 mile range), and was just as good a dive bomber … if there was no opposition. Unlike the Ju87 (and like the [British Blackburn] Skua) the Val also had the ability to defend itself as a second-rate fighter once the bombs had been dropped. Still, the Val relied for success on clear skies, and achieved excellent results under those conditions at Ceylon (cruisers Devonshire and Cornwall and unarmed old carrier Hermes) and Coral Sea (carrier Lexington). Under even moderate air pressure at Trincomalee and Midway the performance fell off markedly, and later in the war the phrase that comes to mind is “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”. Nonetheless they had to soldier on because the replacement aircraft was too fast for the smaller carriers that were to become the majority of the Japanese carrier fleet after Midway.
Nigel Davies, “Comparing naval aircraft of World War II”, rethinking history, 2010-12-20.
June 14, 2021
QotD: Obsolescent carrier aircraft in the Pacific war
Comments Off on QotD: Obsolescent carrier aircraft in the Pacific war
No Comments
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
