Launched from US carriers, four squadrons of SBD s attacked and sank four Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway disabling three of them in the first 6 minutes of engagement and then severely damaging two straggling heavy cruisers securing their reputation for sinking more enemy shipping in the Pacific War than any other Allied bomber. One Dauntless pilot, Stanley ‘Swede’ Vejtasa was attacked by three A6 Zero fighters and in the ensuring air battle, managed to shoot down two of them while destroying the third when he cut the Zero’s wing off during a head on pass with his wingtip. While not as fast as TBD Devastator, its pilots preferred its easy handling and slow landing speeds - essential characteristics for a carrier based aircraft although surprisingly, it was also capable of being flown quiet aggressively and successfully against the lighter armed Japanese fighters. With a reasonable operational range and good handling characteristics, the lightweight but ruggedly-built aircraft was both highly manoeuvrable and heavily armed - with two forward-firing .50 in M2 Browning machine guns and either one or two rear flexible-mount .30 in AN/M2 machine guns.Įquipped with its distinctive perforated split flaps or “dive-brakes” designed to eliminate tail buffeting during diving manoeuvres, the Dauntless was instrumental in sinking or damaging a number of Japanese light aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers during the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal campaign. One of the most successful USN carrier-based dive bombers of WWII was the Douglas SBD Dauntless which saw action from 1940 through to 1944, when it was replaced by the SB2C Helldiver and the Vought F4U Corsair.

Douglas dauntless