Dauntless dive bomber dive angle11/13/2023 ![]() ![]() Pre-war doctrine supposed that aircraft carriers couldn’t survive a massed air strike. Dive bombers from the third US carrier at Midway, USS Hornet, hadn’t even found the Japanese fleet. Pilots from Yorktown had fought at Coral Sea, but pilots from Enterprise had not. This was just the second great carrier versus carrier battle of the Pacific War, and no one yet knew what to expect. ![]() By pointing his plane directly at the target until he released his weapon, a skilled pilot could keep his eye on the target throughout his dive and simplify his bomb’s trajectory.īut success was far from certain. That was one reason that Navy carrier air groups had more dive bombers than any other type of aircraft. Navy in the 1930’s, and in 1942 it was the most accurate form of air attack. Dive bombing had been developed by the U.S. The broad flight decks of the Japanese carriers were perfect targets for the American pilots whose aircraft, training, and combat tactics had been designed for precisely this type of attack. Somehow, against all odds, the Americans had achieved precisely the situation that Navy commanders had dreamed of: dozens of American dive bombers screaming down on Japanese flight decks jammed with fueled and armed aircraft, fueling hoses snaked about, bombs and torpedoes scattered hastily throughout the hangar bays. The heroic sacrifice of Navy torpedo plane crews who had pressed home their slow-motion attacks in the face of deadly Japanese opposition looked to be in vain.īut now, at the last possible moment, three squadrons of SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the American aircraft carriers USS Yorktown and USS Enterprise had arrived unobserved and unopposed in the skies above the Japanese fleet. ![]() The priceless intelligence advantage the Americans had gained through years of backbreaking effort by Navy codebreakers was about to be squandered. Two days of American air and submarine attacks had failed to damage a single ship of the peerless Japanese Aircraft Carrier Striking Force. Far below, four Japanese aircraft carriers were launching the first planes of a massive strike that could decide the Battle of Midway. Navy dive bombers had found what they were looking for. It was 10:20 am on Thursday, June 4, 1942. ![]()
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