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Home , Arthur (season 3), Close air support, Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, Dive bomber, Heavy bomber

The Air Forces turned to dive- for accuracy, but the A-24 Banshee found itself in the wrong places at the wrong times. The Last of the Dive-bombers By Walter J. Boyne

n warfare, as in business, timing and location are everything. The classic Douglas dive- of WorldI War II served the Navy brilliantly as the SBD Dauntless, while the virtu- ally identical A-24 Banshee had only a mediocre career with the US Army Air Forces. There were many reasons for this, but the main one was the combination of the Navy’s long-standing training in dive-bombing and the nature of its tar- gets, which allowed the SBD to perform. In contrast, dive-bombing was thrust upon the heavy-bomber-centric AAF following the spectacular successes of the German Ju 87 Stuka in 70 Magazine / December 2010 the initial phases of World War II. The 1926, and instructed his squadron in Left top: An A-24 on the ramp on undeniably menacing look of the Ju 87 the technique. Makin, in the Gilbert Island chain. Left certainly made the pitch easier as well. He made Navy history on Oct. 22, bottom: German Stukas in 1943. Above: An RA-24B assigned to Air Transport When at last the AAF sought to obtain 1926, with a surprise dive-bombing Command. a dive-bombing capability, it took deliv- mock attack on of the Pacific ery of Douglas A-24s (erstwhile Navy Fleet, using the Curtiss F6C-2 single- During the 1910-20 Mexican Civil SBD-3s) in mid-1941. Unfortunately, seater. By 1928, the Navy was confi- War, an American named Leonard the Banshee had too little performance dent enough in the technique to order Bonney flew his Moisant monoplane and was too late in the game. The AAF the Martin XT5M-1, which offered in the service of the Mexican govern- service of the A-24 might be character- both a torpedo and a dive-bombing ment. A report of his combat activities ized as brave but undistinguished. Yet capability. One of the demanding re- said Bonney allegedly dived on enemy during the same time period, the naval quirements called for the new Martin positions, releasing his small, spherical SBD Dauntless versions of the aircraft to be able to pull out of a terminal dynamite prior to pulling up. were writing history in a series of deci- velocity dive with a 1,000-pound His reason for doing so, no doubt, sive battles from the Coral Sea through still attached. was accuracy, and it was accuracy Midway and well into 1944. that prompted many early attempts at The Dauntless was ultimately replaced Sopwiths and dive-bombing during the First World by the larger, faster, but less forgiving, The Curtiss Co. exploited the now- War of 1914-18. Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, but it remained intense Navy and Marine Corps interest Among the first of these was to pre- a favorite among Navy and Marine fliers. with the further development of the empt what was regarded as the major The Navy and Marine Corps saw in basic F8C into the famous Helldiver German aerial threat of the time, the dive-bombing a solution to two prob- series of dive-bombers. Nascent US . The war was scarcely two lems. The first was accuracy, essential for dive-bombing capability is vividly weeks old when on Aug. 14, 1914, the Marine , but the second portrayed in the 1931 film “Hell French sent clumsy Voison bombers, was creating a weapon that could fly from Divers.” The nominal stars are Clark flown by inexperienced pilots, to bomb the crowded decks of an Gable and Wallace Beery, but the real the airship hangars at Metz, . to deliver an armor-piercing bomb on stars are the airplanes, including the One pilot who dropped his bombs by an enemy . Curtiss F8C-4, Great Lakes TG-1, diving on the target obtained the best Even relatively large carriers such as Martin T4M-1, and others as well as results. Two months later, the Brit- Lexington and Saratoga could not carry Saratoga and the dirigible USS Los ish sent Sopwith medium or heavy bombers. The task had Angeles. Tabloids against the Zeppelin sheds to be left to smaller airplanes such as The Army Air Forces, meanwhile, at Duesseldorf in Germany, and once the Curtiss F6C Hawk or multipurpose may have waited until just before the again the best results were obtained by such as the Curtiss F8C Falcon. US entry into World War II before fi- diving to a low altitude before dropping Lt. Cmdr. Frank Wagner, commanding nally turning to dive-bombers, but the the bombs. officer of strike squadron VF-2, began discipline itself extended back before There were many other examples demonstrating dive-bombing in March . of aircraft diving to ensure accuracy AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2010 71 Photo courtesy ofWalter Boyne J.

in bomb delivery, including accounts on Sept. 1, 1919. The Third conducted A Douglas A-24 on static display at the by Gould Lee in his book No active dive-bombing attacks along the National Museum of the US Air Force, Parachute. However it appears the first Mexican border for the next two years. Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. truly preplanned and practiced dive- The newfound American fascina- bombing attack took place on March tion with dive-bombing was mirrored I, Manfred von Richthofen. Udet pre- 14, 1918, when 2nd Lt. William Henry in Germany, which was engaged in a vailed, however, and the Ju 87 entered Brown dived his Royal Aircraft Factory systematic program to develop dive- combat in the in S.E. 5a on a German supply barge in a bombers. The rebuilding German air 1938. The Ju 87 dropped the very first French canal, sinking it with a 20-pound arm was encouraged to develop dive- bombs of World War II when three Cooper bomb. bombing by the enthusiasm of Ernst Stukas bombed the approaches to the Brown’s technique was adopted by Udet. An ace from World War I with Dirschau Bridge over the Vistula River other British flying units, but the griev- 62 victories to his credit, Udet had in Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. ous losses suffered in ground attack observed American dive-bombing, The sinister Stuka went on to great overshadowed these successes, and and persuaded Hermann Goering to success in the Polish, Danish, Nor- dictated the course of Great Britain’s purchase two export versions of the wegian, Dutch, Belgian, and French dive-bomber development for the next Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk, which had a campaigns, serving as flying two decades. very short and not too successful career and working hand-in-glove with fast- The eschewed close in the US Navy. moving Panzer divisions. air support and concentrated instead The Stukas were rugged aircraft, on light bombers, which reached their Horn of Jericho able to operate out of forward fields, peak with the handsome but useless The Junkers firm took advantage of generating many sorties in the course of Fairey Co.’s Battle in 1937. this developing interest and entered the a day. Their accuracy was phenomenal, The ’s was dive-bombing field by clandestinely and in the early days, their sound had a bit more advanced, however, and that developing the K 47 as a civil aircraft, a profound psychological effect upon year contracted for a true (if generally testing it in in 1932. the relatively green troops they were ineffective) dive-bomber, the Black- This led in time to the history-mak- facing. The Germans had added to the burn Skua. ing Ju 87, a Sturzkampfflugzeug, the natural noise of a diving aircraft the The began its dive- generic term for dive-bomber, which wind-driven “Horn of Jericho” to ter- bombing experience with an unlikely led to the infamous nickname Stuka. rify the enemy. aircraft, the de Havilland DH-4. This This became a proprietary term for Journalists reported on the success of large, slow but sturdy aircraft was used the malevolent-looking Ju 87 with its the Ju 87 and the term “Stuka” became by the Marine Corps in against the inverted gull wings, spatted undercar- identified with quick victories. mercenary Cacos in 1919, and against riage, and drooping pointed nose. There was tremendous popular and the “Sandinistas” in in 1927 The Ju 87 had a troubled develop- political pressure on the Army Air Corps and 1928. ment life, including numerous crashes to obtain a dive-bombing capability, The Army Air Service’s Third Attack and the firm opposition of then-Col. which it filled by obtaining 168 SBD-3s demonstrated dive-bombing at Wolfram F. von Richthofen, a cousin and designating them as A-24s. These Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland of the famed Red Baron of World War were essentially Navy aircraft with the 72 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2010 deck hook removed and a pneumatic tail wheel tire replacing the solid Navy version. Over time a further 170 A-24A and 615 A-24Bs were obtained, ver- sions respectively of the Navy SBD-4 and SBD-5. The very first A-24s were immedi- ately dispatched to the Philippines in November 1941, intended for the 27th Bombardment Group (Light). However with the Japanese attack on the Philippines, the aircraft were di- verted to , arriving in Brisbane in December 1941. These A-24s, some already used aircraft when the AAF obtained them, had seen hard service in large-scale Louisiana maneuvers in September 1941, and were dirty and in bad mechanical condition. Meanwhile, the personnel of the 27th were subject to the true rigors of warfare, landing in the Philippines and being given a wide variety of duties. Col. John H. Davies, the 27th’s com- mander, and 12 pilots attempted to fly out to Australia in a Douglas C-39 and two Douglas B-18s, but got only A Dauntless, the Navy’s legendary dive-bomber, drops its weapons load. The nearly as far as Java. identical AAF Banshee never achieved similar success. Other officers and men were trans- ported from the Philippines in five sepa- rate submarines, running the gauntlet 8th Bombardment Squadron, 3rd Bomb Islands and did well, in what were by of the Japanese fleet. Group, and stationed at Charters Towers then fairly permissive skies. On most Sadly, around 400 members of the in Queensland, Australia. missions, they had fighter cover, either 27th were left behind in the Philippines, The few remaining A-24s in Australia AAF Bell P-39s and Curtiss P-40s, or where they fought with the ground were tasked to defend New Guinea. On Navy F6Fs. forces until surrender as part of the July 26, 1942, seven Banshees attacked In other parts of the world, dive- 1st Provisional Air Corps Regiment. a Japanese convoy, but were in turn bombers soldiered on. The veteran Ju 87 Many were killed, and the survivors attacked by fighters. Six of the A-24s served until the last day of the war for had to endure the infamous Bataan were shot down, and the aircraft was the . However by 1944, all the Death March. subsequently withdrawn from combat. air forces of the world realized the latest On Feb. 5, 1942, the pilots and ground This was not the end of the road single-seat fighters could also function crew of the 27th assembled in Australia for the Banshee, however. As the US in the close air support role, and could were ordered to move to Malang, Java. gained air superiority in the Pacific, a do any dive-bombing required. Thus Fifteen aircraft of the 91st Bombard- later version of the aircraft, the A-24B, the dive-bombing torch was passed to ment Squadron arrived on Feb. 17, but was introduced. aircraft such as the , only seven A-24s were available for Republic P-47, and Focke Wulf Fw 190. the dawn attack on Japanese vessels Passing the Torch Although withdrawn from combat, landing troops on Bali. This version of the Navy’s SBD-5, A-24s continued to serve as trainers or The bombing results were poor, and employed a 1,200 horsepower engine target aircraft. Some remained in service the A-24 was no match for the Japanese and was faster than its predecessors. until 1950 and, as the “A” designation fighters it encountered. Lacking armor It served with the 407th Bomb Group, was canceled, received the redesigna- and self-sealing fuel , the Banshee flying against the Japanese-held island tion of F-24. was slow, short-ranged, and vulnerable of Kiska, Alaska, in mid-1943. Other In the A-24-SBD comparison, the to combat damage. Banshees went to the 531st Fighter- Dauntless undoubtedly outshined the On Feb. 27, the A-24s participated Bomber Squadron and the 86th Combat Banshee. Although the airplanes were in the disastrous battle of the Java Mapping Squadron. essentially the same, the environment, Sea. A fortunate decision was made The 531st flew from Makin Island the training, and the targets were vastly to withdraw the unit from Java, and it against Japanese forces in the Marshall different. n returned to Australia where it would later be equipped with the more suit- Walter J. Boyne, former director of the National Air and Space Museum in Wash- able Douglas A-20. ington, D.C., is a retired Air Force colonel and author. He has written more than 600 By March 1942, a total of 42 of- articles about aviation topics and 40 books, the most recent of which is Hypersonic ficers, 62 enlisted men, and 24 of the Thunder. His most recent article for Air Force Magazine, “The Remote Control Bomb- A-24 Banshees were assigned to the ers,” appeared in the November issue. AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2010 73