The Army Air Forces turned to dive-bombers 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-bomber of IWorld 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 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka in 70 AIR FORCE 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 ships 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 bombs prior to pulling up. were writing history in a series of deci- velocity dive with a 1,000-pound bomb 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 Zeppelins 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 Zeppelin. 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 close air support, 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 aircraft carrier Gable and Wallace Beery, but the real the airship hangars at Metz, France. to deliver an armor-piercing bomb on stars are the airplanes, including the One pilot who dropped his bombs by an enemy ship. 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 Royal Flying Corps 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 biplanes 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 World War I. 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 Arthur 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 Spanish Civil War 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 artillery two decades. very short and not too successful career and working hand-in-glove with fast- The Royal Air Force 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 Aviation Co.’s Battle in 1937. this developing interest and entered the a day. Their accuracy was phenomenal, The Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm 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 Sweden 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 United States 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 Haiti 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 Nicaragua 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 Group 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 Australia, arriving in Brisbane in December 1941.