World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
9 Jun 2012 02:56:25 PM

Photograph taken 1942 Douglas SBD-3s, these were aboard the USS Enterprise.
585 of the SBD-3 model were built deliveries to the Navy started in March 1941, the last SBD-3 was delivered to the Navy in 1942.
By Dec.1941, these aircraft equipped the carriers Enterprise, Lexington, Saratoga and
Yorktown.

A total of 5,936 SBDs of all models were built, the last SBD that was accepted by the US Navy, July 1944, aircraft was built at the Douglas El Segundo plant in California

The SBD-3 carried about 160lbs of armor the pilot had a telescopic bombsight installed through the windshield, but sometimes would fog up during a dive-bombing attack.

Did you know: within two minutes 54 SBDs bombed the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga,
Soryu and Hiryu. With the loss of these carriers, aircraft, trained air crews and ship personnal, Japan never recovered.

Armament: 2x50 caliber machine guns for the pilot, 2x30 caliber machine guns for the gunner. First models had only 1x30 caliber machine gun for the gunner later upgraded to 2x30s later model SBDs had only 1x50 for the pilot.

Post-War: The last SBDs were used by the new USAF for training, and later retired in 1950
During WWII the USAAF used the SBD and were called A-24s by the Army.

OPERATORS: Post-War
France, Mexico, Morocco, Chile

During WWII: US Navy, US Marines, US Army, UK
(for tests and evaluation), France and New Zealand.

2.  Bill says:
30 Apr 2016 09:28:03 PM

PILOTS MAN YOUR PLANES: BEWARE OF PROPELLERS

Photo take of SBD-3 aboard USS Enterprise 1942
Did you know that the US Army wanted their own dive bomber of 5,936 built, about 900 went to the Army as the A-24 Banshee minus the naval equipment.
After WWII the new USAF still had a few on inventory from the old USAAF, and operated then as trainers and hacks later being phased out and retired by 1950. Post-War survivors were given to foreign air forces they were later retired in late 1950's early 60's

3.  David Stubblebine says:
30 Apr 2016 11:05:49 PM

Bill:
I am not sure if your comments meant to say that this photograph was taken aboard the Enterprise. I may have misunderstood what you said but this is certainly the Yorktown (Yorktown-class). All Navy sources agree that this image, #NH 95571, shows Bombing Squadron Five (VB-5) aboard the Yorktown in the Coral Sea. But more convincing is that wide rectangular face to the navigation bridge that looks a little like a bulldozer blade - that is a Yorktown feature that Enterprise never had, even though they were the same class. Good info on the SBD though.

Note also the 13 horizontal red and white stripes on the aircraft’s rudders. They Navy only used these for four months from Jan to May 1942.