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Never said it wasn't terrible. Up to that point, however, it seemed to work. You fight with what you have. It would've been interesting had TF 16 and TF 17 been re-equipped with the TBF instead. The TBF wasn't on the carriers, though.The TBD was terrible. It was inferior to the Swordfish and the Albacore by every yard stick, and they were both biplanes.
The TBF / TBM was pretty good though.
They did a better job than the Americans did at coordinating strikes. The USN were never able to launch a coordinated strike from multiple carriers in 1942. And the japanse never got lost as badly as the Hornets air group did at Midway.The IJN had issues with coordinating strikes and finding their targets. Extreme range was of dubious value when facing an opponent who has AW radar, that could detect shadowing recon aircraft, and mass the CAP to intercept the strikes that actually found the target. Also in the south Pacific, you have a fairly equal day/night cycle, so usable range was limited by available daylight.
And exactly what strike are you referring to? Not any IJN carrier strike that I am aware of in 1942.From what I understand 93% loss was from that one strike, same as the 6 Betty's that all went down, lets get real, losing 25% of your A6M's, 52% of Vals and 50% of Kates is simply unsustainable in anyone's language,
The IJN had two strikes go astray at Coral Sea (one mistakenly directed to Neosho and Sims), and one at Eastern Solomons. Hornet's SBDs missed their targets but not the TBDs.They did a better job than the Americans did at coordinating strikes. The USN were never able to launch a coordinated strike from multiple carriers in 1942. And the japanse never got lost as badly as the Hornets air group did at Midway.
I am the one who challenged the claims made by the SBD. It is not conjecture on my part, its a collation of the numbers presented by Lundstrom in his excellent First Team books. I will say the the massive overclaiming by the SBD is far greater than for any fighter. Note that most of the claims were made by the gunners and as a group they are notorious for overclaiming. Look at the claims made by B-17 in 1943. As an example in the first two weeks of October 1943 B-17s claimed 791 fighters shot down which was more than the frontline strength of the fighters defending the Germany. But I digress. For those how didn't read my previous posts here is the last one:Even the SBD made 138 claims - a number often challenged around here but I doubt that is more exaggerated than the 112 victories for the Fulmar.
Even the TBM / TBF made 98 claims.
I am the one who challenged the claims made by the SBD. It is not conjecture on my part, its a collation of the numbers presented by Lundstrom in his excellent First Team books. I will say the the massive overclaiming by the SBD is far greater than for any fighter. Note that most of the claims were made by the gunners and as a group they are notorious for overclaiming. Look at the claims made by B-17 in 1943. As an example in the first two weeks of October 1943 B-17s claimed 791 fighters shot down which was more than the frontline strength of the fighters defending the Germany. But I digress. For those how didn't read my previous posts here is the last one:
At Eastern Solomons the SBDs claimed 6 Vals but actually shot down 0.
At Santa Cruz they claimed 15! Zeros during the strike on the Japanese but actually shot down 0.
At Santa Cruz during the strike on the Americans they claimed:
2 Zeros actual 0
9 Vals actual 2
2 Kates actual 0
That's 34 claims vs 2 actual kills
As noted previously, up to and including Coral Sea SDBs claimed 31 EA vs 6 actuals
That gives a grand total of 8 actual kills vs 65 claims
I don't have data for SDB claims at Midway so it is not included.
The original posts are here:
Why the Skua Only Carried a 500lb Bomb
I debunked the SBD claims at Coral Sea previously: https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/improved-skua-for-faa.52273/page-14#post-1751560 In another post I totaled the actual kills vs claims for the SBD at Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz based on Lundstroms "The First Team and the Guadalcanal...ww2aircraft.net Improved Skua for FAA?
The prowess of the SBD as an ersatz fighter is greatly exaggerated. A large part of the SBDs claim to fame is the battle of Coral Sea. I was always puzzled by the extremely high USN claims for Zeros shot down during this battle. If these numbers were remotely true the Zero easily wins the title...ww2aircraft.net Improved Skua for FAA?
The prowess of the SBD as an ersatz fighter is greatly exaggerated. A large part of the SBDs claim to fame is the battle of Coral Sea. I was always puzzled by the extremely high USN claims for Zeros shot down during this battle. If these numbers were remotely true the Zero easily wins the title...ww2aircraft.net
The 65 claims I found information on represent more than 1/2 of the claims made by carrier SBDs. Unfortunately I don't have any information on the 22 Zeros claimed made by Marine SBDs on Guadalcanal
Ah, maybe as a way to distract / misdirect the German fighters?
On the speed is better side
P-51 over FW 190
Bf 109 over LaGG-3, I-16, early Yak 1 etc. [early Russian Front]
Bf 109 over Hurricane & early P-40 [BoB, North Africa]
P-38 and F4U and Hellcat over A6M and Ki-43 [South Pacific]
P-40 over Ki-43 [China / Burma]
Fw 190 over Spit V [English Channel]
Bf 109F over Spit V and Hurricane II [English Channel, North Africa]
Insufficient data.
No variant information, no speeds and no altitudes.
I'm sure it was a factor. But I think these numbers help make clear, it was not as much of a factor as is sometimes portrayed. It's not like the Zeros were made of matches and kindling wood while the Wildcats were flying bar-bells.
The A6Ms were much more agile and had better performance. And 20mm cannons. The F4Fs were tougher and had more ammunition, and probably more radios. It more or less equaled out, but this was later in the year (Santa Cruz was in Oct 1942), once the Americans had improved their tactics. In early 1942 the outcomes were much more in favor of the Japanese (against both US and British / Commonwealth forces).
and moxie.I personally think pilot experience has a lot to do with this. Early in the Pacific war, American pilots weren't so canny, but by October they had more savvy.
and moxie.
I personally think pilot experience has a lot to do with this. Early in the Pacific war, American pilots weren't so canny, but by October they had more savvy.
I mean the war, both it and it's torpedo shouldn't have been in it.Wrong battle.
Interesting statistic. More SBDs were lost in action prior to Midway than TBDs.
The TBD was faster than the Swordfish and Albacore were, had a smaller bomb load, and wasn't employed very well by the U.S. Navy. So, it didn't "sink the Bismark" or have any notable victories. But, we also didn't employ the F2A Buffalo very well. The Finns did and managed to have a good experience with it.The TBD was terrible. It was inferior to the Swordfish and the Albacore by every yard stick, and they were both biplanes.
The TBF / TBM was pretty good though.
Thank you for taking the time to give a reasoned answer.A light weight structure doesn't necessarily mean an inherently weak one as far as I understand (i'm not an engineer) - but it means it forgoing any extraneous weight including using the thinnest gauge / lightest materials possible. That means it might be perfectly strong enough in terms of performing its intended flight regime. Where it might become an issue in a combat however, is in the amount of 'redundancy' built into the structure. That might be perfectly acceptable under ordinary flight - but clearly becomes more critical when a bullet or lump of shrapnel passes through a structural member or you're hoping to survive a crash-landing. It also means potential less 'reserve' of strength in terms of metal fatigue (little understood at the time) or if the airframe became over-stressed in hard manoeuvres. It also meant in many Japanese aircraft forgoing things like self-sealing tanks, armour and other items for crew comfort etc.
And that's an important design criteria if you want good performance - especially range and manoeuvrability - from your available engine power. The unarmoured ultra light-weight aluminium pilots seat from a Zero posted earlier in this thread epitomises the approach of certain Japanese designers
In order to achieve the G4M's great range and performance, he [Kiro Honjo] was forced to equip it with the largest possible fuel tanks and to forego rubberized self-sealing protection for them. Nor did he provide armor for the crew. (His friend Horikoshi seems to have taken the technique to heart in designing the Zero.) The Betty's wet wings were its tanks, with fuel cells neatly defined by the main spar and a secondary spar forward of it, the ends sealed by solid wing ribs. There was no self-sealing mechanism, which would have required a 1¼-inch-thick soft rubber layer weighing about 660 pounds, either inside or outside the fuel tanks, substantially reducing the tanks' capacity.Mitsubishi G4M: Why Betty Bombed
Mitsubishi’s G4M bomber went by many names, but perhaps the most appropriate would have been “flaming coffin.”www.historynet.com
After 663 Bettys had been manufactured (some 2,400 would ultimately be built), Mitsubishi began to fireproof the wings by applying a thick self-sealing layer on the outside of the lower wing skins. This maintained the internal fuel capacity but adversely affected the airplane's aerodynamics. The rubber mat shaved about 6 mph from the G4M's speed and reduced range by almost 200 miles. Had they tried putting a matching mat on the exterior top of the wing tanks as well, the airplane probably would never have gotten off the ground.
The final version of the Betty, the G4M4, had an entirely new laminar-flow wing with integrally self-sealing fuel tanks. The benefits of laminar flow were probably illusory on Bettys, since IJNAS aircraft of all types had paint jobs that ranged from beater-bad to junkyard special, peeling and flaking in a manner that would have tripped any incipient laminar airflow. For years it was assumed that the Japanese simply didn't know how to make good paint, but the reason was even more basic. Mitsubishi aircraft were delivered to combat units in natural metal and spray-painted with camouflage in the field…without the benefit of primer.
The Betty was the product of excellent engineering pushed to the limit and then slightly beyond, to meet requirements created not by aviators but by military bureaucrats. Those procurement officers were aware of the airplane's main flaw but chose to accept it, dooming many crews.
The number of combat reports regarding the comparative fragility of many Japanese aircraft is pretty much legion. So trope or not, evidence seems to point towards it being accurate, at least for many types
Every possible weight-saving measure was incorporated into the design. Most of the aircraft was built of a new top-secret aluminium alloy developed by Sumitomo Metal Industries in 1936. Called "extra super duralumin" (ESD), it was lighter, stronger and more ductile than other alloys (e.g. 24S alloy) used at the time, but was prone to corrosive attack, which made it brittle. This detrimental effect was countered with an anti-corrosion coating applied after fabrication. No armour protection was provided for the pilot, engine or other critical points of the aircraft, and self-sealing fuel tanks, which were becoming common among other combatants, were not used. This made the Zero lighter, more maneuverable, and one of the longest-ranged single-engine fighters of World War II, which made it capable of searching out an enemy hundreds of kilometres away, bringing it to battle, then returning to its base or aircraft carrier. However, that tradeoff in weight and construction also made it prone to catching fire and exploding when struck by enemy fire.
With its low-wing cantilever monoplane layout, retractable, wide-set conventional landing gear and enclosed cockpit, the Zero was one of the most modern carrier-based aircraft in the world at the time of its introduction. It had a fairly high-lift, low-speed wing with very low wing loading. This, combined with its light weight, resulted in a very low stalling speed of well below 60 kn (110 km/h; 69 mph). This was the main reason for its phenomenal maneuverability, allowing it to out-turn any Allied fighter of the time. Early models were fitted with servo tabs on the ailerons after pilots complained that control forces became too heavy at speeds above 300 kilometres per hour (190 mph). They were discontinued on later models after it was found that the lightened control forces were causing pilots to overstress the wings during vigorous maneuvers.
To quote our own GregP from 2012:
"The chief culprit in its fragility was the use of .032" Aluminum skin where the western powers used .040" or even .050" or even heavier. When everything is intact, the Zero is as strong as any western fighter. Once it gets battle damage it gets fragile, and the lack of self-sealing tanks and armor add to the perception of fragility."
I was considering the wieght angle, but for starters I'm not sure what is included in empty weight. Surely turrets but not ammonition, but what about the guns? is that consistent between sourses and nations? I simply don't feel competent enough to do such equations with confidence, even if I had the data, which i do not.That is a good question and it may be very hard to answer. We can look at the empty weight of the aircraft and the size for some indications but not proof.
According to Francillon the G4M1 model 11 was 9500 kg empty, the G4M2 model 22 was 12,500kg empty as was the G4M3 model 34.
Maybe my math is off but the loaded weight of the G4M1 model 11 doesn't allow for the full rated capacity of the fuel, let alone oil and crew.
for a crappy comparison the B-25A was 8,129kg empty and the B-25C was 9,220kg empty but they had a smaller wing (about 15 shorter and 73% in size) and the fuselage was almost 10 ft shorter. We can try looking at engine weights and so on. US bomber strength varies quite a bit as some planes were allowed to decline as they got heavier with only local or critical parts strengthened