Picture of the day. (134 Viewers)

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Vought F4U 1D Corsairs on USS Bunker Hill the net
Vought F4U 1D Corsairs on USS Bunker Hill the net.png
 
Curious the choice of the F4U as the planes yo illustrate the Page. It wasn't in service at the time of issue.
But the prototype had first flown on the 29th of May 1940, over a year before publication, and it was highly advertised as the 1st 400 mph fighter plane in the world, The XF4U-1 acheiving that feat on October 1st 1940. So people were well aware of the planes shape at the time of publication.
 
I know these are AI enhanced photos, but it is nice to see what they may have looked like in the day
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French Dauntless? Both French Airforce and Navy flew them. Air Force flew A-24.
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27 unarmed A-24B's receiced by the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres and first used for training.

A Groupe de Bombardement I/17 Picardie received about 10 of these A-24B and used them up to 1945.

The Navy received about 80 SBD-5's that equipped the ground based Flottilles 3FB and 4FB that used them against the German Atlantic garrisons till the end of the war.

On april 30, 1945, Flotille 4B rechristened 4F embarked about the Dixmude carrier (formerly HMS Biter) and served in Indochina.

On november 1948, Flotille 3 FB rechristened 3F served in Indochina with the Arromanche carrier (formerly HMS Colossus).

Active use stopped in 1949 and these SBD-5's and A-24's served for training up to 1953.
 
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Bellied without bending a prop blade.

Highly unlikely.
To my eyes it looks like it ground looped at low speed with the engine not running, you can see were the landing gear dug into the soft ground. So I think it was a gear down emergency landing attempted that ended up with sheered gear after the ground loop.

But that is just a guess on my part.
 
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