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This has to be one of the worst naval aircraft torpedo strike fails, with the massacre of the Swordfish at the Channel Dash close behind. Mind you, the IJN with their supposed superlative Kates didn't do much better.Knew it was bad, but...
The TBD and SB2U were mid-30's designs and on their way out of service when the Pacific war started.It was not an auspicious start to the TBD's combat career.
Actually the TBD was first flown in combat at Coral Sea and had some limited success. Without a doubt it was hopelessly obsolete at Midway but there were many other factors that contributed to it's slaughter.It was not an auspicious start to the TBD's combat career. It reminds me of one of the B-26 Marauder's early combat missions in Europe bombing a power station in the Netherlands. 11 B-26s were sent out - none of them came back.
The TBD and SB2U were mid-30's designs and on their way out of service when the Pacific war started.
The crews for the most part, did not have combat experience and the fact that their aircraft were reaching obsolescence meant they were in trouble.
None of that diminishes their heroic efforts, though.
Actually the TBD was first flown in combat at Coral Sea and had some limited success.
Great post. It put it together. Yeah, I lost track of the Yorktown's group and the timing.The TBDs in a succession of attacks actually did contrive to keep the Japanese CAP low. First the VT-8 attack, then the VT-6 attack, then as VB-6, VS-6 and VB-3 SBDs were gathering overhead, came the VT-3 attack. That attack, on Hiryu, was still under way when the SBDs started in. Dick Best has said, and told me personally, that as he pulled out of his attack and was trying to make space between himself and the Japanese, he not only observed that there was a fourth carrier but that it was under attack by torpedo planes . . . these would be from VT-3.
In the popular mythology of Midway, VT-8's gallant loss is/was credited with drawing off the CAP so the SBDs could work their mischief. If someone says that is not the way it happened, then they are correct. Almost an hour elapsed between the destruction of VT-8 and the arrival of the various SBD squadrons. VT-6 had kept them busy in the meantime. Remember also the Yorktown strike arrived as a strike group, TBDs, SBDs, and F4Fs after a planned rendezvous in the vicinity of the Japanese. VT-3 and the VF-3 escort went low while VB-3 went high. So, no, VT-8 did not draw off the CAP for the SBDs' attack, nor did VT-6, but they both influenced the subsequent event when VT-3 arrived and did draw down the CAP.
It is also useful to consider just what the Japanese considered the greatest threat to their ships. Their thinking was colored by their possession of an excellent aerial delivered torpedo and the understanding that letting water in is worse then letting air in. They were un-aware of the mechanical problems of US torpedoes but viewed them in light of their own as the greatest threat to their ships.
Profile Pubs, 1960s stuff, in fact I have that one somewhere on one of the shelves, probably haven't looked at it in 20 years.
As my father used to say, "The book is wrong."
He also used to say that . . . the torpedo plane business was the most self-sacrificing in all of naval aviation."
I've read and heard that the Zeros being at low altitude because of dealing with the Devastators is a myth. The source easiest for me to remember is a Drachinifel video on Midway about two weeks ago. He discussed the battle with either Tully or Parshall of "Shattered Sword" fame. There was a twenty minute or so gap after the destruction of the TBD's when the SBD's arrived. Plenty of time for the A6M's to get up to altitude. I have to watch it again as I can't remember why they weren't up there. Perhaps rearm/refuel the CAP? If that were so then perhaps the TBD's did get the Zeros down though perhaps indirectly.
The gunner, Childers, died from his wounds; he was firing at the Zeros with his .45 after his machine gun jammed.