What was the best Multi-Role aircraft of WWII?

My reference shows the SBD as carrying either two 100 pound bombs, one 500 pound bomb, one 1000 pound bomb or two 250 pound depth charges. Even the 1000 pound bomb caused a diminuation of the SBD's range which is the reason the SBD did not carry the 1000 pounder when used as a scout. I don't believe a theoretical max payload of 2250 pounds meant it could carry a 2000 pound torpedo.

renrich said:

My reference shows the SBD as carrying either two 100 pound bombs, one 500 pound bomb, one 1000 pound bomb or two 250 pound depth charges. Even the 1000 pound bomb caused a diminuation of the SBD's range which is the reason the SBD did not carry the 1000 pounder when used as a scout. I don't believe a theoretical max payload of 2250 pounds meant it could carry a 2000 pound torpedo.

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would the tail wheel have to changed to
to allow clearence4 for the torpedo

The Ju-88G1 had a top speed of 565 Km/h as opposed to 540 Km/h for the Pe-3bis. It also featured 6 20mm MG151/20 and radar as opposed to a mix of 2x 20mm, 2LMG and 3 BMG of the Pe-3, of course without radar.
The Pe-2/3 does not compare favourably with the Bf-110c/f/g in terms of firepower, speed, acceleration, range and bombload and less so with the Mossie. The Ju-88 is slower in the bomber version (Ju-88A) but faster in the recon version (Ju-88S) as well as in the later nightfighter versions (Ju-88G). I am not sure that the Pe-2/-3 are more maneuverable, from what I read all Junkers aircraft had very light controll forces and were more maneuverable than the size of the airframe would imply.
The Pe-2 is a decent all arounder but the Tu-2 is the better bomber plane and unlike the Mossie / bf-110 / Ju-88 it was never a successfull nightfighter.

I also have problems with the Pe-2 performances. Top speed was typically 530 to 540 Km/h for all operationally used variantes, except for the late 1943 Pe-2FT which claimed 580 Km/h instead of 540 Km/h with VK-105PF instead of VK-105.
I doubt that You can achieve 7% more speed with just 7% more power aviable on the same airframe. The speed does not increase linearely with power. It does increase with the cube of power. Note that the -105PF was a M-105 modification with increased SL power output at the expense of decreased high-altitude performance, which in turn makes the claimed 580 Km/h even less believable. Still in within the range of speed differences for individual planes but suspect when used for general performances.

The Pe-2I was produced in five specimen before the end of the war (trials in mid 44) and should be compared with the contemporary Ju-388.

Pe-2FT by V.M.Petlyakov

Juha said:

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Finns also tested a Pe-2 or -3 and used them operationally. But of course there is a language barrier which made the test reports rather useless to foreigners.

Juha

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Hi, Juha,
Are those tests available in HTML (or .doc etc.) form? If so, the online translators could help us.

I'll have to dig through my stuff and see if I can find the account, but if I recall right, it was during the battle of Santa Cruz where we were throwing everything we had at the Japanese, and the Dauntless involved was the SBD-3...

Let me see about finding more details.

The SBD was used as CAP against torpedo bombers in the early Pacific war. Was not very effective. I have Lundstrom's books and Santa Cruz is in them and I recall nothing about SBDs and carrying torpedos. In fact the TBF was in service then. I never understood why the TBF had only one 30 cal peashooter firing forward when the SBD had two 50s that gave good service. I don't believe the tail wheel of the SBD would interfere with a torpedo.

Hello Tomo Pauk
I'm not aware of any HTML or .doc version. I have seen a copy of one of the test reports at our military archives and have a couple photos on it. It is published almost complete in one book and most relevant info in another but both are in Finnish. The tested plane was Pe-2, Finnish AF used 7 Pe-2s and one Pe-3 operationally, or we can forget one Pe-2, which crashed on its first take off.

Hello Delcyros
I agree, one small point 88S was a bomber series the correspondent recon series was 88T. Finns also commented the manoeuvrability of Ju 88A and for ex E. Brown and even Beaumont, who was more or less Hawker fanatic, wrote in glowing terms on the manoeuvrability of Ju 88G he flew after the war. And IMHO if Beaumont says that a German a/c was very good, it must have been.

And yes, Pe-2I was very rare bird, on the other hand Mossie B. Mk XVI was the most numerous bomber Mossie, some 1200 built.

Juha

Well dang, I just can't find that info on the torpedoes, so for argument's sake, I'll scratch the torpedo part until I do

However, the SBD still qualifies for a large share of the "all around" criteria where others can't.

I also just ran across some info stating that it also deployed rockets and depth charges as well...that I didn't know.

I also didn't know it was multi-theater, I had always understood it to be operating in the Pacific only:

As the war went on, the Dauntless equipped no less than twenty Marine squadrons and were retained until late 1944. It was the main type US navy dive-bomber and was not only used in the Pacific, but during the Allied landing in North Africa and in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Dauntless had the lowest attrition rate of any US carrier aircraft, because of its ability to absorb battle damage. Dauntless aircraft accounted for many Japanese aircraft shot down in air-to-air combat.

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Colin1 said:

I'm going to stick my neck out and shout for the US ship over the Brit ship; if I was unlucky enough to get hosed, I'd rather be in a P-38 than a flying coffee table. For me, that would be the edge, both planes got hosed (and shot down) but enemy fire would scythe through the Mosquito; for me it's

1. P-38
2. Ju88 (very accomplished a/c but I wouldn't want to go on escort fighter duties in it)
3. Mosquito (I'm not so sure it could 'tough it' the way the other two could)

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If you had to make evasive maneuvers, the P-38 was far more nimble too.