Del i serien Naval History Special Editions

SBD Dauntless

Naval History Special Edition

Häftad, Engelska, 2027

279 kr

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Building on the expertise of the authors and historians of the Naval Institute Press, the Naval History Special Editions are designed to offer studies of the key vessels, battles, and events of armed conflict.In 1942, half the aircraft spotted on an American carrier were SBD Dauntless dive bombers. From Coral Sea to Midway, they tipped over into near-vertical dives and released 1,000-pound bombs at close range against Japanese flight decks. Within minutes at Midway, three enemy carriers were burning, and by day’s end a fourth carrier was rendered a burning hulk. Across five carrier battles, SBD squadrons helped sink six Japanese flattops and more than 300,000 tons of shipping.“The naval dive-bomber was to prove the hammerhead of the naval war,” wrote Naval Academy historian E. B. Potter. The tactic required an airplane built to dive steeply, hold steady as perforated brakes tore at the air, and survive the violent pullout. Ed Heinemann’s Douglas design did exactly that. Armor plates, self-sealing tanks, and more powerful Wright engines followed as combat exposed weaknesses and range limits.Dauntless crews searched hundreds of miles of open ocean with little margin for error. Navy squadrons flew in every major carrier engagement of the Pacific War. Marine SBDs launched at Midway, then operated from Henderson Field during the struggle for Guadalcanal, striking ships and troop concentrations around the Solomons. The Army Air Forces’ A-24 Banshee saw combat in Java, New Guinea, and the Gilberts.From its Gamma ancestry in the mid-1930s to its final carrier missions in 1944, the SBD stood at the center of the Navy’s early offensive—an aircraft built to dive hard, hit precisely, and change the course of an entire battle with a single attack.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2027-02-04
Mått206 x 273 x 6 mm
Vikt292 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieNaval History Special Editions
Antal sidor116
FörlagNaval Institute Press
ISBN9798892410625

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Ernest M. Snowden is a 1970 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former naval aviator. Following active duty, he served in the Naval Reserve as an aeronautical engineering duty officer until retiring in 2000. As a Navy civilian, he worked in the Maintenance Policy Division at Naval Air Systems Command and later in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He subsequently held marketing and strategy positions with aerospace and defense firms. He is the author of Winged Brothers and Maritime Unmanned, as well as F4U Corsair and F8U Crusader(Naval History Special Editions), all published by the Naval Institute Press.