For gunners on the targeted ships, a diving plane appeared almost motionless in their sights, slowly growing in size as it neared, which greatly simplified their aim. It also made the plane an easier target for enemy anti-aircraft gunners and defending fighters. The plane’s dive flaps held the bomber’s speed at about 276 knots, giving the pilot a little more time to make adjustments. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) Today A Computer Would Do It But the bomber scopes provided only a 3X magnified view it was up to the pilots to make the necessary adjustments in three axes to ensure a hit. For much of the dive, the pilots could track their targets through spotting scopes, similar to the telescoping sights that snipers mounted on their rifles.
During their 40-second dives, the aviators would have to continuously work their rudder pedals and sticks to correct their plane’s speed, heading, and dive angle to remain on target, while the carriers below maneuvered violently. Carriers were big targets, but they were moving fast and the American pilots would have to fly precise flight profiles to hit them. The dive bombing attacks themselves would be difficult. It was becoming clear that the real war was going to be different from the conflict that was envisioned. Pre-war doctrine also held that B-17 bombers could effectively bomb ships from high altitude, but attacks against Japanese ships by Flying Fortresses at Midway scored no hits. But at Coral Sea, one month earlier, three of the four fleet aircraft carriers that were attacked – two Japanese and two American – did survive. Pre-war doctrine supposed that aircraft carriers couldn’t survive a massed air strike. carrier at Midway, USS Hornet, hadn’t even found the Japanese fleet. Pilots from Yorktown had fought at Coral Sea, but pilots from Enterprise had not. This was just the second great carrier versus carrier battle of the Pacific War, and no one yet knew what to expect. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) No Easy Taskīut success was far from certain. A Dauntless flies past the carrier USS Enterprise. By pointing his plane directly at the target until he released his weapon, a skilled pilot could keep his eye on the target throughout his dive and simplify his bomb’s trajectory.
That was one reason that Navy carrier air groups had more dive bombers than any other type of aircraft. Navy in the 1930s, and in 1942 it was the most accurate form of air attack. Dive bombing had been developed by the U.S. The broad flight decks of the carriers were perfect targets for the American pilots whose aircraft, training, and combat tactics had prepared them for precisely this type of attack. Somehow, against all odds, the Americans had achieved precisely the situation that Navy commanders had dreamed of: dozens of dive bombers screaming down on Japanese flight decks jammed with gassed up and armed aircraft, fueling hoses snaked about, bombs and torpedoes scattered hastily across the hangar bays. The heroic sacrifice of Navy torpedo plane crews who had pressed home their slow-motion attacks in the face of deadly Japanese opposition looked to be in vain.īut now, at the last possible moment, three squadrons of SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the American aircraft carriers USS Yorktownand USS Enterprise had arrived unobserved and unopposed in the skies above the Japanese fleet. had gained through years of backbreaking effort by Navy codebreakers was about to be squandered. The priceless intelligence advantage the U.S. So far, two days of American air and submarine attacks had failed to damage a single ship of the peerless Japanese Aircraft Carrier Striking Force. Far below, four Japanese aircraft carriers were launching the first planes of a massive strike that could decide the Battle of Midway. Navy dive bombers had found what they were looking for. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) “Today a computer would instantly process the flood of incoming information and fly the correct profile, but in 1942 the pilot was the computer.” The famous Douglas dive bombers proved decisive in the epic carrier battle. Dauntless SBDs in action at the Battle of Midway.
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