[ARC5] Naming torpedo bombers

[Glen Zook]

Couple of things:

First of all the Dauntless was not a torpedo bomber, it was a dive bomber.  The TBD- Devastator was a torpedo bomber.  Unfortunately, the TBD- was quite obsolete even by the Battle of Midway although most of the torpedo aircraft used by the United States Navy in that battle were TBD- types.

Next, it was SBD, not SDB.  SB was for "scout bomber" and the "D" was for Douglas.  During several battles the Dauntless shot down a number of Japanese aircraft resulting in some of their crews calling them "SBDF" with the "F" being for "fighter".

The fact that "D" happened to stand for "Douglas" just "happened".  Grumman, who build a LOT of aircraft for the United States Navy was "F".  General Motors, who took over the manufacture of the F4F Wildcat fighter and the TBF Avenger torpedo bomber from Grumman (when Grumman's main efforts were switched to the F6F Hellcat fighter) had "M" for their designator.

Wildcat escorts could be either F4F built by Grumman or FM- built by General Motors.  Some of the FM-series built by General Motors were not as heavily armed as the F4F built by Grumman.  Many of the FM-series had only 4 .50 calibre machine guns instead of the 6 .50 calibre machine guns carried by most of the Grumman fighters.

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Wed, 9/8/10, Leslie Smith <vk2bcu at operamail.com> wrote:

What is the correct designation of the Dauntless torpedo bombers? Are they correctly called SDB? What does is the meaning of "SDB"?
 
As I understand, the escorts are Grumman, type F4. How should I understand this?