Douglas SBD Dauntless
The Douglas SBD Dauntless was the U.S. Navy's standard carrier-based scout and dive bomber in the first half of the Pacific war. Developed from a Northrop design under Ed Heinemann, it sank four Japanese carriers at Midway in June 1942 and was credited with sinking more than 300,000 tons of enemy shipping, before the Helldiver replaced it in front-line service from 1944.
Why It Mattered
The Dauntless was already considered obsolete when the Pacific war began, and a replacement was being readied. It became, instead, the U.S. Navy's principal striking weapon of 1942. On 4 June 1942 Dauntless crews sank four Japanese carriers at Midway, the victory that put Japan on the defensive. The Smithsonian credits the type with sinking more than 300,000 tons of enemy shipping during the war, including at least 18 warships. It remained in front-line carrier service until 1944. Its crews, with a play on the designation, called it Slow But Deadly.
Design Notes
The Dauntless grew out of Northrop's BT-1 dive bomber, a low-wing monoplane designed under chief engineer Ed Heinemann. When Douglas took over the Northrop contract, Heinemann and many of his team moved with the project, and in 1938 Douglas bought the El Segundo factory where it was built. The redesigned aircraft became the XSBD-1, the first Scout Bomber from Douglas. Its signature feature was a split dive flap on the trailing edge of each wing, perforated to stop tail buffeting and allow a steeper, slower dive on the target. Two crew sat in tandem: the pilot, who aimed the whole aircraft in the dive, and a rear gunner. Combat experience brought protection: from the SBD-3, self-sealing fuel tanks, crew armor and an armored windscreen were standard.
Operational History
The Navy ordered 144 SBDs in April 1939, and the first production aircraft reached Marine squadrons in June 1940. The SBD-3 was the main type used in the major battles of 1942, and through that year the Dauntless was the Navy's primary weapon in the Pacific. It opened 1942 in hit-and-run raids by the carriers Enterprise, Lexington, and Yorktown against remote Japanese positions. At Midway the three American carriers embarked 112 Dauntlesses; on 4 June their attacks sank three Japanese carriers in minutes, and the fourth later that day, for the loss of 35 SBDs. By the end of 1942 Dauntlesses had almost single-handedly sunk six enemy carriers. The Army Air Forces flew the type as the A-24 Banshee, which differed chiefly in having no tailhook and a larger pneumatic tailwheel, but never used it extensively. New Zealand flew SBDs in the Solomons, and the Free French flew them in Europe. The Helldiver finally entered service late in 1943; the Navy's Dauntlesses flew their last mission, against Guam, in July 1944. Marine SBDs were still neutralizing bypassed Japanese garrisons in the Solomons when the war ended, and France used the type in Indo-China as late as 1949. Mexico kept its Banshees on border patrol until 1959. A reported 5,936 SBDs were built in all.
Afterlife
The Smithsonian's SBD-6 was accepted by the Navy in March 1944 and spent its career in test work at Patuxent River, Maryland. Stricken in June 1948, it was perhaps the last SBD to serve with the U.S. Navy. The Smithsonian accessioned it in 1961, restored it in 1975, and installed it in its National Mall museum in 1976, where it can still be seen. At the Planes of Fame Air Museum in California, an SBD-5 remains in flying condition. That aircraft flew more than 30 combat missions with the Royal New Zealand Air Force from Bougainville, later appeared in films, and was restored to flight in 1987.