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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