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Old 01-11-2021, 08:03 PM
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Don Boose Don Boose is offline
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Karol (and everybody) -

I have a lot of books and articles on the TBD, but to answer your question tonight I have relied on Barrett Tillman, TBD Devastator Units of the US Navy, Combat Aircraft 20, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publications, 2000 and David Doyle, Douglas TBD Devastator: America's First World War II Torpedo Bomber, Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publications 2017.

TBDs were designed to carry as alternatives to the torpedo several 100 lb., two 500 lb., or one 1,000 pound bombs, and a substantial amount of pre-war training was devoted to practicing level bombing against surface ships, although in the words of one TBD pilot of VT-2, AMM2c Thomas Cook, "horizontal bombing was a lost cause from the beginning." (p. 34)

Nonetheless, most of the TBD missions prior to Coral Sea involved bombing as well as torpedo attack:

1 February 1942, VT-6 (Enterprise)attacked Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands and VT-5 (Yorktown) attacked Jaluit in the Gilberts with 500 lb. bombs and torpedoes.

24 February 1942, VT-6 attacked facilities on Wake Island with 100-lb. bombs.

4 March 1942, VT-6 attacked Marcus Island with bombs. (Doyle, p. 90)

10 March 1942, VT-2 (Lexington) attacked Japanese ships at Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea, with torpedoes while VT-5 attacked with 500-lb. bombs.

4 May 1942, VT-5 attacked Japanese ships at Tulagi, Solomon Islands, with torpedoes.

In the Coral Sea and Midway actions, all the participating TBDs were armed with torpedoes.

I'd be glad to hear from anyone who has additional information.

Don

Last edited by Don Boose; 01-11-2021 at 08:24 PM.
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