Douglas SBD Dauntless (Dive Bomber) - Pacific Aviation Museum - Pearl Harbor - Oahu, Hawaii

In terms of both numbers and impact, the Douglas SBD Dauntless was America’s most important naval aircraft during the first critical year of America's entrance into World War II. Although its pilots called it “Slow but Deadly” after the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942), SBD officially stood for Scout/Bomber from Douglas. As scouts, SBDs located enemy ships and patrolled for submarines. As dive bombers, they conducted high-payoff, high-risk attacks on Japanese shipping and land targets. In the four critical carrier battles during the first year of the war, Dauntless did most or all of the damage to the Japanese fleets. SBDs were also surprisingly good at fighting other aircraft. It is one of the few bombers in history to have more air combat victories than losses.

-- Key Points of the Dauntless in WWII --
‧ Half the aircraft on U.S. carriers were Dauntlesses in the first year of the World War II
‧ On scouting missions, 18 SBDs flew in pairs, searching a 90-degree pie slice of the ocean. If they found the enemy, they would radio a report and, if feasible, attack with 500-lb. bombs.
‧ On bombing missions, a squadron of Dauntlesses conducted high-precision/high-risk dive-bombing attacks, plunging almost vertically and releasing bombs at low levels. In the critical first year of the war, SBDs sank or helped sink six carriers, one battleship, three cruisers, one submarine, and 14 transports. This was nearly 30 percent of the total tonnage of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s prewar fleet.
‧ In air combat, SBDs had a kill ratio of 3.2 to 1. During the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, pilot Lt. John Leppla got four kills and his gunner, John Liska, three. The next day, Stanley “Swede” Vejtasa shot down three Zeroes, adding to an earlier kill. Moved to fighters, Vejtasa shot down seven aircraft at the Battle of Santa Cruz during the Solomon Islands Campaign. This probably saved the heavily damaged USS Enterprise.
‧ The museum’s current SBD-5 (seen in the photograph above) is a loaner. The SBD owned by the museum is undergoing restoration. During the first, critical year of the war, the Navy flew SBD-2s and SBD-3s. The SBD-2 had just two forward-firing .30-caliber machine guns and a single rear-facing machine gun. Neither the SBD-2 nor the SBD-3 had a reflector bombsight. Instead, they had telescopic sights that tended to fog up in the Pacific. Finally, SBDs during the first year of the war were painted blue/gray on their upper surfaces over light gray on the lower surfaces, not deep navy blue like above.

- Technical Information (or Nerdy Stuff) -
‧ Camera - Nikon D7200 (handheld)
‧ Lens – Nikkor 18-300mm Zoom
‧ ISO – 3200
‧ Aperture – f/6.3
‧ Exposure – 1/13 second
‧ Focal Length – 18mm

The original RAW file was processed with Adobe Camera Raw and final adjustments were made with Photoshop CS6.

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Taken in: United States / Hawaii / Pu‘uloa (show map)

Taken on: May 4, 2019

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Camera: Nikon D7200, f/6.3, 1/13 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 3200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7200
Lens:	18.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.077 sec (1/13)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	3200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Saturation:	High
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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