By the end of the 30s all major countries were gathering up their combat forces preparing for war. The US Navy, two oceans away from the conflicts in Europe and in the Far East, relied on the battleships, which was a common perception of the naval war at the time. However, the High Command was already beginning to understand that the battle fleet would be in need of carriers – the eyes, ears and far-reaching hands of the Navy. Moreover, by the beginning of the 30s the vision of the carrier borne aviation had already become clear: the Navy needed reconnaissance aircrafts, covering fighters, torpedo bombers and dive bombers that could weaken the enemy fleet before the battleships entered the scene. On the other hand, the requirements to the carrier-borne planes were quite low, as the carriers themselves were considered but auxiliary weapon.
This point of view did not change even after the phenomenal attack on November 11, 1940 carried out by two dozens of Fairey Swordfish, outdated British biplanes, on the Italian battle fleet in Taranto Haven. Nor did it change after the German Bismarck battleship pursuit in May of 1941, when the same outdated Swordfish caused so much damage to the vessel that it became an easy target for the British heavy ships and destroyers.
The only person to draw conclusions from these facts was Admiral Yamamoto, who was in charge of the Pearl Harbor operation at the Hawaiin Islands on the “A Day that will live in Infamy” of December 7, 1941, which resulted in the complete destruction of the US Pacific fleet. Due to this tragedy and the destruction of the Prince of Wales and Repulse battle cruisers at the coast of Singapore three days after the attack the US Navy Command understood that the priorities of the naval warfare had changed.
The new Commander of the US Pacific fleet Admiral CW Nimitz had no other choice but to completely reconsider the traditional roles of battleships and carriers in the naval warfare. The war had to go on, and only three carriers were left which, luckily for the US, had been out of Harbor on the day of the strike.
Let us look at the battle aircraft which were at Admiral Nimitz’s disposal at the end of 1941. Those were mostly the outdated TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers and even more outdated SBC-4 Helldiver and SB2U-3 Vindicator dive bombers. The only notable aircraft was the SBD-2 Dauntless dive bomber, which could boast sinking the first Japanese vessel (submarine I-70) as early as on December 10. When modified, it participated in all the major naval battles of the Pacific War. Dauntless, along with the later Avenger torpedo bomber, is considered to be the most glorious US battle aircraft of the Second World War.
SBC-4 is preparing for take-off on board of Enterprise, 1941 (taken from [4], p. 23).
SB2U-2 on board of Ranger on return from anti-submarine patrol: one can see depth-charge on the ramp; the summer of 1942. (taken from [3], p. 42).
Douglas TBD-1 Devastator was one of the first carrier borne monoplanes. It was put to service as early as in October of 1937. Devastator delivered its first strike on February 1, 1942. In May and June of the same year TBD-1 and Dauntless played the major role in the first naval aviation battles known as “The Coral Sea Battle” and the “Midway Battle”.
The defense of Midway was a most significant event of the Pacific War, comparable to the Moscow Battle on the Eastern Front. It proved that the Japanese fleet was not as invincible as it seemed. It became the last war operation for TBD-1 in the Pacific.
Training attack by TBD-1, October 1941; the torpedo was released at low altitude.
TBD-1 and F4F Wildcat fighters on board of Enterprise, April 1942.
The role of torpedo bombers in the battle near the Midway Atoll was very ambiguous. Shortly speaking, the farewell performance of Devastator, and the battle debut of Avenger are best characterized as a complete failure.
Out of 51 torpedo bombers that took off from the LZ and from the three carriers, only 13 got close enough to the target to release torpedoes, and only 9 planes made it back to the base. The rest of the aircraft were downed. The only survivor was J. Gay from USS Hornet, CV-8. None of the torpedoes hit the target! Still the attack was not made in vain as it ensured the tremendous success of the dive bombers.
Let us look at the reasons for such shattering defeat. The aviation torpedo Mk.13 was slow and unreliable. In order to ensure the hit, aircraft had to fly at a minimal altitude and at a speed of about 200 km/h under heavy fire of all caliber weapons from the enemy ships. Low speed, poor maneuverability, armament and protection of the TBD-1 made it an easy target for the Japanese Zero. What is more important, the mixed attack of the aircraft was badly coordinated. The first group consisted of 6 TBF-1 from the Hornet torpedo bombers squadron (the pilots were still struggling to get acquainted with the new model) and four Martin B-26 Marauder, army (!) planes without any fighter support. One TBF-1 and two of the B-26 managed to make it back to the base by pure miracle. The losses of carrier-borne Devastators stationed on Hornet, USS Enterprise, CV-6 and USS Yorktown, CV-5 amounted to 85% (35 out of 41) in subsequent attacks. The only success of the torpedo bombers in the Midway Battle was achieved on June, 6, as the result of a joint attack of the three TBD-1 and five SBD-2 against the Japanese Mikuma and Mogami cruisers, which had there engines broken.
Despite the failure during the debut fight, Avenger immediately replaced Devastator on board of carriers and in the US Marine Corps squadrons. It soon proved to be a decent battle aircraft due to its extreme survivability, heavy armament and relatively high speed. Avenger remained the only US carrier-borne torpedo bomber throughout the war. Nine thousand eight hundred and thirty nine machines were produced overall by Grumman and General Motors works.
The history of the torpedo bomber TBF /TBM Avenger started in April of 1940, when Grumman, already known for producing carrier-borne fighters, won the contract on the construction of two torpedo bomber prototypes. In 1939 the US Aeronautic Bureau set up a competition on the design of a perspective carrier borne bomber and torpedo bomber with enlarged bomb compartment capable of holding up to three 227-kg bombs or a ton 569-mm torpedo, with flight range over 4830 km and a maximum speed of over 480 km/h. Both of the competitors were awarded contracts. We shall get to the Vought torpedo bomber XTBU-1 a bit later.
The XTBF-1 prototype first flew on August 7, 1941. The design group, headed by Hall (the leading engineer assistant) and Koh, adopted a whole range of their trademark daring design decisions, sacrificing engineering aesthetics to to manufacturing adaptability, durability, and a large “belly” required by the NAVAER specifications. The outcome was a thick and rather bulky cantilever middleplane, capable of holding up to four 227-kg bombs, two 453-kg armor-piercing bombs, one 907-kg bomb, one ton torpedo or an extra protected 802-liter fuel tank in the bomb compartment. Another advanced invention for the one-impellent aircraft of the time was the installment of the electrical drive upper turret (type Grumman 150SE) with the 12,7 mm caliber machine gun Colt-Browning M2. The rear 7,62-mm Browning machine gun could be manned by the radio operator (the bombardier). The advanced flaps, foldable wing pads and the chassis retraction systems were all operated by hydraulic mechanisms. The reinforced chassis racks could easily cope with rough deck landing at a vertical speed of up to 5 m/c. The cockpit was partly protected by armored panels. The fuel tanks were thoroughly secured.
TBF/TBM-1C designs from the NAVAER report on the measuring results of aircraft specifications (from June 1, 1943; top secret till 1980s).
The first TBF-1 models produced by Grumman assembly lines in January 1942, were equipped with a single synchronized 7,62-mm machine gun for front line fire. The machine gun was placed on the starboard side of the underhood compartment that contained the two-row four-cylinder engine Wright Cyclone R-2600-8 working at 1700 hp when taking-off. On July 12, 1942 this model was changed for the modernized TBF-1C. Instead of the synchronized machine gun two Colt-Browning 12,7 mm wing guns were installed. The name, Avenger, was inspired by the Pearl Harbor tragedy, but the pilots nicknamed it Turkey. Another, and the most popular, nickname for the aircraft among the soldiers was the «Pregnant Bitch».
In 1943 Grumman was producing over 150 Avengers a month, which still did not satisfy the war needs. Grumman works were overloaded with the manufacturing of the new fighter Grumman F6F Hellcat. Therefore in September 1942 the Eastern Aircraft company, created on the base of five GM works, began manufacturing Avengers under the mark of Eastern TBM. In December 1943 Grumman works produced the 2293rd and the last Avenger aircraft. By spring of 1945 Eastern was releasing up to 400 aircrafts a month. By the end of the war it managed to produce in total 2882 TBM-1 and 4664 TBM-3 with the raised capacity engine Wright Cyclone R-2600-20, 1900 hp and reinforced wing, which allowed to place unguided missiles or radars type air-surface under wing. TBF/TBM became the most mass produced carrier borne battle aircraft ever. The overall number of machines manufactured by all the works, and in all modifications throughout the war equals 9839 planes. The modifications included anti-ship 1D/1CD/1E/3E fitted with radars, reconnaissance 1P/1CP/3P with photo equipment and 1L/3L/3W with projectors in bomb compartment, as well as the special anti-submarine TBM 3S.
