Douglas SBD Dauntless

Brown's first was the SBN, a scout bomber for the Navy.

It honestly looks a lot like the Douglas SBD, a bit longer and without the dive brakes, of course.

It was a two-seat, single-engine monoplane with a retractable landing gear, which was high-tech at the time, and an internal bomb bay that could carry a 500-pound bomb.

The crewman in the rear seat was armed with a flexible machine gun.

end of part two part three of infamous day marines at pearl harbor seven december nineteen forty one by robert james cressman and j michael winger this librivox recording is in the public domain eventually in an almost predictable way the japanese planes formed up and flew off to the west leaving the once neatly manicured mooring mast field smoldering the marines had barely had time to catch their collective breath when at ten o'clock almost as a capstone to the complete chaos wreaked by the initial japanese attack seven more planes arrived their markings however were of a more familiar variety red-centered blue and white stars the newcomers proved to be a group of dauntlesses from enterprise for the better part of an hour lieutenant wilmer e gallaher executive officer of scouting squadron six had circled fitfully over the pacific swells south of oahu waiting for the situation there to settle down at about nine forty five when he had seen that the skies seemed relatively clear of japanese planes gallaher decided rather than face friendly fire over pearl he would go to ewa instead they had barely stopped on the strip however when a marine ran out to gallaher's plane and yelled for god's sake get into the air or they'll strafe you too other enterprise pilots likewise saw ground crews frantically motioning for them to take off immediately instructed to take off and stay in the air until the air raid was over the enterprise pilots took off and headed for pearl harbor although all seven spds left ewa only threegallagher's is wingman ensign william p west and ensign cleo j dobson'swould make it as far as ford island a tremendous volume of anti-aircraft fire over the harbor rose to meet what was thought to be yet another attack seeing the reception accorded gallagher west and dobson the other four pilots lieut j g hart d hilton and ensigns carl t fogg edwin j kroger and frederick t weber wheeled around and headed back to ewa landing around ten fifteen to find a far better reception that time around within a matter of minutes the marines began rearming and refueling hilton's kroger's and weber's the marines discovered that fogg's dauntless though had taken a hit and had holed a fuel tank and would require repairs although it is unlikely that even one of the iwa marines thought so at the time even as they serviced the enterprise sbds which sat on the landing mat the japanese raid on oahu was over vice admiral nagumo already feeling that he had pushed his luck far enough was eager to get as far away from the waters north of oahu as soon as possible at least for the time being the marines at iwa had nothing to fear not privy to the musings of nagumo and his staff however lieutenant-colonel larkin could only wonder what the marines would do should the japanese return at ten twenty five he completed a glum assessment of the situation and forwarded it to admiral kimmel while casualties among the marines had been light two men had been killed and several wounded the japanese had destroyed all bombing fighting and transport planes on the ground iwa had no radio communications no power and only one small gas generator in commission he also informed the commander-in-chief pacific fleet that he would retain the four enterprise planes at iwa until further orders larkin also notified wheeler field control of the spds being held at his field at eleven hundred wheeler called and directed all available planes to rendezvous with the flight of b seventeen over hickam lieutenant j g hilton and the two ensigns from bombing squadron six kroger and weber took off at eleven fifteen and the marines never heard from them again finding no army planes over hickam two flights of b seventeen and douglas a twenties had only just departed the three navy pilots landed at ford island ensign fogg's s p d represented the sole naval strike capability at ewa as the day ended they caught us flat-footed larkin unabashedly wrote major-general ross e rohl of the events of seven december over the next few months ewa would serve as the focal point for marine aviation activities on oahu as the service acquired replacement aircraft and began rebuilding to carry out the mission of standing ready to deploy with the fleet wherever it was required they're kicking the hell out of pearl harbor although the japanese accorded the battleships and air facilities priority as targets for destruction on the morning of seven december nineteen forty one it was natural that the onslaught touched the marine barracks at pearl harbor navy yard as well Colonel William E. Farthing, Army Air Forces, commanding officer of Hickam Field, thought that he was witnessing some very realistic maneuvers shortly before 800 hours that morning.

From his vantage point, virtually next door to the Navy Yard, Farthing watched what proved to be six Japanese dive bombers swooping down toward Ford Island.

He thought that MAG-21s SB-2Us, or SBDs, were out for an early morning practice hop.

i wonder what the marines are doing to the navy so early sunday over at the marine barracks the officer of the guard second lieutenant arnold b swartz after having inspected his sentries had retired to the officer of the day's room to await breakfast stepping out on to the lanai patio at about seven fifty five to talk to the field music about morning colors he noticed several planes diving in the direction of the naval air station he thought initially that it seemed a bit early for practice bombing but then saw a flash and heard the resulting explosion that immediately dispelled any illusions he might have held that what he was seeing was merely an exercise seeing a plane with red balls on the wings roar by at low level convinced schwartz that japanese planes were attacking over in the squad room of barracks b first lieutenant harry f noyes jr the range officer for battery e three-inch anti-aircraft group third defense battalion heard the sound of a loud explosion coming from the direction of the harbor at about seven fifty first assuming that blasting crews were busy there had been a lot of construction recently noyes cocked his ears the new sound seemed a bit different more higher pitched and louder at that he sprang from his bed ran across the room and peered northward just in time to see a dirty column of water rising from the harbor from another explosion and a japanese plane pulling out of its dive the plane bearing red hinomaru rising sun insignia under its wings left no doubt as to its identity the explosions likewise awakened lieutenant-colonel william j whaling and major james jerry monahan who while colonel gilder d jackson commanding officer of the marine barracks was at sea in indianapolis c a thirty five en route to johnston island for tests of higgins's landing boats shared his quarters at pearl harbor shortly after o eight hundred whaling rolled over and asked jerry don't you think the admiral is a little bit inconsiderate of guests monahan then also awake replied i'll go down and see about it whaling meanwhile lingered in bed until more blasts rattled the quarters windows thinking that he had not seen any five-inch guns emplaced close to the building and that something was wrong he got up and walked over to the window that faced the harbor looking out he saw smoke and turning remarked this thing is so real that i believe that's an oil tank burning right in front there both men then dressed and hurried across the parade ground where they encountered lieutenant-colonel elmer e hall commanding officer of the second engineer battalion elmer whaling said amily this is a mighty fine show you are putting on i've never seen anything quite like it meanwhile schwartz ordered the field music to sound the call to arms then running into the officers section of the mess hall schwartz informed the officer of the day first lieutenant cornelius c smith jr who had been enjoying a cup of coffee with marine gunner floyd mccorkle when the sharp blasts had rocked the building that the japanese were attacking like schwartz they ran out onto the lanai standing there speechless they watched the first enemy planes diving on ford island marines began to stumble eyes wide in disbelief from the barracks some were lurching on the run into pants and shirts a few wore only towels schwartz then ordered one of the platoon sergeants to roust out the men and get them under cover of the trees outside smith too then ran outside to the parade ground as he looked at the rising smoke in the japanese plains he doubted those who had derided the japs as cross-eyed second-rate pilots who couldn't hit the broadside of a barn door it was enough to turn his stomach they're kicking the hell out of pearl harbor he thought meanwhile unable to reach colonel harry b pickett the fourteenth naval district marine officer as well as colonel jackson and captain samuel r shaw commanding officer of company a by telephone schwartz sent runners to the officers respective quarters he then ordered a non-commissioned officer from the quartermaster department to dispense arms and ammunition while schwartz organized the men beneath the trees outside the barracks lieutenant noyes dressed and then drove across the parade ground to building two seventy seven arriving about eight o five at the same time like schwartz first lieutenant james s o'halloran the third defense battalion duties officer and commanding officer of battery f three inch anti-aircraft group wanted to get in touch with his senior officers after having had assembly sounded and signaling his men to take cover o'halloran ordered marine gunner frederick m steinhauser the assistant battalion communications officer to telephone all the officers who resided outside the reservation and inform them of the attack in honolulu mustachio to major harold c roberts acting commanding officer of the third defense battalion since lieutenant-colonel robert h pepper had accompanied colonel jackson to sea in indianapolis after taking steinhauser's call with word of the bombing of pearl jumped into his car along with his neighbor major kenneth w benner commanding officer of the three inch anti-aircraft group and the headquarters and service battery of the third defense battalion as robert's car crept through the heavy traffic toward pearl the two officers could see japanese aircraft flying along the coast when they reached the water street fish market a large crowd of what seemed to be japanese residents cheering the japanese planes waving to them and trying to obstruct traffic to pearl harbor by pushing parked cars into the street blocked their way meanwhile as his acting battalion commander was battling his way through honolulu's congested streets o'halloran was organizing his marines as they poured out of the barracks into groups to break out small arms and machine guns from the various battalion storerooms after harry noyes drove up o'halloran told him to do what he could to get the three-inch guns and fire control equipment if available broken out and set up and then instructed other marines to get tractors and start hauling guns to the parade ground another detail of men hurried off to recover an anti-aircraft director that lay crated and ready for shipment to midway

Crown Coins Casino.

60 aircraft in three separate strikes across the day.

Dauntless dive bombers and Devastator torpedo planes, working over a landing force that has no carrier air cover of its own because the Japanese never expected an American strike this far south this fast.

By the time Yorktown's pilots are done, they've sent the destroyer Kikouzuki to the bottom, along with several minesweepers, and left four more Japanese vessels damaged.

It's not a knockout blow.

And one of them was going to be dead right.

And the right one belonged to the Americans.

At 0815, a Dauntless dive bomber flying scout duty off Yorktown, piloted by Lieutenant John L. Nielsen.

spots ships through broken cloud cover, southwest of the main search area.

The story starts in 1938.

The Navy already had the Douglas SBD Dauntless in development.

solid airplane, dependable on us to fly, and it would go on to prove itself thoroughly at Midway and Coral Sea, and everywhere else the carriers went in the early war.

But the Navy was thinking past the Dauntless even before it flew its first combat mission.

The Pacific is not an ocean that forgives limited range or modest bomb loads.

They wanted something with more reach, more payload, better speed.

The aircraft handled heavily, particularly noticeable in a dive.

A dive bomber that handles poorly in a dive is a specific and significant problem.

Picture this.

You're flying a Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber over the Central Pacific.

June morning 1942.

Somewhere around 20,000 feet.

High above, the dive bombers were coming.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

Commander Wade McCluskey had led his 33 SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the Enterprise on the planned intercept course.

When he arrived at the projected position of the Japanese fleet, the ocean was empty.