5 Minute Guides to Aircraft: Douglas TBD-1 Devastator
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- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2024
- The new 5 minute guide to the Douglas TBD-1 Devastator!
For those more curious about the Mk13 (also known as the Mk14) Torpedo by Drachinifel go here!: • The Mark 14 Torpedo - ...
Nice video. I agree that the TBD has reputation for being a bad design, which was not the case. I'm glad you touched on the limitations of torpedo attacks in general and the limitations of the torpedo, but the real problem at Midway was mostly doctrine, but indirectly. USN carrier doctrine pre-war had carriers operating independently. It was seeing what the Japanese could do with a concentrated carrier doctrine that caused the USN to hurriedly create a new doctrine...and the bugs were not worked out by the time of Midway. What should have happened is the the carrier's attacks should have been internally coordinated (fighters/dive bombers/torpedo planes) and arrived at the target at the same time...along with the other carrier's strikes. So the planes from all three carriers should have attacked at the same time, from different angles and altitudes, overwhelming the defenses.
But what happened was the strikes were completely uncoordinated, and came in piecemeal. So the full force of the CAP fell on the strikes from Midway, and then the TBDs. Remember, the Avenger made it's combat debut at Midway too...and was also slaughtered. It wasn't the TBD being a bad plane...it was in a combat situation that no plane could have survived. Had the attack went off as planned, the carriers would have been attacked by a swarm of American planes. They would not have been able to dodge torpedoes like they did because there would have been too many bombs and torpedoes coming in at the same time. The CAP would have been pulled in 100 different directions, and have been unable to concentrate like it did.
The command situation was also not ideal. Hornet was completely green. The American force was commanded by Fletcher, alone in Yorktown, with Enterprise/Hornet commanded by Spruance...new to commanding carriers. It would have been difficult to coordinate even if the fleet was used to cooperating. And it's not usually talked about, but the intelligence supplied to the carriers was not all correct. They were told that the Japanese were operating two supporting task forces of carriers...and that was in the back of everyone's head during the battle. It also let to otherwise bizarre actions (like Ring's 'flight to nowhere'...he was following orders based on faulty intelligence).
The Devistator would have had a much better combat record if it was armed with a functional torpedo
A sentiment shared by basically every Torpedo Squadron of the US Navy, those poor lads.
US torpedo in use t that time had a habit of losing programming n would do a 180 degree turn. Many sank the vessels that launched them.
The devastator was so slow, that the ones approaching the Jap carriers from astern were only approaching at 100 miles an hour relative to the fleet. Incredibly slow while being shot at. Sitting ducks.
@@amyrichard3203 The torpedo couldn't be launched above 115mph. Armed with those same weapons, a flight of F-4s (never mind that they'd probably be stalling and crashing into the ocean at that speed) would've been sittings ducks.
@@normansilver905 Not "many" - but yes - some.
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Failed to mention that the survivors after Midway were used stateside as trainers and squadron hacks until around 1944 when they were scrapped.
Where did you find the digital graphics? Was it a sim? I been wishing to find a TBD-1 sim. Great TBD-1 guide. My intrest comes from my great uncle that flew in VT-6 in TBD 6T6 and was KIA at the battle of Midway.
IL2 Sturmovik Y-Pack and Il2 Sturmovik 1946 Dark Blue World (both modpacks) are what I used for the TBD-1 video scenes.
@@5MinuteGuidesToAircraft Thank you!
War Thunder also has a TBD to fly.
Probably would have done quite well with the Fleet Air Arm in the Atlantic and Med
"Fair" doesn't count in war. The B-26 Marauder and TBF Avenger suffered higher percentages of losses, and the PBY was more successful as a torpedo bomber at Midway. Some of the TBD flew again--not so with any of the six Avengers and with the Marauders. None of these four types had fighter escort.
IIRC, Devastators were used in about 9 or 10 battles and raids prior to Midway. Their combat losses: zero. Not a single one shot down by enemy fighters or flak. Then.... Midway....
Yep, they were fairly effectively prior to Midway, and they even encountered the failures of the Mk13s beforehand.
BuOrd was so incompetent and stubborn, thank god we had Admiral King to put them in line, otherwise I don't think we would've ever had a functional torpedo the entire war.
Yes, that is usually forgotten. The problem was less about the aircraft and more about the mission. Five out of six Avengers didn't come back either.
TIL Torpecker
35 of 41 shot: I began to cry.
Sadly the torpedo the Devastator carried doomed the aircraft.
The award for the worst planes ever built goes to Brewster.
Eh, the Brewster Buffalo wasn't great but it wasn't exactly horrific like some other aircraft (He-100 looking at you)
Definetly one of the worst aircraft America produced though.
@@5MinuteGuidesToAircraft I was thinking more of the SB2A Buccaneer. The Buffalo actually did fairly well in Finland.
@@electra2259 Huh, I didn't know about the Buccaneer. Usually when people are talking about worst planes by Brewster its usually in reference to the Buffalo, exactly because they don't know it performed well in Finland (hence why I said it wasn't horrific)
@@5MinuteGuidesToAircraft yeah, the Buffalo and a got bad reputations in large part because it's most well known engagements were against largely superior aircraft. When measured against technologically equivalent foes ( as in Finland ), they actually performed fairly well. The Devaststor was also pretty much obsolete when it actually went into combat, and it wasn't used with proper support. Any aircraft on this circumstances would do poorly, no matter how well designed it was originally.
What a useless plane the devastator, with its tiny engine. dropping torpedoes that were no good for two years… so many good men wasted at Midway. If only the Navy had stuck with dive bombers.
The Devastator was actually a fairly ok plane even at Midway. But a fairly ok plane is only useful if its used correctly, which it very much wasn't.
Like, sending in slow bombers without fighter escort is a year 1 naval commander mistake.
The only reason the dive bombers got lucky is because of the Devastators brought the fighter cover low. Had the Combat Air Patrol of the Kido Butai been at the devastators altitude, they wouldn't have had much better luck.
Too bad you weren't around to advise the Navy with the luxury of 80 years of history.
@@sidefx996 They knew better - or they should have. The American conduct of the Battle was atrocious. They just got lucky with the Dive Bombers from _Enterprise_ and _Yorktown_ . The _Hornet_ Air Group Commander was busy going no where and running his planes out of gas.
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