Combat aircraft. Kind of like an American flying coffin

2024 Author: Matthew Elmers | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:49

It was called the "flying coffin". On the one hand, it seems to be fair, on the other - it is completely attracted. Let's try to figure it out, because many planes that were called coffins turned out to be completely different.

What about "Devastator". Back in 1912, the American Rear Admiral Fiske patented (oh, those patents!) A method of torpedo attack of ships from the air.

And two years later, specially created torpedo aircraft underwent baptism of fire in the naval battles of the First World War. It is clear that the idea was good, because even a low-speed biplane shelf could easily catch up with the fastest cruiser or destroyer of that time. 120 km / h was more than enough.

It so happened that by the beginning of the 30s, torpedo bombers did not just take root in the US naval aviation, they became the main weapon of aircraft carriers.

As a rule, these were biplanes with an open cockpit and a crew of three: pilot, navigator-bombardier and gunner.

In addition to the "clean" T-class torpedo bombers, the American aircraft carriers were armed with two-seat B-class naval bombers.

And in the summer of 1934, the naval aviation command proposed to develop a universal carrier-based combat aircraft, which received the designation "TV". "Torpedo-bomber", that is, torpedo bomber. A universal strike aircraft, the load of which could be changed depending on the requirements of the situation.

In the struggle for the order, three firms came together. The first one, "Gray Lakes", presented the XTBG-1 biplane biplane model, which was quite archaic even at that time. Of course, the military did not like such a plane.

The second was the more advanced Hell designers. Their version of the twin-engined monoplane XTBH-1 was more interesting, but did not fit in terms of speed characteristics.

As a result, the winner was the Douglas company and its XTBD-1 single-engine torpedo bomber. "Douglas" received an order for the construction of an aircraft, and, I must say, very justified.

In general, there are a lot of numbers "first" applied to this machine.

The world's first monoplane torpedo bomber with a closed cockpit. For 1934, very progressive. The only legacy of the past was the corrugated duralumin wing skins and canvas-lined steering surfaces.

The crew consisted of three people. Pilot, navigator-bombardier and gunner-radio operator. They were seated one after another in a common cockpit, covered with a long canopy with movable sections. This scheme later became classic for American strike aircraft.

The folding of the wings, which was used before, was mechanized for the first time using a hydraulic drive of the mechanism. On the biplane of that time, the wings also folded, but the wing boxes were pressed against the sides of the fuselage, and for the monoplane they came up with a more economical way in which the consoles were raised up and folded over the cockpit.

The air-cooled Pratt-Whitney XP-1830-60 engine with a capacity of 900 hp was chosen as the power plant. Two wing fuel tanks held 784 liters of gasoline.

Defensive armament originally consisted of two 7.62 mm machine guns. One machine gun in the ring turret was controlled by a radio operator, defending the rear hemisphere. In normal flight, this machine gun was recessed into the fuselage, and if necessary, the shooter opened special flaps from above, pushed back his section of the lantern in the direction of travel, thus being prepared for firing.

The second machine gun was synchronous and was located in the fuselage to the right of the engine, the pilot fired from it.

Later, with the beginning of combat operation, on some machines a pair of "Browning" caliber 7, 62 mm was placed on the back, and some of the aircraft had two synchronous machine guns 12, 7 mm.

The offensive armament was the Bliss Leavitt Mk. XII torpedo (908 kg) with a length of 4, 6 m and a diameter of 460 mm, but if necessary, an outdated Mk. VIII could also be suspended. An interesting point is that not a torpedo was created for an aircraft, but an aircraft was created for the use of a specific torpedo.

On the sides of the torpedo suspension assemblies there were two holders for a pair of 500 pounds (227 kg) bombs.

It is clear that the torpedo was not suspended in the bomb version. Instead of two 227-kg bombs, 12 bombs of 45 kg each could be suspended on the underwing holders. The torpedo was dropped by the pilot with a telescopic sight, and the navigator was in charge of the bombs, dropping them with the Norden Mk. XV-3 automatic sight.

The maximum speed of the XTBD-1 without external suspensions was 322 km / h. If the flight was carried out with a torpedo, then the speed dropped almost twice, to 200-210 km / h, and with bombs, this figure was slightly higher.

The flight range with a torpedo and bombs reached 700 km and 1126 km, respectively, and the ceiling was 6000 m. Such data cannot be called very high, but for 1935 they were very good. And in comparison with the flight characteristics of its predecessor, the TG-2 biplane, they were simply amazing.

In January 1938, the leadership of the US Navy officially accepted the new torpedo bomber into service and in February signed a contract for the supply of 114 aircraft. For production cars, the TBD-1 index was left, adding in October 1941 their own name "Devastator", that is, "Ravager" or "Ravager".

Even in terms of the name "Devastator" was the first. Prior to that, all naval attack aircraft did not have their own names and were called only by alphanumeric indexes.

October 5, 1937 on the deck of the aircraft carrier "Saratoga" landed the first of the ordered torpedo bombers.

With the start of operation of the TBD-1, the shortcomings of the new aircraft began to be revealed. The most serious of these turned out to be severe corrosion of the wing skin from the effects of sea salt, due to which the corroded sheets had to be constantly replaced. There were problems with the rudder hinge assemblies, and there were complaints about the brakes.

But in general, the naval car liked it.

Therefore, in 1938, when the new aircraft carriers Yorktown, Enterprise, Wasp and Hornet entered service, they all received Devastators. In 1940, the Ranger received the torpedo bombers.

The retraining from the outdated biplanes to the TBD-1 was greeted by naval pilots with enthusiasm, but not without incident. Several aircraft crashed due to the pilots starting takeoff without making sure the wing was fixed in the "deployed" position.

But in the air "Devastator" with its wing of a large area behaved perfectly and had good maneuverability for its class. And the flaps, which ensured a landing speed of about 100 km / h, allowed even inexperienced pilots to successfully land on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The plane "entered", more complaints, by the way, were about the torpedo, which the developers obviously did not bring to the condition.

Rejoicing at the success, Douglas tried to expand the range of tasks of their aircraft, and in 1939 they equipped one of the aircraft with floats. However, the Navy showed little interest in such an aircraft, designated TBD-1A.

But the Dutch liked the idea of a float torpedo bomber. They wanted to adopt a naval patrol bomber. The Dutch asked for a number of changes to be made to the seaplane design. The main request was to replace the engine with a Wright GR1820-G105 with a capacity of 1100 hp in order to unify the aircraft with the American Brewster B-339D Buffalo fighter already entering service.

The aircraft was developed, but did not have time to deliver; in 1940, Holland ended with the help of German troops.

During the three pre-war years, the Devastator became the main carrier-based torpedo bomber of the US Navy. By December 7, 1941, the Devastators were based on seven aircraft carriers:

Lexington - 12 aircraft, VT-2 division;

Saratoga - 12 aircraft, VT-3 division;

Yorktown - 14 aircraft, VT-5 division;

Enterprise - 18 aircraft, VT-6 division;

Hornet - 8 aircraft, VT-8 division;

Wasp - 2 aircraft, division VS-71;

Ranger - 3 aircraft, VT-4 division.

Before the outbreak of the war with Japan, another very useful innovation was introduced on the plane. The torpedo bomber was equipped with inflatable underwing floats. Thus, when landing a damaged TBD-1 on the water, the pilot had a chance to wait for help along with the machine. True, some skeptics from the command reacted with dissatisfaction to this decision, believing that the enemy would have a much better chance of capturing the Norden secret bombsight.

When on December 7, 1941, Admiral Nagumo's squadron smashed Pearl Harbor, there were no carriers in the harbor, so the main strike force of the US Pacific Fleet survived.

So the first combat use of the Devastators occurred only on December 10, 1941, when aircraft from Lexington attacked a Japanese submarine. The Norden super sights did not help, the bombs went down without causing any damage to the boat.

The Devastators took on the enemy really seriously only in February 1942. In the Marshall Islands, the Enterprise and Yorktown planes sank an armed Japanese trawler off Kwajalein Atoll and damaged seven more vessels. Crews from "Enterprise" distinguished themselves.

The Yorktown pilots were less fortunate, losing four aircraft in an attack on Japanese ships off Jalu Island. Two planes were shot down in aerial combat, and another pair had to land on the water due to lack of fuel, and their crews were captured.

In March 1942, Lexington and Yorktown carried out a successful operation against enemy bases Lae and Salamau in New Guinea. Here, the losses of the Japanese fleet amounted to three ships, including a light cruiser.

However, the services of the "Ravagers" in the battle were rather modest. The TBD-1 had only one successful hit in a small transport with a displacement of 600 tons.

The reason for this was not the training of the crews, with this everything was more or less decent. The Mk. XIII torpedoes behaved absolutely disgustingly, which simply did not explode when they hit the target.

However, the advantage was that there were no losses among the Devastators, which strengthened the illusion of the naval command that these aircraft could attack ships without fighter cover.

Then the fighting began in the Coral Sea. Here, for the first time, American and Japanese aircraft carriers clashed with each other. The Japanese wanted to capture Port Moresby, but the Americans opposed this.

The air-naval battle lasted five days, and each side lost an aircraft carrier: the Americans "Lexington", and the Japanese "Soho". The losses of the Devastators in the air were small - only three aircraft, but all the vehicles that survived the air battles from the Lexington sank to the bottom with it.

After the battle, the Americans again returned to the problem of torpedoes, since the Mk. XIII not only exploded disgustingly, but after dropping and entering the water it gained speed too slowly, and the Japanese ships managed to maneuver and avoid being hit.

Then there was more. Next was Midway.

Yes, in the United States, the Battle of Midway Atoll is a symbol of victory. But for the crews of the Ravagers, this is a symbol of a slightly different nature. Rather, "Midway" could be called the funeral march with which the "Devatators" were seen off.

It's no joke, for three days from 3 to 6 June, divisions of aircraft carriers Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet lost 41 aircraft, and by the end of the battle only 5 torpedo bombers had survived.

"Devastators" had nothing to catch from fate when "Zero" appeared in the sky. Then the beating began.

True, there is one thing that pretty much spoils the whole picture. While in the Battle of Midway Japanese fighters destroyed (and destroyed) the Devastators, none of which caused even minimal damage to any Japanese ship, the following happened: the Japanese, carried away by the massacre of torpedo bombers, missed the appearance of the second wave of American aircraft.

Both the Dontless dive bombers from the Enterprise (37 units) and Yorktown (17 units) cut the Japanese aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga and Soryu into nuts with bombs.

Yes, the Japanese sank the Yorktown in response, but lost their last aircraft carrier, the Hiryu. On that, in fact, the battle at Midway ended. So we can say that the attack by TBD-1 torpedo bombers was not in vain, it can be attributed to diversionary maneuvers.

Well so distracted, yes. For three aircraft carriers. But in principle - the arguments in favor of the poor, because the "Ravagers" so nothing devastated, except perhaps hangars on aircraft carriers.

The last combat operation in the Pacific, TBD-1, was carried out on June 6, 1942. The torpedo bombers remaining on the fly from the Enterprise, together with dive bombers, attacked two Japanese cruisers Mikuma and Mogami, damaged in the collision. The Mikuma was sunk, but there is no reliable information about the torpedo hit.

At the end of 1942, the Devastators began to be replaced by Avengers, which by that time had already become firmly established in production. The credibility of the Devatstators was undermined by huge losses in the battles at Midway, and opinions about the plane as a "flying coffin" began to spread.

Calling is always very easy, especially if you don't bother with evidence. Why were they shot down there? Shot down. Trash the plane, and that's it.

In general, Americans are masters of sculpting labels (no worse than us) and are not fond of admitting their own mistakes. And in our case, there were more than enough errors.

The torpedo bombers were sent to attack in scattered groups from three aircraft carriers, without a general command and without fighter cover. Okay, if the target was some kind of PQ-17 convoy, without cover and escort.

But no, the planes were sent to attack aircraft carriers, ships that at that time possessed the most powerful air defense of their own and fighters, some of which were always hanging on combat patrols. And as long as the Zero could hold out in the skies, not a single American plane could hold that much.

In addition, the Japanese perfectly saw the approach of groups of torpedo bombers, just from the patrol units, and organized a more than warm welcome for them.

And a torpedo. The ill-fated Mk. XIII torpedo, which, in addition to its low reliability, had a too small effective range (3500 m) and very strict release restrictions (speed no more than 150 km / h, height up to 20 m). To have at least some chance of hitting, it was required to approach the target almost close under fire, at a distance of 450-500 m.

He who understands understands. Working with torpedoes Mk. XIII was a pleasure for complete sadomasochists. But seriously, the crews of the Devastators were actually sent for slaughter. On the air defense of four aircraft carriers (for the same "Hiryu", the air defense consisted of 12 127-mm guns and 31 barrels of automatic 25-mm cannons) and for bullets and shells of A6M2 fighters.

According to historical records, the crews of the Devastators were aware of where they were being sent. The words of a short speech by the commander of the VT-8 battalion, John Waldron, have survived:

“Guys, be prepared for a few of us to survive. But even if only one breaks through, he must obey the order!"

The guys did not fulfill the order, because they could not. But it’s not their fault, not a single plane returned to the aircraft carrier from the battalion. But eight crews did not return from the Hornet, not because the TBD-1s were useless aircraft, but because of the above reasons.

In general, it is, of course, the easiest way to write off the command's miscalculation in the tactics of using the aircraft's shortcomings. However, it is worth noting that on the same day a division (6 vehicles) of the latest TVM-3 Avenger torpedo bombers from the Enterprise aircraft carrier was completely destroyed in the same way.

The Avengers, who replaced the Devastators, suffered the same fate. So, after all, it's not so much about the aircraft as about the level of application.

Nevertheless, immediately after Midway, the verdict for the Devastator was signed, and the seemingly disgraced plane was hastily removed from service by units of the first line.

The "Devastators" served in the Atlantic on the aircraft carrier "Wasp", some were transferred ashore for patrol service. Several TBD-1s were escorting convoys in the North Atlantic from Hutson Air Force Base.

Longest of all TBD-1 remained in service with the aircraft carrier "Ranger". This is because the Ranger's duty station was in the relatively calm Caribbean, where TBD-1s were on patrol until August 1942.

The main part of the TBD-1 was then used as training until the end of 1944. And after the end of their flying career, the decommissioned Devastators lived out their days as teaching aids in aviation technical schools.

An inglorious ending, to be honest. It is very difficult to say how right those who called the "Devastator" "the flying coffin" were. The plane, of course, was not new. Created in 1935, albeit with a bunch of new products, the TBD-1 was, of course, obsolete by 1942.

The question is how much. Created in 1933 and put into service in 1934, the I-16 fighter in 1942, though not easy, fought with the Messerschmitts and won. The Junkers Ju-87 began service in 1936 and fought until the very end of Germany. And he certainly was not a masterpiece, whatever one may say.

The question, probably, is still in the ability to use the plane.