DIVE-BOMBERS: Trial by Fire

Sea Classics, Aug 2007 by Gault, Owen

Their unique ability to dive out of the sun and wreak havoc on moving targets helped to define the assault role of the first fleet carriers / PART II

By the summer of 1935, a quiet revolution had overtaken the US Navy. Almost without notice and thanks to considerable press and Hollywood fanfare, the aircraft carrier had assumed a far more prominent role within the fleet than initially anticipated. Sleek allmetal monoplanes were beginning to replace biplanes on carrier decks and with their arrival, the Navy realized the fragile aircraft of the 1920s were fast evolving into hard-hitting new weapons systems capable of far more destructiveness than merely defending the battle fleet.

So it was that by 1935, amid growing world tensions, new carrier strategies were being developed as a result of war games and maneuvers held principally in the Pacific where the United States top secret "Orange" war plan anticipated an eventual war with the expansionminded Empire of Japan. Conceived and adopted as a blueprint for war in 1929, war plan "Orange" in itself was a manifesto that served to promulgate the cause of Naval aviation by wisely anticipating that airplanes, not ships, would take the war to Japan's shores. By placing this much emphasis on aircraft only two years after Lindbergh's epic transatlantic solo flight to Paris, planners in Washington innocently or deliberately set in motion concepts which were to forever alter Naval warfare.

Soon carrying thousand pound bombs to targets more than 300-mi distant, carrier-based aircraft now altered the basic premise of carrier doctrine by providing the Navy a strategic strike capability it had never possessed before. Transforming the aircraft carrier from a defensive to an offensive platform was largely due to the rapid development of the first aircraft to seriously threaten warship's survivability - the DIVE-BOMBER.

A CONCEPT HONED ON THE SHARP EDGE OF THE SWORD

Experiments early in the 1920s aboard the Navy's first aircraft carrier, the converted collier USS Langley (CV1), had proved the feasibility of operating wheeled aircraft from an open shipboard flight deck. Encouraged by the potential of mobile flying fields that could steam with the main battle fleet in support of a variety of Naval operations, the Navy next converted two semi-completed battle-cruisers destined to be scrapped under the terms of the 1921 Washington Naval Treaty into the first true fleet carriers. Commissioned by 1927, the large and powerful eight 8-in gunned 33,000-ton USS Lenngton (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3) provided the Navy with a suitable platform upon which to fully develop the necessary strategy and tactics of aircraft based at sea.

At first equipped only with handme-down World War I era aircraft the Navy sought means to stretch its limited post-war budget to begin acquiring a variety of brand-new built-for-the-purpose aircraft to better suit the fleet's needs. Procured in small quantities, each successive design incorporated the latest in fast advancing aviation technologies which soon saw all-metal structures replace those of wood and reliable lighter weight air-cooled radial engines replace cumbersome liquidcooled powerplants.

Categorically, the special new types consisted of four distinct types of aircraft. First came an entirely new breed of single-engined Naval fighters designed for the fleet defense. second was the allimportant torpedo-carrying bomber also solely intended for fleet defense. Next came the indispensable "Eyes of the Fleet"; the scout/observation spotter-type aircraft that also assisted in laying smoke screens to conceal warship movements. Many of these were wheeled versions of older types already flying from battleships and cruisers as catapult launched float-planes. Last and most critical of all was the hard-hitting dive-bomber - the airplane that annealed the carrier's Air Group into a powerful strike force.

A fairly recent arrival in Naval aviation, the dive-bomber was something of a phenomenon having earned a reputation in WWI for their deadly accuracy. The technique, which placed severe physical strain on pilots as well as the planes, called for a prolonged often steep or vertical dive from altitude accompanied by a high gravity force pullout following the bomb's release. However, the secret to the dive-bomber's success was the element of surprise wherein it would dive out of the sun at an unsuspecting enemy and pull up before anti-aircraft guns could effectively track its flight path. Lacking the element of surprise wartime operations indicated the dive-bomber could suffer heavier losses than horizontal bombers owing to its dangerously close proximity to the target. Making the risks worthwhile was the fact that wartime tests indicated the more precise nature of dive-bombing generated hits in 50% of the attacks whereas horizontal bombers generally scored about 20% accuracy.

Seeing random use mostly by Royal Navy flyers in World War I, dive-bombing's unique potential was kept alive by a handful of dedicated worldwide devotees of every nationality. So it was in the immediate postwar era that America's budget restrained Army, Navy and Marine flyers zealously attempted to spread the gospel of dive-bombing's potential with dramatic demonstrations performed at airshows large and small.