The Douglas TBD Devastator was an American

torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Ordered in 1934, it first flew in 1935 and entered service in 1937. At that point, it was the most advanced aircraft flying for the Navy and possibly for any navy in the world. However, the fast pace of aircraft development quickly caught up with it, and by the time of the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

the TBD was already outdated. The Devastator performed well in early battles, most notably in the

Battle of Coral Sea The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battl ...

, but earned notoriety for a catastrophic performance during the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under ...

in which 41 Devastators recorded zero torpedo hits with only six surviving to return to their carriers. Vastly outclassed in both speed and maneuverability by the

Mitsubishi Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 19 ...

fighters they faced, most of the force was wiped out with little consequence except to distract the Zeros from the SBD Dauntless

dive bombers A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...

that sank four carriers and a heavy cruiser. Although much of the Devastator's dismal performance was later attributed to the many well-documented defects in the US

Mark 13 torpedo The Mark 13 torpedo was the U.S. Navy's most common aerial torpedo of World War II. It was the first American torpedo to be originally designed for launching from aircraft only. They were also used on PT boats. Design Originating in a 1925 des ...

, the aircraft was withdrawn from frontline service after Midway, being replaced by the

Grumman TBF Avenger The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and naval a ...

Design and development

The Douglas XTBD-1 was ordered on 30 June 1934 after being one of the winners of a

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

competition for new bombers to operate from its aircraft carriers. Other aircraft also ordered for production as a result of the competition included the

Brewster SBA Brewster may refer to: People *Brewster (surname) *Brewster Kahle (born 1960), American computer technologist * Brewster H. Shaw (born 1945), American astronaut Places *Brewster Park (Enniskillen), Northern Ireland * Brewster (crater), The Moon ...

, the

Vought SB2U Vindicator The Vought SB2U Vindicator is an American carrier-based dive bomber developed for the United States Navy in the 1930s, the first monoplane in this role. Vindicators still remained in service at the time of the Battle of Midway, but by 1943, all h ...

, and the

Northrop BT-1 The Northrop BT was an American two-seat, single-engine monoplane dive bomber built by the Northrop Corporation for the United States Navy. At the time, Northrop was a subsidiary of the Douglas Aircraft Company. While unsuccessful in its own rig ...

, the last of which would evolve into the

Douglas SBD Dauntless The Douglas SBD Dauntless is a World War II American naval scout plane and dive bomber that was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft from 1940 through 1944. The SBD ("Scout Bomber Douglas") was the United States Navy's main carrier-based scout/di ...

. The

Great Lakes XB2G B2G may refer to: * B2G OS, community-developed successor to Firefox OS * Battery-to-grid, specifically vehicle-to-grid * Be2gether, a music and arts festival held in Lithuania * Boot to Gecko, the codename for Firefox OS, a mobile operating sys ...

Great Lakes XTBG The Great Lakes XTBG-1 was an American prototype torpedo bomber, intended for service in the United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed ...

Grumman XSBF The Grumman XSBF, also known by the company designation G-14, was an American biplane scout bomber developed by Grumman Aircraft for the United States Navy during the 1930s. Derived from Grumman's successful " Fifi" fighter, the aircraft was ...

Hall XPTBH The Hall XPTBH was a prototype American twin-engined seaplane, submitted to the United States Navy by the Hall Aluminum Aircraft Corporation in response to a 1934 specification for new bomber and scout aircraft. Constructed in an innovative fa ...

and

Vought XSB3U The Vought XSB3U was an American biplane scout bomber developed by Vought-Sikorsky for the United States Navy during the 1930s. Developed as an alternative to the SB2U Vindicator monoplane, the aircraft proved unsatisfactory to the Navy in comp ...

were also tendered to the specification but were not developed beyond prototype status.Doll 1992, p. 4. The XTBD Devastator flew for the first time on 15 April 1935 while marking a number of "firsts" for the US Navy. It was the first American carrier-based

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

to be widely used, the first all-metal naval aircraft, the first with a completely enclosed cockpit, the first with power-actuated (hydraulically) folding wings. A semi-retractable landing gear was fitted, with the wheels protruding below the wings to potentially limit damage to the aircraft in a " wheels-up" landing. A crew of three was normally carried beneath a large "greenhouse" canopy almost half the length of the aircraft. The pilot sat in front; a rear gunner/radio operator took the rearmost position, while the bombardier occupied the middle seat. During a bombing run, the bombardier lay prone, sliding into position under the pilot to sight through a window in the bottom of the fuselage, using the

Norden bombsight The Norden Mk. XV, known as the Norden M series in U.S. Army service, is a bombsight that was used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the United States Navy during World War II, and the United States Air Force in the Korean ...

. The normal TBD offensive armament consisted of either a Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13

aerial torpedo An aerial torpedo (also known as an airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo) is a torpedo launched from a torpedo bomber aircraft into the water, after which the weapon propels itself to the target. First used in World War I, air-dropped torpe ...

or a bomb carried semi-recessed in the fuselage. Alternatively, three general-purpose bombs (one under each wing root and one inside the fuselage), or twelve fragmentation bombs (six under each wing root), could be carried. This weapons load would often be used when attacking Japanese targets on the

Gilbert Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...

and

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Inte ...

in 1942.Winchester 2004, p. 79. Defensive armament consisted of a

Browning machine gun Browning machine guns are a family of machine gun designs by John Browning, a prolific weapon designer. These include: *M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun, based on a design dating to 1889, was the first successful gas-operated machine gun to ent ...

for the rear gunner. Fitted in the starboard side of the cowling was either a or

M2 Browning machine gun The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, ...

. The powerplant was a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-64 Twin Wasp

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ...

, a development of the prototype's Pratt & Whitney XR-1830-60/R-1830-1.Mondey 2006, p. 128. Other changes from the 1935 prototype included a revised engine cowling and a raised cockpit canopy to improve visibility. The XTBD had a flat canopy that was replaced on production models by a higher, domed canopy with a rollover bar. Other than requests by test pilots to improve pilot visibility, the prototype easily passed its acceptance trials that ran from 24 April to 24 November 1935 at NAS (Naval Air Station)

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is nam ...

and

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

bases. After successfully completing torpedo drop tests, the prototype was transferred to the for carrier certification. The extended service trials continued until 1937 with the first two production aircraft retained by the company exclusively for testing. The US Navy's

Bureau of Aeronautics The Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for naval aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" (''i.e.'', responsibility) for the design, procurement, and support of naval aircraft and relate ...

(BuAer) purchased 129 examples, and began to equip the carriers , , , , , and starting in 1937. Even prewar, TBD units were being shifted to training duties with at least one aircraft being converted to target tug duty. By 1940, the US Navy was aware that the TBD had become outclassed and a replacement, the

, was in the works, but it was not yet operational when the US entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Attrition had by then reduced their numbers to just over 100 aircraft. When the US Navy assigned popular names to its aircraft in late 1941, the TBD became the Devastator, although its nickname "torpecker" was still commonly used.

Operational history

In the early days of the Pacific war, the TBD acquitted itself well during February and March 1942, with TBDs from ''Enterprise'' and ''Yorktown'' attacking targets in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, Wake and

Marcus Island , also known as Marcus Island, is an isolated Japanese coral atoll in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, located some southeast of Tokyo and east of the closest Japanese island, South Iwo Jima of the Ogasawara Islands, and nearly on a straight li ...

s, while TBDs from ''Yorktown'' and ''Lexington'' struck Japanese shipping off

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

on 10 March.''Air International'' March 1990, p. 155. In the

Battle of the Coral Sea The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...

Devastators helped sink the Japanese aircraft carrier on 7 May, but failed to hit another carrier, the , the next day.Doll 1967, pp. 7–8. Faults were discovered with the

at this point. Many were seen to hit the target yet failed to explode; there was also a tendency to run deeper than the set depth. It took over a year for the defects to be corrected. These problems were not fixed by the time of the

on 4 June 1942. At Midway, a total of 41 Devastators, the majority of the type still operational, were launched from ''Hornet'', ''Enterprise'' and ''Yorktown'' to attack the Japanese fleet. The sorties were not well coordinated, in part because Rear Admiral

Raymond A. Spruance Raymond Ames Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral during World War II. He commanded U.S. naval forces during one of the most significant naval battles that took place in the Pacific Theatre: the Battle ...

ordered a strike on the enemy carriers immediately after they were discovered, rather than spending time assembling a well-coordinated attack involving the different types of aircraft – fighters, bombers, torpedo planes – reasoning that attacking the Japanese would prevent a counterstrike against the US carriers. The TBDs from ''Hornet'' and ''Enterprise'' lost contact with their escort and started their attacks without fighter protection.Parshall and Tulley 2005, pp. 206–215. The Devastator proved to be a death trap for its crews: slow and hardly maneuverable, with poor armor for the era; its speed on a glide-bombing approach was a mere , making it easy prey for fighters and defensive guns alike. The aerial torpedo could not even be released at speeds above . Torpedo delivery requires a long, straight-line attack run, making the aircraft vulnerable, and the slow speed of the aircraft made them easy targets for the

Mitsubishi A6M Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M w ...

s. Only four TBDs made it back to ''Enterprise'', none to ''Hornet'' and two to ''Yorktown'', without scoring a torpedo hit. Nonetheless, their sacrifice was not completely in vain, as several TBDs managed to get within a few ship-lengths range of their targets before dropping their torpedoes, being close enough to be able to strafe the enemy ships and force the Japanese carriers to take sharp evasive maneuvers. By obliging the Japanese to keep their flight decks clear and to continually cycle and reinforce their

combat air patrol Combat air patrol (CAP) is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft. A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, ...

s, they prevented any Japanese counter-attacks against the American carriers, just as Spruance had anticipated. These windows of opportunity were exploited by the late-arriving Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers led by

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

C. Wade McClusky and

Max Leslie Maxwell Franklin Leslie (24 October 1902 – 26 September 1985) was a naval aviator in the United States Navy during World War II. He is credited with having played a major part in the Battle of Midway. Early life Born in Seattle, Washington, on ...

, which dive-bombed and fatally damaged three of the four Japanese carriers about one hour after the first TBD torpedo attacks had developed. While the Devastators faced the stiff defenses of the carriers and their fighters, their attacks served to distract the Japanese attention from the Dauntless dive bombers' strikes, resulting in relatively lighter resistance from the IJN carriers' defensive fighter patrols, and more effective American attacks that crippled the IJN carrier forces.

Obsolescence

The Navy immediately withdrew the 39 remaining TBDs from frontline units after the debacle at Midway. The surviving Devastators in VT-4 and VT-7 remained in service briefly in the Atlantic and in training squadrons until 1944. Many were relegated to training duties for pilots and mechanics or were destroyed following use as instructional airframes for firefighting training. By late 1944, no TBD Devastators were left in the US Navy inventory.Tillman and Lawson 2001, p. 61. The original prototype finished its career at NAS Norman,

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

; the last TBD in the US Navy was used by the Commander of Fleet Air Activities-West Coast. When his TBD was scrapped in November 1944, there were no more.Jackson and Doll 1973, p. 43. None survived the war and there are none known to exist on dry land today. In fairness to the Devastator, the newer TBF Avengers were similarly ineffective in 1942, losing five out of six aircraft without scoring a hit during the Battle of Midway. The Avengers' only successes in 1942 would be against the light carrier and the battleship In the initial part of the Pacific War, the poor performance of US torpedo bombers was due to the vulnerability of that type in general against fire from

anti-aircraft artillery Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

and defending fighters, plus the inexperience of American pilots and lack of coordinated fighter cover, as well as serious defects in US torpedoes which were not discovered and corrected until the fall of 1943."USS Enterprise CV-6: The Most Decorated Ship of the Second World War, p. 2."
''cv6.org''. Retrieved: 11 April 2010. It took growing American air superiority, improved attack coordination, and more experienced pilots, before the Avengers were able to successfully accomplish their roles in subsequent battles against Japanese surface forces."'Sinking the Supership'."
''PBS-Nova''. Retrieved: 11 April 2010.

Variants

;XTBD-1 :Prototype powered by an XR-1830-60, one built. ;TBD-1 :Production variant powered by an R-1830-64, 129 built. ;TBD-1A :One TBD-1 modified with twin floats.

Operators

TBD-1 Devastator of VT-4 taking off from USS Ranger (CV-4) in 1942

; *

VT-2 Vermont's 2nd congressional district is an obsolete district. It was created upon Vermont's admission as the 14th State in 1791. It was eliminated after the 1930 Census. Its last Congressman was Ernest W. Gibson, who was redistricted into t ...

used 58 Devastators between December 1937 and May 1942. ** VT-3 used 71 Devastators between October 1937 and June 1942. They starred in the 1941 movie ''Dive Bomber''. **

VT-4 The VT-4 (), also known as the MBT-3000, is a Chinese third generation main battle tank built by Norinco for overseas export. Development During the development of Type 90-II/Al-Khalid (also known as MBT-2000) in the 1980s, the gearbox and ...

used nine Devastators between December 1941 and September 1942. ** VT-5 used 57 Devastators between February 1938 and June 1942. ** VT-6 used 62 Devastators between April 1938 and June 1942. ** VT-7 used 5 Devastators between January 1942 and July 1942. ** VT-8 used 23 Devastators between September 1941 and June 1942. ** VB-4 used three Devastators between December 1941 and January 1942. ** VS-42 used three Devastators between December 1940 and December 1941. ** VS-71 used eight Devastators between December 1940 and June 1942. ** VS-72 used two Devastators in June 1941. ** VU-3 used a single Devastator from January until May 1940. *

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through c ...

** VMS-2 used a single Devastator, BuNo. ''1518'', from 26 March 1941 till 5 June 1941, loaned from VT-3.

Surviving aircraft

There are no surviving aircraft in museums or private collections, nor are there any currently under restoration. However, below are eleven underwater aircraft that are known to exist and are the closest to a complete airframe."To save a Devastator: TBD Devastator Jaluit Lagoon Survey 2004, p. 2."
''tighar.org'', 1997. Retrieved: 7 June 2010. It is not known if anyone will recover and restore these aircraft, as there has been no news on the discovery off San Diego since 2011. Note that these aircraft exist in varying degrees of intactness due to circumstances of their loss and subsequent saltwater corrosion. For example, the pair at Jaluit, a shallow warm-water atoll, have reef creatures growing on their exteriors; several of those lost at Coral Sea have broken wings and fuselages due to avgas explosions and their free-fall to the deep sea floor. ;TBD-1, Bureau Numbers 0298 and 1515 :Ex-VT-5 / USS ''Yorktown'' (CV-5) "5-T-7", "5-T-6" Jaluit Lagoon, Marshall Islands. ;TBD-1 BuNo 0353 :Ex- NAS Miami, Atlantic Ocean, Miami, Florida. ;TBD-1 BuNo 0377 :Ex-VT-2 / USS ''Lexington'' (CV-2) "6-T-7", Pacific Ocean, Mission Beach, California."Holy Grail of Warbirds Found off San Diego."
''eaa.org''. Retrieved 21 November 2011. ;Wreck of the On 4 March 2018, Paul G. Allen's R/V Petrel team discovered the wreck of the USS ''Lexington'' at 3,000 meters (about two miles) below the surface, resting on the floor of the Coral Sea more than 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia. Near the wreck were the remains of seven Devastators, as well as an F4F-3 Wildcat.

Replica

On September 19, 2019, the

USS Midway Museum The USS ''Midway'' Museum is a historical naval aircraft carrier museum located in downtown San Diego, California at Navy Pier. The museum consists of the aircraft carrier . The ship houses an extensive collection of aircraft, many of which we ...

acquired a 1:1 scale replica used in the World War II movie, ''Midway''. The plane was donated from

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

following the conclusion of filming and will become an exhibit on 's hangar.

Specifications (TBD-1)

Notable appearance in media

Dive Bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact through ...

'' (1941) was an

American film The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...

directed by

Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...

. It is notable for both its

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

photography of pre-

aircraft featuring the TBD Devastator, and scenes on the aircraft carrier as well as the

NAS North Island Naval Air Station North Island or NAS North Island , at the north end of the Coronado peninsula on San Diego Bay in San Diego, California, is part of the largest aerospace-industrial complex in the United States Navy – Naval Base Coronado (N ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

.Orriss 1984, p. 28. The 2014 film '' Against the Sun'' depicts a real-life story of the survival of a Devastator's crew after it had to ditch due to running out of fuel. The crew survived 34 days adrift. The 2019 film ''Midway'' featured the Devastator, most notably the disastrous attack by VT-8, including its only survivor, Ensign George Gay, using his plane's seat cushion to conceal himself from the Japanese as he watched the SBDs bomb the IJN Carrier force.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Adcock, Al. ''TBD Devastator in Action, Aircraft Number 97''. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1989. . * Buell, Thomas B. ''The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance''. Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 1987. . * Cressman, Robert B. et al. ''A Glorious Page in Our History: The Battle of Midway, 4–6 June 1942''. Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1990. . * "Devastator...The Not-so-Devastating TDB-1". ''

Air International ''AIR International'' is a British aviation magazine covering current defence aerospace and civil aviation topics. It has been in publication since 1971 and is currently published by Key Publishing Ltd. History and profile The magazine was fi ...

'', March 1990, Vol 38 No 2. pp. 148–156. ISSN 0306-5634. * Dolan, Edward F. Jr. ''Hollywood Goes to War''. London: Bison Books, 1985. . * Doll, Thomas E. ''The Douglas TBD Devastator, Aircraft in Profile Number 171''. Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1967. No ISBN. * Doll, Thomas E. ''SB2U Vindicator in action, Aircraft Number 122''. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1992. . * Drendel, Lou. ''U.S. Navy Carrier Bombers of World War II''. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1987. . * Ginter, Steve. ''Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, Naval Fighters Number Seventy-one''. Simi Valley, California: Ginter Publishing Company, 2006. . * Gunston, Bill. ''The Encyclopedia of the World's Combat Aircraft: A Technical Directory of Major Warplanes from World War 1 to the Present Day.'' New York: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1976. . * Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". ''The Making of the Great Aviation Films'', General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989. * Jackson, B.R. and Thomas E. Doll. ''Douglas TBD-1 "Devastator", Aero Series 23''. Fallbrook, CA: Aero Publishers, 1973. . * Kinzey, Bert. ''U.S. Navy and Marine Aircraft of World War II, Part 1: Dive and Torpedo Bombers''. Northbrook, Illinois: Revell-Monogram, LLC, 2003. . * Lawson, Robert and Barrett Tillman. ''U.S. Navy Dive and Torpedo Bombers of WWII''. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing Company, 2001. . * Mondey, David. "Douglas TBD Devastator." ''The Hamlyn Concise Guide to American Aircraft of World War II.'' London: Bounty Books, 2006. . * Nowicki, Jacek. ''Douglas TBD Devastator – SBD Dauntless (Wydawnictwo Militaria 119)'' (in Polish). Warszawa, Poland: Wydawnictwo Militaria, 2000. . * Orriss, Bruce. ''When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II''. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. . * Parshall, Jonathan B. and Anthony P. Tully. ''Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway''. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005. . * Taylor, John W.R. "Douglas TBD Devastator". ''Combat Aircraft of the World from 1909 to the Present''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969. . * Tillman, Barrett. "Go in and get a hit!: The Navy's last combat torpedo bombers." ''Airpower,'' Volume 3, No. 4, July 1973. * Tillman, Barrett. ''TBD Devastator Units of the U.S. Navy, Combat Aircraft Vol. 20''. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2000. . * Tillman, Barrett and Robert L. Lawson. ''U.S. Navy Dive and Torpedo Bombers of WWII.'' St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI Publishing Company, 2001. . * Winchester, Jim. "Douglas TBD Devastator." ''Aircraft of World War II'' (The Aviation Factfile). Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2004. .

External links

www.history.navy.mil''Navy Plane Folds Wings As It Taxies On Deck'', May 1938, Popular Mechanics
article has very rare photos of prototype

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas Tbd Devastator Carrier-based aircraft 1930s United States bomber aircraft World War II torpedo bombers of the United States

TBD Devastator The Douglas TBD Devastator was an American torpedo bomber of the United States Navy. Ordered in 1934, it first flew in 1935 and entered service in 1937. At that point, it was the most advanced aircraft flying for the Navy and possibly for any ...

Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1935