By the strange logic of airline fares and route structures, the shortest/cheapest trip to Charlotte, North Carolina from upstate New York happened to pass through Chicago. Most people think of O'Hare when flying to-from the Windy City, but in this case we went to Midway Airport. And if I'd been thinking more about history, I would have realized the connection with the aircraft you see above much sooner.
More below the Orange Omnilepticon.
If you're at
MidwayInternational Airport and have time to look around between flights, one of the permanent exhibits is
this one you see above.
... In commemoration of the sacrifice of U.S. World War II veterans at the Battle of Midway this exhibit features photographs, narratives, and three interactive video kiosks with historical accounts and a SBD Dauntless aircraft hanging from the ceiling. The exhibit provides an educational experience that raises awareness of the contributions that the pilots, engineers, and City of Chicago made to the World War II effort.
Recovered from Lake Michigan in 1991, 47 years after it had crashed during training exerices, the SBD Dauntless Dive-Bomber now hangs from the ceiling as part of the Battle of Midway Memorial exhibit. This is the same type of airplane flown by U.S. naval aviators in the Battle of Midway, which took place from June 4-7, 1942, and is generally considered to be the turning point of World War II in the Pacific.
The airport was renamed from Municipal Airport in 1949 to Midway to commemorate the battle. Chicago has a direct connection to the air war in the Pacific in World War 2 - many Naval aviators trained by flying off two paddle-wheel steamers converted into ad hoc
aircraft carriers based in Chicago and cruising Lake Michigan. (Yes
Paddle-Wheel aircraft carriers!) The two carriers,
USS Wolverine and
USS Sable trained thousands of pilots and flight deck crews.
The aircraft on display at Midway is one of the aircraft used in training - it and over 250 others ended up on the bottom of Lake Michigan as a result of training accidents; 21 pilots were lost as well. Video here with historic footage and modern recovery efforts. A number of the planes have been salvaged for refurbishing into display aircraft.The SBD Dauntless on display at Midway International is one of them, painted to represent one of the aircraft from the Battle of Midway.
Douglas Aircraft Company built the SBD Dauntless; the design dates from the mid 1930s. The wikipedia entry is both extensive and enthusiastic.
During the time of its combat service the SBD was an excellent naval scout plane and arguably the world's best dive bomber. It possessed long range, good handling characteristics, maneuverability, potent bomb load capacity, great diving characteristics, defensive armament and ruggedness. In most of these characteristics the SBD was superior to the German Junkers Ju 87, the Japanese Aichi D3A "Val", and any dive bomber possessed by the Royal Air Force or the Soviet Air Force.[citation needed] A variant was a purpose-built design for the U.S. Army Air Forces, which used the SBD without an arrestor hook as the A-24 Banshee.
The picture of the airplane on display shows what looks like a lot of big holes along the trailing edge of the wing - these were the dive brakes that allowed the Dauntless to make a controlled diving attack by keeping it from picking up too much speed. (
Picture here, with brakes open and a bomb dropping.) Although it can't be seen in the photo, there were panels on the upper wing trailing edge that opened upwards as well.
Although the display aircraft doesn't have a bomb, it does have a distinctive Y-shaped yoke, just between the wheels. The bomb was hung underneath the aircraft on the centerline, right under the wing between the arms of the yoke. The yoke would swing down when the bomb was released, to swing the bomb far enough away from the plane to make sure it cleared the propellor. (At least, that's the way it worked on the plastic model I used to have.)
The Battle of Midway is where the Dauntless really shone. While something that deserves (and has gotten) books, movies, etc., the battle was a key turning point in the war in the Pacific. Coming 6 months after Pearl Harbor and a month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the short version is the U.S. Navy scored a telling victory against the Japanese fleet attacking Midway Atoll. A key part of that victory was attacks by 4 Navy squadrons of SBDs that sank or fatally damaged all four Japanese carriers present and heavily damaged Japanese cruisers.
The SBD Dauntless served well throughout the war, although it was later superseded by larger and more powerful aircraft. It was maneuverable enough, tough enough, and well armed enough to hold its own. It carried a pilot and a gunner who had a rear-facing position to defend the plane from attackers from behind. Two fixed 50 caliber machine guns mounted in the cowling of the engine fired forward, while the rear gunner had twin 30 calibers in a movable mount. According to the wikipedia article, at least one source figures the Dauntless racked up a positive ratio against fighters - they won more times than they lost, which is pretty impressive for a bomber. One Dauntless pilot, Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa, managed to bring down three Japanese fighters.
While flying anti-torpedo patrol in the vicinity of the USS Yorktown (CV-5), Swede and the other pilots in his group were attacked by a swarm of 12 Japanese Zeros. No U.S. fighters were available, so the dive-bomber pilots took on the attackers. Outnumbered and outgunned, the American SBDs flew a full 100 mph slower than the Zeros, and a number of the courageous Americans were quickly shot down by the Japanese fighters. Yet, with his rear-gunner effectively covering his flanks, Swede adroitly maneuvered his aircraft to bring the attackers into his forward gun sights. By the time the melee was over, Swede had managed not only to survive but to down three of the Japanese fighters! For this amazing action, Swede was awarded the Navy Cross. And to make this feat even more impressive, this was his second Navy Cross—a month before, near Tulagi, Vejtasa had earned his first while helping to sink three Japanese ships and shooting down an enemy fighter.
Not surprisingly, Vejtasa was transferred to a fighter squadron where he continued to
fly with distinction.
Swede's skill as a fighter pilot now fully recognized, he was soon transferred to VF-10, a fighter squadron flying Wildcats and known as "The Grim Reapers." On 26 October, while flying a combat air patrol during the Battle of Santa Cruz, Swede intercepted a squadron of enemy dive-bombers screaming down on the USS Enterprise (CV-6) and quickly shot down two. The enemy bombers scattered, but almost immediately Vejtasa sighted 11 Japanese torpedo bombers making a run on "the Big E," and again he charged in. This time he shot down five and broke up the attack, quite possibly saving one of the war's most famous carrier from destruction. These seven kills in one day earned him a third Navy Cross. The only carrier pilot in World War II to earn Navy Crosses for both dive bombing and aerial combat, Swede Vejtasa went on serve the Navy for more than 30 years, ultimately commanding the USS Constellation (CV-64) and elected into the Carrier Aviation Hall of Fame in 1987.
emphasis added
If you're ever passing through Midway International in Chicago and have the time, make sure to pay a call on the SBD Dauntless forever flying on patrol at Concourse A. It may not have been the fastest, or carried the heaviest bomb load, but the Dauntless made history.