Dive-Bombers—The First Precision-Guided Munitions

Mention dive-bombers in any gathering of World War 2 enthusiasts, and you will instantly conjure up images of the ugly, bent-wing Ju88 Stuka, the German Luftwaffe’s primary close-support aircraft. Fighter pilots will sneeringly call dive-bombers, “A fighter pilot’s dream,” because they believe they are easy to shoot down. Very few people in and out of the military are aware of the critical role that dive-bombers played in winning the Second World War for the Allies.

The term, “dive-bombing,” is precisely descriptive. To execute such an attack, a pilot flying at an altitude of anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 feet altitude puts his aircraft into a steep dive and aims it directly as the target. U.S. Navy procedure called for a 70˚ dive. German and Japanese aircraft were limited to 65˚ dives. Using special dive brakes to maintain control during the high-speed dive, the pilot drops down to 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the target before pulling the his bomb release. As the bomb rotates out on its “crutch” to clear the propeller and falls away, the aviator pulls back on his controls, experiencing a force of six times normal gravity as the plane levels out at low altitude. Five seconds or less after bomb release, it strikes the target. The bomb has been controlled by the pilot’s brain to within seconds of impact.

Dive-bombing was first tried above the trenches in WW1. Heavy losses of aircraft and aircrew discouraged widespread adoption of the technique. European air forces largely ignored the concept in the interwar years. But as carrier-borne naval aviation developed rapidly in the 1920s, naval air forces revived the idea. Hitting a fast-moving and maneuvering ship in the open sea presents a complex problem. With both aerodynamic and weather forces acting on both aircraft and missiles, hitting a moving ship from a horizontal bombing position remained an unlikely proposition. The USN pressed forward with development of dive-bombers to solve the problem.

In 1931, the famed American Director, John Ford, released a film called Helldivers. Clark Gable and Wallace Berry portrayed two chief petty officers that flew dive-bombers. A typical Hollywood action film of the time, it did feature American naval aviation at that time and brought dive-bombing to the attention of all naval powers. That same year, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) issued its specification for a carrier-based dive-bomber.

At the 1931 Cleveland Air Races, German ace Ernst Udet observed a dive-bombing demonstration by Helldivers. The concept soon enthralled him. He convinced his WW1 commander, Hermann Goering, to buy two export versions of the Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk Helldiver, for evaluation by the fledgling Luftwaffe. Later put in charge of aircraft development by Goering, Udet ordered that all German bombers be capable of dive-bombing. This requirement hindered development of a strategic bombing force in the Luftwaffe.

The spectacular successes of Germany’s Panzer columns operating with continuous dive-bomber support are a matter for separate discussion. The dive-bomber’s critical contributions to final victory were in the realm of naval warfare. Dive-bombing proved key to successes of both the USN and the IJN during the Pacific War.

In 1941, over half the aircraft on USN carriers were SBDs (Scout-Bomber-Douglas Aircraft) Dauntlesses. Thirty-six SBDs were divided into two squadrons, a Scouting squadron (VS) and a Bombing squadron (VB). In practice the squadrons were used interchangeably.

For a plane approaching obsolescence in 1941, the Dauntless was a remarkably capable warbird. Thirty-three feet long with a wingspan of almost 42 feet, the SBD had a 1,200 horsepower, 9-cylinder radial engine. It had a range of over 1,000 miles and aerodynamically pleasing shape. A long greenhouse canopy housed the pilot and radio operator/gunner. A 1,000-pound bomb could be carried on a “crutch” beneath the fuselage, and hard-points on each wing could bear 250-pound bombs. A typical combat load was either one 1,000-pounder or one 500-pounder and two 250-pounders. The Dauntless had a significant gun armament. The pilot controlled two .50-caliber machine guns firing through the propeller. The rear gunner had a pair of .30-caliber guns on a flexible mount. The pilot’s guns actually outranged those on a Japanese Zero fighter. The Dauntless was even frequently used in combat air patrol situations against slower torpedo bombers. It had a combat kill ratio of 3.2 to 1—better than some fighters.

In the first year of the Pacific War, SBDs sank six aircraft carriers, one battleship, three cruisers, a submarine, and fourteen transports, approximately 20 percent of IJN prewar tonnage. Of IJN warship losses during the Pacific War, dive bombers sank over 170. Submarines accounted for another 140 sinkings, and surface ships about 40 others.  Dive-bombers thus proved crucial to final victory by the USN.

SBDs will figure prominently in my next two novels about the Pacific War. I am currently writing about the Battle of the Coral Sea in Endure The Cruel Sun, sequel to my bestselling novel Hold Back the Sun. The Americans have just found the IJN light carrier, Shōhō.  Japan has won every battle to date. How will this one turn out?

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Warren Bell is an author of historical fiction.  He spent 29 years as a US Naval Officer, and has traveled to most of the places in the world that he writes about.  A long-time World War II-buff, his first two novels, Fall Eagle One and Hold Back the Sun are set during World War II.  His third novel, Asphalt and Blood, follows the US Navy Seabees in Vietnam.  His most recent novel, Snowflakes in July, was released on September 15, 2015.  He is currently working on a new novel, Endure The Cruel Sun, the sequel to his best-selling novel, Hold Back the Sun. For more about Warren Bell, visit his website at: wbellauthor.com or see him on twitter @wbellauthor.  

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How Japan Came to Dominate Naval Aviation

'Kido Butai'  by Marii Chernev

Three weeks ago, I set aside my writing to concentrate on getting my left knee replaced with a new titanium alloy and plastic marvel. My leg is recovering nicely, and daily physical therapy is rapidly improving my use of the new joint. The time has come to return to the war in the Southwest Pacific Theater in May of 1942.

I left almost equally balanced American and Japanese naval air forces searching for each other in the vastness of the Coral Sea northeast of Australia.  Behind the Japanese strike force, a large invasion convoy is poised to spring through the Jounard Passage at the tip of New Guinea and seize the Allied bastion of Port Moresby, the last barrier before Australia.  How could a nation less that a hundred years removed from the Middle Ages be in a position to strike a deathblow to the world’s two foremost naval powers?

The dawn of fixed-wing aviation came at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Hardly had the Wright brothers taken to the air than forward-thinking naval and military officers recognized the advantages that aircraft might offer in battle. Of prime importance was simply locating the enemy. Naval commanders had been limited to the range of vision of lookouts posted atop mastheads since naval warfare commenced. Aircraft promised to extend that vision far beyond the horizon. Planes operating from shore bases were almost immediately available. But what was really needed were aircraft that could operate from ships at sea. Both Britain’s Royal Navy (RN) and the United States Navy began experimenting with various ideas even before World War I.

The use of seaplanes with floats, that allowed takeoffs and landings on water, became an obvious first step. Seaplane tenders, equipped with heavy cranes to transfer the aircraft between ship and water, became the first aircraft carriers.  The RN pressed ahead throughout the war, experimenting with foredeck landplane launch platforms, and then tacking on separate afterdeck landing decks with arrestor cables. Finally, the various concepts were combined on HMS Furious to provide a single long flight deck cleared of superstructure. On 2 August 1917, RN Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning made the first landing of a plane on a ship under way. The modern aircraft carrier had arrived.

Nowhere was the emerging naval aviation concept embraced more readily than by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). When Japan’s 19^th Century Emperor Meiji decided to modernize Japan, he and his governments decided to pattern their armed forces on those of the most successful European examples. Thus, Germany was chosen as the model Army. The British RN was the obvious choice for the new navy. Ties between the RN and IJN remained close well into the 20th Century. Japan actually conducted the world’s first successful naval launched air raid in September 1917, employing seaplanes from seaplane carrier IJN Wakamiya.

The IJN closely followed the RN aviation developments. As valued Allies against the Central Powers, IJN officers were allowed to observe operations and study the first purpose-built carrier design for HMS Hermes. Although begun later, IJN Hōshō became the world’s first built-from-scratch carrier.

In the 1920s, the western powers sought to limit the naval arms race by treaty limitations. Japan emerged from these negotiations very dissatisfied with the battleship and battle cruiser numbers and tonnage allowed to their empire. One area where the IJN retained significant flexibility was that of aircraft carrier construction. They took full advantage of this opportunity.

Japan immediately decided to convert to aircraft carriers two large battle cruisers then under construction. One was damaged beyond repair by an earthquake, but the second, IJN Akagi, went forward. An incomplete battleship, IJN Kaga, became the second new carrier. As soon as these ships joined the fleet, the IJN integrated them into fleet operations and developed their naval aviation doctrine. In the 1930s, more ships designed from the keel up filled out the fleet. IJN Sōryū and Hiryū were next off the building ways. At the end of the 1930s, IJN Shōkaku and IJN Zuikaku added additional punch to the fleet.

Japanese naval aviation experts gained further advantage because they were actually at war during the 1930s. New ideas could be tested under combat conditions. Unlike their western counterparts, IJN aviators came to believe that sea-based airpower should always be concentrated as much as possible. Raids combining the air groups of all ships available became their standard at a time that other navies tended to parcel out their carriers one or two at a time to protect their battle fleets. In a major war, IJN aviation was assigned the mission of seizing control of the air from the very beginning by massive attacks. The IJN understood “shock and awe” as early as the 1930s.

As fortune would have it, Japan’s rigid seniority-based promotion system elevated an aviation specialist, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet at this crucial point in history. Yamamoto had at his disposal a cadre of talented “young Turk” aviation staff officers and commanders, such as Lieutenant Commander Minoru Genda and Lieutenant Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. On their urging, he organized all six of his large carriers into the 1^st air Fleet, commonly known as the Kido Butai (Strike Force). To compliment the carrier forces. Yamamoto also built up a large force of twin-engine, long range shore based bombers especially trained in bomb and torpedo attacks against ships. Named the 11^th Air Fleet, this force could deploy rapidly to newly conquered bases to extend control of the air by hundreds of miles.

Japan’s aviation industry kept pace with the forward thinking navy visionaries. By 1940, the torpedo bombers and dive bombers being produced were at least as good as their western contemporaries. And in the Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” fighters, Japan possessed the finest carrier fighter in the world at that time. Designed to operate both off carriers and in support of the 11^th Air Fleet, the Zero possessed a phenomenal range of almost 1,200 miles.

Choosing IJN pilots and their training regimen were highly selective, resulting in almost perfect human specimens. For instance, candidates had to be able to see the primary navigation guide stars in broad daylight. Intense physical and instructive training characterized the program. Only a small percentage of each class actually achieved their coveted wings. Naval aviators were the elite of the elite. Combat experience in China honed this cadre of experts into a finely sharpened rapier. The process worked well in the relatively low level combat of the 1930s, but it was incapable of producing a large number of replacements to meet the demands of high intensity combat.

Kido Butai and the 11^th Air Fleet performed superbly in the opening months of the Pacific War, savaging the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and sinking the Royal Navy’s battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battle cruiser Repulse in the Gulf of Siam. The protagonists of my second novel, Hold Back The Sun, battled elements of Japan’s naval aviation in the skies over Borneo and Java and over the seas in between. Chased out of the Dutch East Indies, my characters now face battle in the seas and skies of the Coral Sea northeast of Australia in my current work-in-progress, Endure The Cruel Sun. Will they meet defeat yet again? Or is fortune finally deserting the victory-drunk Japanese forces?

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Warren Bell is an author of historical fiction.  He spent 29 years as a US Naval Officer, and has traveled to most of the places in the world that he writes about.  A long-time World War II-buff, his first two novels, Fall Eagle One and Hold Back the Sun are set during World War II.  His third novel, Asphalt and Blood, follows the US Navy Seabees in Vietnam.  His most recent novel, Snowflakes in July, was released on September 15, 2015.  He is currently working on a new novel, Endure the Cruel Sun, the sequel to his best-selling novel, Hold Back the Sun. For more about Warren Bell, visit his website at: wbellauthor.com or see him on twitter @wbellauthor.  

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On My Way Back—Doing the Physical Therapy

Measuring Knee Angle

I’ve had my new left knee for over ten days now. It has mostly been a positive experience. There has, of course, been pain, but not nearly so much as I had been led to expect. Modern anesthesiology blocked a great deal of the pain at times when it would normally been the worst. But current physical therapy practice is to begin moving replacement joints very soon after installation. My sainted mother used to say that, “Old age isn’t for cowards,” and the same can be said for surgery. But the pain is very manageable. And I can say without equivocation that I’m already more capable than I was before the operation.

Physical Therapy is key to recovery from any major injury or surgery. I learned this lesson well over thirty years ago when I originally broke my left leg. Proper exercise to recondition and strengthen the muscles and ligaments around the effected joint(s) are imperative. Physical Therapists are trained to evaluate progress in joint recovery and determine the next level of workload necessary to continue improving the situation.

I had my knee replaced at the Sentara OrthoJoint Center® in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Center has an outstanding staff of Orthopedic surgeons, Orthopedic Patient Navigators, nurses, and Physical Therapists who are dedicated to the most effective recovery for their patients. From the time one wakes up from the operation, the emphasis is to move, move, move! Inactivity is the enemy of those who would be physically capable, especially those of us with a few years under our keels. Complete success for every patient is their minimum standard of performance. I owe a great debt of gratitude to these consummate medical professionals!

Fortunately, My medical insurance allowed me to have home nursing and physical therapy services from the KARYA HOME CARE INC. These began immediately after my release from the hospital. I was assigned a skilled nurse, an occupational therapist, and a physical therapist. All three women are extremely knowledgeable and have skill in motivating their patients.

I have been continually surprised by my progress. After walking on a severely bowed leg for decades, I had expected to have difficulties adjusting. Instead, I felt immediately at home with equal length legs and my center of gravity back in the right place. I went from  shaky performance on a walker to easy walking with a cane in just a few days. My new situation feels “normal.”

I must say a few words about pain management. From well before the operation, advice from doctors, friends, and relatives who have had similar work done was to, “stay ahead of the pain.” In other words, don’t wait to try to overcome pain—preempt it ahead of time. That’s good advice, even if there are some negative trade-offs.

I’m not a fan of opioid painkillers. I don’t like what they do to my thought processes. I find it almost impossible to write while under their influence. I even found composing a simple Tweet difficult. Fortunately, my daughter/publicist, Karen B. Williams, has stepped in to keep things moving.  

Any reader of my novels realizes at once that I have great respect for medical professionals.  From World War II to Vietnam and beyond, many of my pages are peopled with doctor and nurse characters. In fact, one of the main characters in my upcoming book ENDURE THE CRUEL SUN, sequel to my bestselling novel HOLD BACK THE SUN, is a US Navy nurse! I believe that my personal medical experiences should make my writing about these heroes more authentic.

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Warren Bell is an author of historical fiction.  He spent 29 years as a US Naval Officer, and has traveled to most of the places in the world that he writes about.  A long-time World War II-buff, his first two novels, Fall Eagle One and Hold Back the Sun are set during World War II.  His third novel, Asphalt and Blood, follows the US Navy Seabees in Vietnam.  His most recent novel, Snowflakes in July, was released on September 15, 2015.  He is currently working on a new novel, Endure the Cruel Sun, the sequel to his best-selling novel, Hold Back the Sun. For more about Warren Bell, visit his website at: wbellauthor.com or see him on twitter @wbellauthor.  

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