SBD Series Part 5: Army Dauntlesses: The A-24 Banshee in the Southwest Pacific, 1942
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ต.ค. 2024
- While the Navy and Marine Corps fielded squadrons of dive bombers, flying both from aircraft carriers and shore bases, the interwar US Army had no dive bombers of its own. As the early-war experience in Europe showed the devastating accuracy and effectiveness of this type of aircraft in a close support role, the Army considered outfitting some of its attack units with such a plane. As no Army aircraft were suitable for this kind of mission, modified versions of the SBD were acquired. These were known as A-24 Banshees, and units equipped with these land-based variants of the Dauntless worked up and began to deploy abroad in the weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Caught by the outbreak of war not yet fully prepared, the Army dive-bomber crews would perform prodigies of improvisation and courage in pitting their handful of aircraft against the oncoming tidal wave of Japanese expansion in the Dutch East Indies and on New Guinea during the desperate 1942 battles in the Southwest Pacific.
Great video, thanks ; )
Absolutely beautiful, who even remembers the A-24???
I try to find topics that seem to have fallen through the cracks, as it were
There was a small number used by the US Army Air Corps during the Japanese attack on Java (Dutch East Indies) during 1942.
That was really informative. My father was a back seat er in A24's. Was a member of the 3rd Bomb Group 8th squadron first one in New Guinea. Connected a number of dots for me. Excellent research.
I'm glad you enjoyed it friend. Makes my day to see comments like this
I loved them, built a couple of kits of A-24’s.
Thanks. I was aware of the Army version of the aircraft and _may_ have had a model of it but didn't know anything about it's use.
In Bergerud's book he talks about how single engine aircraft did well against ships - wherein trading a ship for some aircraft was a very good trade - but against ground targets which they could not sink the loss rate for single engine aircraft was to great.
Thus - the Army - which was hitting ground targets more than ships - and - didn't have to launch _from_ ships - showed a preference for multi-engine attack aircraft.
Of course - the fate of the A-24's in Java and the Philippines was fore ordained. The _Langley_ and the _Sea Witch_ tried to deliver a fighter group of P-40's to the Philippines. They couldn't so they tried to deliver them to Java but the _Langley_ was sunk and the crated P-40's the _Sea Witch_ delivered to Java had to be destroyed before the Japanese over ran the port. Some of the groups air crew were rescued but then the ship that rescued them was sunk and most of them were lost. Time and again on land, sea and air the Allies were simply over whelmed by the Japanese in early '42.
The Japanese Diver Bombers sent against Henderson Field suffered a likewise high attrition rate. Here - Japan was sacrificing aircraft and crew that would have been much more successful against American Ships - and which were in fact irreplaceable - just to put a hole in the runway the Americans filled right in. Once the Americans got used to the size of Japanese bomb craters and how much dirt was needed to fill them in - they had dump trucks stationed on the edge of the field with that amount of dirt and enough Marston Matting to patch the crater up in a few minutes. A hit on the airfield which would have put a ship out of service for months - if it didn't help sink it - was undone before the Japanese strike aircraft made it home ... those of it that did.
Later - the American Carrier strikes were highly effective against such as Truk - because of the size of the strike - with hundreds of carrier aircraft from multiple carriers participating in the raid. Here - large fighter sweeps were sent in ahead of the strike aircraft so that the defending Japanese aircraft were negated. Sending in just a few, unescorted aircraft at a time was a mark of how desperate the Allies were early in the war. The losses they suffered doing that - taught them not to.
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Italeri has a 1/48 SBD kit with markings for an A-24.
Good!
Really well done and informative, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@MarkSeven Don't see much about A-24 operations for obvious reasons. There is an incredible story of an A-24 pilot in the Philippines who escaped to Australia, Lt. Damon J. Gause.
GOOD video!
Thanks! I appreciate your support
Very good. I want to do a model of the A-24. I have heard they were left in Navy blue-gray. They are mainly depicted in Army Olive drab.
Does anybody have any ideas/info on this?
Every US Army Banshee I know of appears to have been finished in olive drab with light grey undersides, but Banshees flown by the New Zealanders had a blue/gray finish similar to that of US Navy/Marine SBDs
The A-20 had wright 1820 not Prat and Whitney 1830
Uh oh might have to do some revision
You might want to consider achieving a little monetization by putting your source materials with Amazon links in the show notes.
I really appreciate your work.
Hey that's not a bad idea, I hadn't thought of that.