follow at 6 25 pm on the 20th of June 1944 a strike group of 226 U.S Navy aircraft located the seven aircraft carriers of the Japanese first mobile Fleet with the American Pilots at the extreme end of their fuel range and the sun quickly setting the formation split up into multiple groups to attack targets at their own discretion despite a complete breakdown in radio discipline and poor coordination the helldiver and dauntless dive bombers and the Avenger torpedo aircraft succeeded in Sinking one Japanese carrier along with two Oilers three more carriers were badly damaged in the final Salvo of the battle of the Philippine Sea the largest aircraft carrier battle in history the entire action lasted just 30 minutes the fact that the American Pilots were able to cause as much damage as they did despite the chaotic attack spoke to their well-rounded training exceptional aircraft but perhaps most of all their tactics by 1944 the U.S Navy had refined its tactics after many hard lessons in the previous two and a half years of war against Imperial Japan a combination of these factors made it possible for the attack on the Japanese carriers at the Philippine Sea to succeed in spite of the difficult circumstances this video will discuss the evolution of American Naval Aviation strike tactics from dive bombing to torpedo attacks which would play a vital role in the Pacific Theater the United States entered the second world war as one of the pioneers of dive bombing but the United Kingdom was the first country to utilize dive bombing during the first World War a Canadian Royal flying Corps pilot sahin Lieutenant William Brown carried out the first dive bombing attack on a vessel on the 14th of March 1918 when he successfully destroyed a German ammunition barge the Royal flying Corps was intrigued by this new tactic but its leadership was wary of the high casualty rates suffered during these attacks World War One era aircraft could not withstand stresses of near vertical times meaning Pilots had to approach their targets in slow shallow Dives which exposed their aircraft to enemy fire by the interwar period the newly created RAF had given up on the tactu and canceled orders for a fleet of dive bombers however one man in the United States Army Air Service or usaas the precursor to the U.S Army Air corps was enamored by the advantages of dive bombing Lieutenant Colonel Billy Mitchell arrived in France in April of 1917 and became a strong advocate of the tactic after observing British and French aerial attacks following the end of the war Colonel Mitchell was appointed as director of military Aeronautics and became a storage advocate of air power including dive bombing Mitchell believes that the U.S Navy was wasting precious assets building expensive dreadnoughts and set out to prove that cheaper aircraft could destroy Naval warships despite intense resistance from the Navy Mitchell was able to convince Congress to authorize dive bombing tests against captured German warships and obsolete American dreadnoughts in July of 1921. although the ships were stationary the usaas aircraft performed very well and sank several vessels using dive bombing tactics the tests proved to be a resounding success for Mitchell and a major embarrassment for the Navy which tried but failed to suppress the results Mitchell's dogged advocacy of air power earned him many enemies and he was later court-martialed for insubordination ending his career in the military nonetheless he had proved that dive bombing could be a game changer in Naval Aviation and the U.S Navy eventually relented by 1925 the first dive bombers were deployed on American aircraft carriers while the Marine Corps would also begin operating them from Land the tactics of dive bombing were refined During the interwar period as better suited aircraft became available and Pilots experimented with different variations of attack despite their initial distaste for dive bombing the U.S Navy and Marine Corps quickly realized its advantages for the Marines dive bombing could provide accurate close air support for the Infantry fighting on the ground as for the Navy these smaller bombers could operate off its new aircraft carrier Fleet beginning in 1926 the Navy embarked on a rigorous training program to teach dive bombing to its new pilots a successful dive bombing attack depended on the pilot skill and courage the pilot would approach the target at an altitude ranging from 15 to 20 000 feet at a speed between 170 and 200 miles per hour once the bomber was over the target the pilot would push the aircraft into a dive at an angle of about 75 degrees a straight vertical dive of 90 degrees was discouraged as it would make a safe pull out more difficult with the aircraft now in a dive the pilot would deploy the dive brakes which added drag in order to prevent the aircraft from exceeding over speed limits with a moving Target like a wall ship the pilot would lean forward to adjust his aim and pay close attention to the decreasing altimeter the typical Bomb release altitude was between 2000 and 2500 feet with the aircrafts traveling at around 280 miles per hour the pilots would begin his recovery by pulling the stick hard back retracting the dive brakes and pushing the throttle to full power if the pilot chose to release under 2000 feet the Run would be more accurate but it would be more difficult to pull out of the dive most Pilots were subjected to forces of up to 9 G's during the pull out which could lead to blacking out to avoid this American Pilots were taught the MTG straining maneuver or agsm as the pilot felt themselves blacking out he would take a big breath hold it and then grunt it out to keep the blood from continuing to flow downward most Pilots would be temporarily blind after a hard pull out but the agsm prevented them from blacking out completely it was a job that required intense Focus unparalleled ability to multitask and guts when the United States was thrust into the second world war in December of 1941 its main Naval dive bomber was the Douglas SBD dauntless The Dauntless was a capable bomber that was popular amongst its Crews for smooth handling and ability to absorb punishment rear Admiral Samuel e Morrison would later call the SBD the most successful and beloved by aviators of all carrier types during the war still some in military leadership continue to believe that larger conventional bombers could destroy warships from high altitude this theory was put to the test during the 1942 battles of coral sea and Midway when B-17 Flying fortresses attempted to attack Japanese aircraft carriers and transports although the Fearsome A6 m0 had difficulty attacking the flying fortresses between 25 and 35 000 feet not a single Direct Hit was scored on any enemy warships at Peak strength 168 flying fortresses operated in the Pacific yet only a single stationary Japanese Destroyer was confirmed sunk by bombs from a B-17 by mid-1942 it was decided to withdraw the B-17 from combat in the Pacific Theater it had become obvious that dive bombing was the best way to smash the Japanese Navy while the level bombers failed to hit any enemy ships at both Coral Sea and Midway the SBD dauntless proved to be a devastating weapon in the right hands at Midway dauntlesses destroyed four Japanese Fleet carriers which turned the tide of the war in the Pacific the sbds would prove to be the backbone of the dive bomber Fleet until early 1944 when the Navy began facing them out in favor of the sb2c helldiver although the helldiver was faster and better armored Than The Dauntless most American Pilots still preferred the old SBD over the newer aircraft following the Battle of the Philippine Sea the hell divers would handle U.S Naval Aviation dive bombing for the rest of the war for as many advantages dive bombing often could not cause catastrophic damage below the water line of an enemy warship which would cause it to sink much faster in this case torpedo aircraft were the ideal solution while the U.S Navy would go on to use aerial Torpedoes to great effect in the Pacific Theater it was once again Britain that first used this new invention in combat during the first world war unlike its rejection of dive bombing the Royal Naval Air Service the precursor to the fleet Aeron wholeheartedly embraced torpedo attacks which other countries such as the United States quickly emulated like dive bombers torpedo aircraft were small enough to fit on aircraft carriers and the added Firepower of their Munitions made them extremely dangerous to enemy warships the Royal Navy's Fleet air arm would use aerial torpedo attacks to great effect in the second world war noticeably using carrier-launched fairy swordfish to devastate the Italian Fleet at taranto and to deliver the decisive blow against the feared German battleship Bismarck with further successes by albacore's against the Italian Fleet at Cape matapan and more generally against shipping in the battle of the Atlantic despite the gravity-defying nature of dive bombing torpedo aircraft Pilots arguably had an even more dangerous job whereas the Steep angle and high speed of dive bombers made them hard to hit during an attack torpedo aircraft were to approach the target low and slow the preeminent American torpedo bomber the TBF Avenger would dive towards the ocean and pull up at about 100 feet the maximum altitude could not exceed 150 feet or else the torpedo would detonate as soon as it hit the water with the Avenger now on its attack run the pilot would have to reduce speed to less than 110 miles per hour barely above stalling speed for the heavily Laden aircraft braving anti-aircraft fire the pilot would keep the Avenger steady aiming just ahead of the target it was a nerve-wracking experience especially if enemy Fighters decided to pounce on the torpedo aircraft silhouetted against the water when the aircraft was within 1000 feet of the target the pilots would pull the release switch and drop the torpedo it was vital that the aircraft was level at the time of release if the nose was pointed down the torpedo would dive and run too deep under the intended target if their nose was pointing up the torpedo would break apart on impacts with the water the US Mark 13 torpedo could travel at 45 knots which would take about 40 seconds to impact the target if the release was on point therefore it was important to drop ahead of the enemy warship in order to properly anticipate its path once the torpedo was free The Avengers would have to peel off and quickly go to Full Throttle in order to avoid enemy fire the best way to ensure a hit was to launch what was known as an anvil attack here torpedo aircraft would approach from both sides of the target vessel to box in the enemy warship however coordinating Anvil attacks was often quite difficult In the Heat of battle and it was rare to pull off one successfully U.S Navy Torpedo aircraft Pilots would land harsh lessons in the first months of the Pacific War none more apparent than at the Battle of Midway the Avenger still had not been standardized across the fleet meaning the long obsolete's TBD Devastator was the only carrier-based torpedo bomber available prior to the heroics of The Dauntless dive bombers 41 Devastators from USS Yorktown Hornet and Enterprise attacked the Japanese aircraft carriers without fighter escorts which led to predictable results the slow and lumbering Devastators were massacred only six out of the 41 eventually made it back to their home carriers compounding this problem was the abysmal performance of The Mark 13 torpedo which had multiple faults not a single one damaged a Japanese warship and Midway following the Battle the Devastator was withdrawn from active service and replaced entirely by the faster more versatile Avenger furthermore the mark 13 received significant improvements which turned it into a viable ship-killing weapon by 1944 U.S Navy strike groups had developed an effective combined arms approach when attacking Japanese warships Fighters such as the hellcats that were not engaged in escort duties would strike first using their Superior speed and maneuverability to Pepper enemy anti-aircraft Crews with 50 caliber machine guns while enemy Gunners were distracted the hell divers and Avengers would begin their attack runs it was best for the torpedo aircraft to attack first the threat of torpedoes was considered greater than bombs which often forced Japanese captains to steer out of their way predicting their heading the dive bombers would then have an easier time dropping their own Munitions if the attack was coordinated properly there would be nowhere for the enemy warship to run during the battle of the Philippine Sea four Avenger torpedo aircrafts launched a successful Anvil attack on the Japanese carrier heo two of the Torpedoes struck home as 26 SBD dauntlesses nosed over and dived in they hit the crippled hero with two one thousand pound bombs which doomed the carrier it was a demonstration of American Tactical prowess in Naval Aviation and a reminder of how far the U.S Navy had come 23 years earlier the Navy had been embarrassed by Colonel Billy Mitchell's first demonstrations of what air power could do the victory at the Philippine Sea showed the importance of embracing Mitchell's changes and solidified U.S Naval Aviation as the dominant force in the Pacific Theater