DOUGLAS A-24B

The Dauntless was slow, underpowered and had insufficient defensive armament, by late 1941, the U.S. Navy considered it obsolete, even though it had been in service for only a year. Despite this the SBD participated in every major battle of the war in the Pacific and was responsible for ending Japanese expansion in the Pacific at the Battle of Midway. First entering service in 1940 the Dauntless served with the U.S. Navy, Marines Corps, and with the Army Air Force as the A-24 as well as with several foreign militaries. The SBD was capable of maintaining stable dives of up to seventy degrees allowing very accurate bombing. The Navy planned to replace the Dauntless with the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver in 1944, but once both aircraft were in service side-by-side the SBD proved to be superior to its replacement and remained in use through the end of the war.