Hobby Master HA0112 | SBD-3 Dauntless, VS-5, USS Yorktown "Battle of Coral Sea", 1942

Historical Background of the SBD-3
Designed as light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, various versions of the Dauntless
served during the war with the US Marine Corps, Army and Navy. The Douglas
Dauntless was the workhorse of the US Navy in the Pacific. The Dauntless dive bomber
was the only plane to fight in every major Pacific engagement.

The SBD-3, sarcastically nicknamed “Speedy Three”, entered service in March 1941,
and incorporated self-sealing and larger fuel tanks, armor protection, improved electrical
system, a bullet-proof windshield, and four machine guns. Production ended in July 1944,
by which time a total of 5,936 had been built in all versions.

The SBDs first real test came on 7 May 1942, when the US aircraft carriers USS
Lexington and USS Yorktown faced three Japanese carriers in the Battle of the Coral
Sea. During the two day battle, which was the first naval battle in which victory was
decided by aircraft alone, Dauntless dive-bombers flew alongside other US aircraft. Each
side lost one carrier (the Japanese carrier Shoho being sunk by Dauntless and
Devastator bombers) and the U.S. lost USS Lexington but the U.S. had stopped the
Japanese ships from supporting an invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, and the
proposed air assault on Australia.

SBD-3 spec:
Dimensions:
Length: 32 ft., 8 in.
Height: 13 ft., 7 in.
Wingspan: 41ft., 6 in.
Weight:
Empty: 6,345 lb.
Gross: 10,400 lb.
Power Plant:
One 1,000 horsepower Wright R-1820-52 engine
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 250 M.P.H.
Maximum Range with Bomb Load: 1,345 miles
Service Ceiling: 27,100 ft.
Crew:
Pilot and gunner/radio operator
Armament:
Two fixed forward-firing .50-in. guns, two flexible-mounted rear-firing .30-in.
guns, 1,200 lb. of ordnance

USS Yorktown (CV-5)
Named after a town in Virginia, where the climactic battle of the American Revolution was
fought in the autumn of 1781. Two previous US warships had borne this name. USS
Yorktown, a 19,800 ton aircraft carrier built at Newport News, Virginia, was
commissioned on 30 September 1937. Operating in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas
until April 1939, she then spent the next two years in the Pacific. In May 1941 Yorktown
returned to the Atlantic, patrolling actively during the troubled months preceding the
outbreak of war between the United States and the Axis powers.

Once again returning to the Pacific, she saw action in the Marshalls-Gilbert Islands,
“Battle of the Coral Sea” where Yorktown first became badly damaged May 8 1942.
Heroic efforts by dry dock personnel at Pearl Harbor repaired Yorktown in time for the
Battle of Midway. During the “Battle of Midway” she was badly mauled at 1200 and 1445
on June 4 1942 by torpedoes and bombs. She was abandoned and taken in tow on the
June 5th in an effort to once again return “The Fighting Lady” to Pearl for repairs. But
this wasn’t to be, she was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-168 on the 6th and
sunk by slow flooding just after sunrise on the June 7 1942.