This series is dedicated to the gallant service performed by the brave airmen of World War 2 who risked all so that we may enjoy our American way of life. The phrase “Big Brother, Little Brother” refers to the way the heavy bomber and fighter escort aircraft pilots called each other on the radio chatter.
On a personal note, my father “John” served as a flight engineer on a B-25 Mitchell out of Italy in 1944 and 1945. He made it back alive, as did my father-in-law “Danny” who served as a belly gunner on a B-24 Liberator out of Libya. “Danny” was one of the few airmen who flew in both Ploesti oil field raids to Romania (June 1942 and August 1943) and did so without so much as a scratch. He flew his 25 missions and returned to the US as a gunnery instructor (Lead, Dammit, Lead!).
Finding all the caches will display a GeoArt form of the Big Brother, Little Brother relationship on your map. The caches were not meant to be difficult to find. If you can’t find a cache, it’s probably missing. Send me a picture of the location by email, I’ll accept the find and replace the cache.
TBD Devastator
The Douglas TBD Devastator was a torpedo bomber of the United States Navy, ordered in 1934, first flying in 1935 and entering service in 1937. At that point, it was the most advanced aircraft flying for the USN and possibly for any navy in the world. However, the fast pace of aircraft development caught up with it, and by the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the TBD was already outdated. It performed well in some early battles, but in the Battle of Midway the Devastators launched against the Japanese fleet were almost totally wiped out. The type was immediately withdrawn from front line service, replaced by the Grumman TBF Avenger.
At Midway, a total of 41 Devastators, a majority of the type still operational, were launched from Hornet, Enterprise and Yorktown to attack the Japanese fleet. The sorties were not well coordinated, in part because Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance ordered a strike on the enemy carriers immediately after they were discovered, rather than spending time assembling a well-coordinated attack involving the different types of aircraft - fighters, bombers, torpedo planes - reasoning that attacking the Japanese would prevent a counterstrike against the US carriers. The TBDs from Hornet and Enterprise lost contact with their fighter escort and started their attacks without fighter protection.
The Devastator proved to be a death trap for its crews: slow and scarcely maneuverable, with light defensive weaponry and poor armor relative to the weapons of the time; its speed on a glide-bombing approach was a mere 200 mph , making it easy prey for fighters and defensive guns alike. The aerial torpedo could not even be released at speeds above 115 mph. Torpedo delivery requires a long, straight-line attack run, making the aircraft vulnerable, and the slow speed of the aircraft made them easy targets for the Mitsubishi A6M Zeros. Only four TBDs made it back to Enterprise, none to Hornet and two to Yorktown, without scoring a torpedo hit.
Nonetheless, their sacrifice was not completely in vain, as several TBDs managed to get within a few ship-lengths range of their targets before dropping their torpedoes, being close enough to be able to strafe the enemy ships and force the Japanese carriers to make sharp evasive maneuvers. Furthermore, the actions of the Devastator aircrews that day drew the Japanese air cover out of position. This window of opportunity was exploited by the late-arriving Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers led by Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky and Max Leslie, and three of the four Japanese carriers were fatally damaged shortly afterwards.
Douglas TBD-1 Devastator Technicals
General characteristics-
Crew: Three: Pilot, Torpedo Officer/Navigator, Radioman/Gunner
Length: 35 ft 0 in
Wingspan: 50 ft 0 in
Height: 15 ft 1 in
Wing area: 422 ft²
Empty weight: 5,600 lb
Loaded weight: 9,289 lb
Max. takeoff weight: 10,194 lb
Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830-64 Twin Wasp radial engine, 900 hp
Performance-
Maximum speed: 206 mph at 8,000 ft
Cruise speed: 128 mph
Range: 435 mi with Mk XIII Torpedo, 716 mi with 1,000 lb bombs
Service ceiling: 19,500 ft
Rate of climb: 720 ft/min
Armament-
Guns:
1 × forward-firing 0.30 in or 0.50 machine gun
1 × 0.30 in machine gun in rear cockpit (later increased to two)
Bombs:
1 × Mark XIII torpedo or
1 × 1,000 lb bomb or
2 × 500 lb bombs or
12 × 100 lb bombs
Survivors
Wrecks-
TBD-1, BuNo.0298 Ex-VT-5 / USS Yorktown (CV-5) "5-T-7", Jaluit Lagoon, Marshall Islands.
TBD-1 BuNo.0353 Ex-NAS Miami, Atlantic Ocean, Miami, FL
TBD-1 BuNo.1515 Ex VT-5 / USS Yorktown (CV-5) "5-T-6", Jaluit Lagoon, Marshall Islands
TBD-1 BuNo.0377 Ex-VT-2 / USS Lexington (CV-2) "6-T-7", Pacific Ocean, Mission Beach, CA.