[ENGINE RUMBLING]
NARRATOR: In 1942,
the Dauntless dive
bomber is a newcomer
to the Navy,
largely untested in battle.
Its big moment is
coming soon enough.
HILL GOODSPEED: This SPD-2
Dauntless is special.
It is the only known
surviving aircraft
from the Battle
of Midway, and it
has battle scars to prove it.
Each one of these
metal patches here
covers the nearly
200 bullet holes
that were put in
this airplane when
it attacked Japanese carriers
on the morning of June 4, 1942.
NARRATOR: Rear gunners
face backwards,
handling .30-caliber machine
guns to fend off enemy attacks.
In front, pilots control
a plane not known
for speed, but for precision.
It's 1,000-pound bombs
aren't just dropped--
they're aimed.
It's called dive bombing.
 The tactic of dive bombing
was very important in Naval
aviation during
World War II, and
the SPD Dauntless
dive bomber was
the prime instrument of that.
And the theory was, with a ship
maneuvering on the surface,
you really couldn't drop a
bomb from a high altitude.
NARRATOR: From 20,000
feet, a carrier
is a speck on the ocean.
Hitting it with a free-falling
bomb is next to impossible.
But in a dive, pilots can
adjust their aim on the fly
and release their bombs at
1,500 feet for a better shot.
It's a tactic that takes icy
nerves and an iron stomach.
 Dive bombing was a
death-defying ride of terror.
It's basically like
a game of chicken
that a pilot is playing
with the ocean itself.
You start at about
20,000 feet, which is
about 4 miles above the ocean.
[ENGINE RUMBLING]
A huge ship is going to
appear about the size
of a ladybug on the tip
of a shoe, so it's tiny.
NARRATOR: They practice
over land targets,
plunging into a 70-degree dive.
DR. TIMOTHY ORR:
It is a jarring,
noisy, chaotic descent.
LAURA LAWFER ORR: They're
diving at 275 miles an hour
toward their target, keeping
an eye on their bomb scope.
They're watching
their altimeter.
DR. TIMOTHY ORR: And
then at the last minute,
you grip the bomb release
lever on the left side
of the cockpit, jerk it back.
You pull back on the stick.
And if you're not
careful, you can
black out, because all the blood
will be sucked from your head.
You get tunnel vision.
NARRATOR: Compared to
Dusty's dive-bombing,
Tom Eversole's torpedo-bombing
practice is low and slow.
DR. TIMOTHY ORR:
During torpedo drops,
it had to fly very low to
the water, and very slow,
just above stalling speed.
And therefore, made
it an easy target
for enemy fighter planes.
NARRATOR: So torpedo
bombers typically
go in with fighter cover,
even smoke screens,
because just one torpedo
could sink a ship.
