In 1937, Douglas Aircraft Company purchased Northrop Aviation’s El Segundo, California, factory and took over the BT program. ![]() Navy was transitioning from biplanes to all metal, low-wing monoplanes with retractable landing gear, and the BT series was on the cutting edge of that transition. The Douglas SBD Dauntless was developed as an evolution of Northrop Aviation Corporation’s BT-1 and BT-2 dive bombers, which entered service in 1936. In the brief encounter, the tailgunners expended over 1,000 rounds of ammunition and seriously injured one of the best Japanese fighter pilots of the war. One tracer round missed his right eye by less than an inch and melted the rim of his goggles. Fragments from the bullets struck him in the chest, the left leg, the elbow, and the face. That was the last I saw of him.”Īs the eight tailgunners followed the Zero with their machine guns, slugs shattered the canopy glass and hit Sakai. The plane went almost vertically upwards and then fell smoking. I could see his face clearly, his body and head forced back against the headrest of the cockpit. ![]() What Jones saw next was a testament to the firepower that was available to the tailgunners: “His cockpit exploded, the canopy tore, and something flew out. Jones opened fire with Sakai only 100 feet directly astern of his aircraft. In the rear seat of one of the other bombers, Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Harold L. Sakai attempted to turn sharply to the right, pull up, and use the Zero’s horsepower to climb away from the Americans, but he was too close. “He came in fast! I fired at him, but I just don’t know if I hit him or not,” Patterson remembered. Rodenburg, Aviation Radioman 3rd Class James W. In the back seat of the aircraft piloted by Ensign Eldor E. Navy dive bombers were protected from rear attack by a tailgunner’s position. Japanese “Zero” pilot Saburo Sakai, shot down by eight Dauntless tailgunners. ![]() These aircraft were from the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) and were circling above Tulagi, awaiting orders to drop their bombs on Japanese targets on the island below. Sakai realized that he was attempting to pounce on a group of dive bombers. By this time it was too late to break off the attack. But at a range of just 100 yards Sakai gazed at his targets through his gun sight and reached a sober realization: These were not fighters he was approaching. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters, Sakai nosed his Zero over to begin an attack with his wingman obediently following.Ĭlosing in on the American aircraft from behind at full throttle, he sensed that the element of surprise was his. military’s arsenal: the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber.Īs Sakai and his wingman approached the skies above Tulagi, he spotted a group of eight American aircraft beneath him at an altitude of 7,800 feet. Although Sakai would ultimately recover from the wounds he was about to receive, he wasn’t aware that he was about to be stung by one of the most lethal aircraft in the U.S. He had flown down with a group of other Zeros from the Japanese airfield at Rabaul, New Britain, that morning for the express purpose of attacking the ships supporting the first American opposed amphibious invasion of World War II, the Operation Watchtower landings at Gavutu, Tanambogo, Tulgi, and Guadalcanal. On August 7, 1942, Petty Officer 1st Class Saburo Sakai was piloting his Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” fighter in the skies over Sealark Channel in the Solomon Islands.
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