I won't fly with that sonofabitch. He'll kill us all.

On Jun 2, 2:15 pm, tomcervo wrote:
On May 30, 1:26?pm, wrote:

Devastators after Midway?

Alvin Kernan's "Other Battle of Midway" details the problem. The plane
was obsolete but flyable; it was the torpedoes that were the problem.
He's pretty certain that no USN aerial torpedo dropped by a TBD ever
exploded against an opponent. The "experts" who built them wouldn't
test them--if they had, they'd have known the standard drop procedure
caused them to explode on contact with the water or run screwy. The
sacrifice of life was bad enough without the knowledge-and many of
them took off with a strong inkling-that their weapon was useless.

Didn't Devastators do OK at the Battle of the Coral Sea?