The Most Underrated US Combat Plane Of WW2

[OldGuy59]

This was a surprise to me, but I'm not a really big Aviation Historian. Nor do I follow a lot of, if any, Pacific Theatre combat history where this specific plane made significant, if uncelebrated, combat contributions.

It was present at Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, the Aleutians, Guadalcanal, and a lot of other major battles and operations. It has a number of US Military firsts: It was the first plane to attack the Japanese; It flew in the first offensive raid against the Japanese (well before the famous Dolittle Raid); It was the first US plane to score an air-to-air kill against a Japanese fighter; and, One of a few planes to score bombing hits on Japanese ships, and the only plane to score a torpedo hit during the Battle of Midway.

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles Channel: The Most Underrated US Combat Plane Of WW2

The intro and the overview in the first 3 minutes is illuminating, and the combat performance is in the last sixteen minutes (40:53+). The rest of the video lightly covers the plane type's history, and a lot about the Flight Engineering role and operation of this plane. It was interesting from a Crew Management Card developer's point of view, but not really useful for game combat mechanics.

However, there is a lot of ideas for employment and scenario development that could be done using this plane that I never even considered, as I think most of us are not aware of just how much this plane actually did as a weapons delivery platform.

Be amazed!

[abovetheclouds]

Thanks Mike for sharing this link. I was excited when I received my first 144th scale model of this plane in a batch of Pacific Theater planes from Clipper a little while back. Thanks Clipper for widening my PTO scenario options! I enjoyed this video quite a bit. I've already located and printed out the cards I could locate on the Aerodrome site. Mike, I'd be interested in any additional cards that you may feel inclined to create for this plane.