Grumman TBF / TBM Avenger
The torpedo bomber that replaced a generation of losses at Midway.
The Avenger replaced the outclassed TBD Devastator — of which every aircraft in Torpedo Squadron 8 at Midway was shot down. Large, tough, and carrying its torpedo internally in a weapons bay, the TBF became the standard US Navy torpedo bomber and a formidable anti-submarine platform.
01First combat was disastrous — six Avengers attacked the Japanese carrier fleet at Midway and five were lost — but the aircraft went on to play a central role in sinking the Japanese super-battleships Musashi (October 1944) and Yamato (April 1945), as well as many U-boats in the Atlantic.
02A young naval aviator named George H.W. Bush was shot down in a TBM over Chichi Jima in September 1944; he was rescued by a submarine and later became the 41st President of the United States.
03Late-war Avengers fitted with search radars operated in "hunter-killer" teams from escort carriers hunting U-boats in the Atlantic. The type continued in carrier service until the 1950s and as a firefighting tanker for decades after that.
Theatres of operation
- ·Pacific
- ·Atlantic
Principal operators
- ·US Navy
- ·US Marine Corps
- ·Royal Navy FAA
- ·RNZAF
Others in the same fight.
North American P-51 Mustang
P-51B / C / D / K
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47C / D / M / N
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
P-38F / G / H / J / L
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
P-40B / E / K / N