Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless

Introduced in 1940, the Douglas Dauntless was developed as a scout bomber, hence its SBD designation (Scout Bomber – Douglas). Flown by squadrons of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps pilots, from land bases as well as aircraft carriers, the Dauntless was the principal American dive bomber through much of the war, being replaced by the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver only in mid-1944.

During the Battle of Midway in early June 1942, SBDs delivered fatal blows to all four Japanese fleet carriers present. Dauntless crews hit and disabled Akagi, Kaga and Sōryū between 10:00 and 10:26am on June 4, 1942, catching Hiryū later that same day. By the following morning, all four Imperial Japanese Navy carriers were at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

The Museum’s SBD-5 served in the U.S. Navy as Bureau Number (BuNo) 36175. She was accepted for service on October 4, 1943 and used to train pilots receiving their carrier qualifications on the Great Lakes. On January 20, 1944, the aircraft met with the mishap which saw it preserved for half a century on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Lieutenant Charles L. Ford III was attempting to reboard the training carrier USS Wolverine. His landing approach was too slow, so Wolverine’s Landing Signals Officer (LSO)  issued “come on” demands from the deck using his paddles. The LSO quickly followed these orders with a “wave-off” command, whereupon Ford banked away from the carrier with too little power, and stalled into the water. The pilot was lucky to survive the crash with just a few deep cuts to his forehead.

In close coordination with the U.S. Navy, a private firm known as A&T Recovery salvaged the Dauntless from Lake Michigan in 1994. This was part of a large, multi-decade operation to retrieve rare and important naval aircraft from the lake and other bodies of water, with over 40 airframes retrieved so far. The Navy lost more than 140 aircraft in Lake Michigan, salvaging only six of them during wartime. A&T Recovery team members located BuNo 36175 at a depth of 177 feet, sitting upright on the lake bed with its engine some 80 feet away.

USS Wolverine: Shortly before the United States entered World War II, the U.S. Navy acquired two unusual vessels, the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company’s Seeandbee (the future USS Wolverine) and Greater Buffalo (which became USS Sable). Both ships were side-wheel paddle steamers, opulently appointed as excursion vessels – the luxury cruise ships of their day. The Navy modified them heavily for an entirely different purpose, however. They planned to establish an inland school for pilot carrier qualification training, thus removing the serious threat of enemy interference if they had performed this mission on either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. 

With startling speed, the two ships underwent conversion into aircraft carriers at a shipyard in Buffalo, New York. They retained their coal-powered, side-wheel propulsion system, but lost their luxuriant furnishings and superstructure. Fitted with 550 foot long flight decks, considerably shorter than those of the U.S. Navy’s primary, ocean-going carriers, Sable and Wolverine were still considered suitable for training purposes as no other carrier in the fleet was more difficult to land aboard. While limited training with fleet-sized carriers occurred in the Chesapeake Bay, a majority of Naval Aviators who achieved their carrier qualifications during WWII did so on the Great Lakes. Numerous Allied navy pilots also gained their carrier qualifications aboard Sable and Wolverine.

The aircraft is currently under active restoration in New Zealand, so please do click HERE to read our regular progress reports on the rebuild of this extraordinary aircraft!