Tbm

[Pooh21]

Originally posted by Simaril
Did they give it back after the war?

no they traded him a nifty little metal sculpture for it, and he lost the reciept so he couldnt exchange it for another eye.

[parin]

Pretty sure it was TBMs. He came up underneath thinking he was going to get some easy kills. Guess the gunner let him get nice and close before he fired.  


Could be wrong dont have his book handy at the moment.

[nirvana]

Originally posted by Lazerr


Hell, I say perk the TBM!

I concur.

[Saxman]

Yeah, it was TBFs at the beginning of the Guadalcanal campaign (this was before GM started building them so TECHNICALLY not TBMs) so the Japanese probably didn't know much about them yet. That tunnel gun must've come as a bit of a rude surprise to Japanese pilots used to carving up Devestators.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by Flackie
One quick question... what is the point of the TBM:huh it carrys less then the F4U and it is ment to be a bomber... it cant defend itself... its slow... and to top it off easy to kill:confused:

I use the TBM in the TA for teaching basic ACM. I use it because nothing gets someone's attention faster than seeing a big torpedo bomber turn inside their Spit XVI. Ghosth has seen me use the TBM for this many times. It's an effective tool for teaching people never to underestimate the enemy just because the enemy is flying a big, slow attack bird.

If you do not believe that the TBM can't defend itself, stop by the TA on Weds or Thurs night. I'll up a TBM, you send a join message and we'll pick a fight with another trainer or one of the MA regulars in the room. You will find that if the TBM is very able until you burn off all your E. The keys are E management and not missing when you create opportunities to shoot. In most instances, the TBM pilot will get one or two chances to get guns on the enemy before he burns off too much speed. Another thing is the surprise factor. If they don't recognize the threat, they will be in for a genuine shock. When flying the TBM, SBD and D3a one must be extremely aggressive. Besides, it's a heck-of-a-lot of fun.

My regards,

Widewing

[parin]

...it was TBFs at the beginning of the Guadalcanal campaign (this was before GM started building them so TECHNICALLY not TBMs)...

[/B]

Thank Saxman learned something new.

[Easyscor]

You should have flown with a TBM group in Coral Sea last summer.  What a hoot!

After the torpedo run we rejoined 6-8 TBMs and head home, always picking up a couple of zekes looking for easy kills.  Boy did they get a surprise when we'd turn and shoot them down. It was always a race to see if we could kill them before some F4U jock would cherry pick em.

[DoKGonZo]

As I recall the story, they were purely amazed that the F4U could get off the ground with 2000 lbs of bombs at the time. It wasn't something done as routinely as we do in the MA. And no way in hell you'd dogfight with that much ord slung IRL like we do either.

[bagrat]

one time i was flyin the TBM to enemy vehicle base and i had already dropped my 2000 pounder on a tiger:aok  ........anyway a spit 16 shows up in hopes of killin me so i tried flyin it the best i can of course spit still out turned me, but i pulled vertical  set it to auto angle jumped into  ventral gun, and while spit tryed to line up its shot i unloaded into its nose with .303's  BOOM! spit dead.
CRAZY thing is i was only shootin at spit for maybe 3 secs.

[Iceman24]

I wish they would allow us to cary the 2,000lb bombs on the P38's.... I believe it was 2x2000lbers it could carry, they may have been bigger... This is the only plane I know of that will NOT let you carry the max ord.

[Lazerr]

I don't really care to see a 38 with enough ord to kill two FH...

Then you would see twice the dweebs diving into a fully acked base, and assuming they don't compress, get that purdy bird all shot up.

[Iceman24]

yeah but it would  be fun for us that know how to use it Lazerr

[SirLoin]

Wasn't it TBM's that sunk 3 CV's in battle for Midway?

[Iceman24]

TBM has dive flaps doesn't it ?

[Saxman]

There were six TBFs at Midway (again, the original Grumman-built birds) stationed at Midway with one of the Marine torpedo squadrons. Five of the six were lost.

The primary torpedo plane in the American forces was the TBD Devastator, which were more or less massacred by the Japanese.

The "Hero" of the battle was the SBD Dauntless dive bomber, which claimed all four Japanese carriers (well, subs finished them off, I think, but the Dauntlesses did the damage).