Were the rockets carried by the US Navy SBD - or the USAAF's equivalent, the A-24?
And there WAS a famous US Navy SBD crew which was credited with seven victories over Japanese aircraft whilst flying from USS
Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea: Ensign J.A. Leppla and his gunner, J. Liska, of Scouting Two. Leppla was credited with two Zekes and a recce aircraft during and after the attack on the Japanese carrier
Shoho on 7th May 1942, and Liska with a Zeke. The following day,
Lexington launched her F4Fs and SBDs to fly CAP and three torpedo bombers were claimed by the pair, who eventually had to recover aboard USS
Yorktown after 'Lady Lex' was hit.
Personally, I've always thought their claims were made in good faith during the heat of the moment, and it was very unlikely that they actually managed to down all of them - rather like the overclaiming by 8th USAAF gunners over Germany - but they were brave men all the same, to do battle against Zekes in a 'Slow But Deadly'.
