What did Torpedo Bombers and Dive Bombers do after they dropped their load ?

Question

Ive been wondering.During WW2,what did Torpedo Bombers and Dive Bombers like the Japanese "Kate" Bomber and the SBD Dauntless do after they dropped their load.Did they stay in the fight or did they return to base ?If they returned to base,I find it a little unbelievable that the Japanese bombers flew 30 to 60 minutes to Pearl Harbor,dropped their loads which took like a minute, and returned to the carriers.

Answer 1

After expending their armament they did as follows:-

1) If they were launched from a carrier, they returned back and recovered on the carrier.

2) If they were land based, they promptly went back home.

The time to target and returning back is very long, but if your mission has been properly planned, your time over target is no more than a minute or so. This holds true, especially in missions where targets are pre-planned and you do not have to hunt around for your targets.

Answer 2

It's called "getting the h**l out".  Mission complete and time to return, refuel and rearm.

That's also a very typical mission profile. I'm not going to hang around and expend ordnance on targets of opportunity, with the possibility of AAA and enemy aircraft around.   Some 45 years later, my Times On Target (TOT) were seconds with a long drone time to/from the target area.

Keep in mind, you're kind of looking at this with the benefit of hindsight. The Japanese fully expected to fight their way into Pearl Harbor.  One doesn't change a mission profile on the fly; at least not for the first wave.

Answer 3

depending on the air situation they either stayed in the combat and straffed the least defended targets, or more likely they headed for home and readied for self defense while running for life before the adversary fighters would manage to take off.

Under some circunmstances ,the dive bombers would have posed significant threat to the unprotected ground targets, such as trains, which were usually attacked using the bombs and then straffed by machine guns.

on some occasions they also returned to their base/carrier to reload and return to finish the target.

as for the Pearl Harbor - the base was factually undefended and peace-time alert readiness, which granted the Japanese planes with excelent targe practise opportunities.

Answer 4

--Promptly returned to rearm.  Torpedo bombers and dive bombers are easy prey for fighters.

Answer 5

Hopefully got out of the way of the other sides fighters.....Seriously both the SBD and Japanese Val were highly maneuverable and could and did fight enemy fighters. Torpedo bombers on the other hand provided the other side with some excellent gunnery practice.......SBD's and Vals were both used as scouts. Sort of fighters with longer range. Without their bomb load they could and did fight early war fighters. They were at the disadvantage but not that bad. The big flap systems for a long, steep, controled dive made them highly maneuverable in a dogfight and while both were underarmed compared to fighters they had a gunner and sting in the tail. Torpedo bombers were different, designed for long, stable, straight in flight paths to attack. I don't know of any that could dogfight a fighter. But the American TBF Avenger was certainly the best able to defend itself from its size and power turret.

Answer 6

They stick around and strafe targets with their machine guns until all the bombers have dropped their loads.

Answer 7

Without their bomb load adding to the weight, the bombers *were* faster and more maneuverable. But it would be folly to hang around for too long, since they weren't designed to act as fighter planes. Under normal circumstances, they usually did their job and then cleared the battle area... in other words, ran for home.

At Pearl Harbor, though, the US was caught by surprise and the Japanese had almost complete air superiority. (Several US planes did get off the ground but did not last long.) In that instance, it probably would be acceptable to linger over the target and strafe.