Peter C. Smith - The History of Dive Bombing: A Comprehensive History from 1911 Onward

By the same author:

NAVAL

Action Imminent

Arctic Victory

Battle of Midway

Battles of the Malta Striking Forces

Battleship Royal Sovereign

British Battle Cruisers

Cruisers in Action

Destroyer Action

Destroyer Leader

Eagle s War

Fighting Flotilla

Hard Lying

Heritage of the Sea

Hit First, Hit Hard

H.M.S. Wild Swan

Hold the Narrow Sea

Into the Minefields

Midway; Dauntless Victory

Pedestal; the convoy that saved Malta

Royal Navy Ships Badges

Task Force 57

The Great Ships Pass

War in the Aegean

AVIATION

Close Air Support

Fairchild-Republic A10A Thunderbolt

North American T-6, SNJ, Harvard & Wirraway

Lockheed C-130 Hercules

Ship Strike

RAF Squadron Badges

T-6; the Harvard, Texan and Wirraway

The Sea Eagles

The Story of the Torpedo-bomber

MILITARY

Massacre at Tobruk

The Royal Marines: A Pictorial History

Per Mare, Per Terram

Victorias Victories

DIVE-BOMBERS

Aichi D3A1/2 Val

Curtiss SB2C Helldiver

Dive-bomber!

Dive-bombers in Action

Douglas SBD Dauntless

Douglas AD Skyraider

Fist from the Sky

Into the Assault

Jungle Dive-bombers at War

Junkers Ju 87 Stuka

Luftwaffe ColoursStukas1

Luftwaffe ColoursStukas - 2

Petlyakov Pe-2 Peshka

Skua; The Royal Navys Dive-bomber

Straight Down!

Stuka at War

Stukas over the Mediterranean

Stukas over the Steppe

Stuka Spearhead

Stuka Squadron

Vengeance!

Published in Great Britain in 2007 by
PEN & SWORD AVIATION
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Peter C. Smith, 2007

9781783409082

First edition published as Impact! in 1981
by William Kimber & Co Limited, London

The right of Peter C. Smith to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

See all previous books by Peter C. Smith at www.dive-bombers.co.uk

Typeset by Concept, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Kings Lynn

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of
Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,
Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select,
Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
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For Pat, Paul and Dawn

This book, like everything elseis for you

T he story of the dive-bomber is a fascinating and complicated one in the overall history of military aviation. It is a subject that has intrigued me for many years, and when, almost five decades ago now, I first wrote a history of the famous Ju 87 Stuka, I was further drawn into research of its origins. To the best of my knowledge, no complete and detailed history of this type of aerial attack had ever been attempted in any depth, although some selected facts had received limited (and largely inaccurate) treatment in books and magazines. But to present the dive-bomber story as a complete and whole history proved to have been an insurmountable challenge, not for myself in presenting it, but for any publisher in choosing to present it in its entirety in the succeeding decades. When I conducted my research and study into this field I discovered that the story was far more complex and diverse than I had ever imagined. Moreover, minds were closed on the subject to a remarkable degree, and myth and legend were, and still are, reproduced in print and on film with scant regard to facts, despite my best efforts. My original completed manuscript in 1978 came out at more than half a million words and I have delved far more deeply since that time. I have had to accept that it is only in digestible chunks that this story will ever be presented. This book incorporates just some of the research material accumulated, but is valuable in that it contains many fascinating first-hand accounts from the men who had actually carried out such missions, rather than theorists proclaiming something of which they knew little by way of facts. These memories alone are worth recording for posterity, and they, in themselves, reflected the complete developments of dive-bombing and the dive-bomber.

The result is this book, in which the dive-bomber pilots themselves speak of their experiences and provide the background into many previously unrecorded and little-known incidents and are supplied from hitherto unculled documents and combat reports. This new edition has enabled me to add some fresh material and correct some of the errors that crept into the original typesetting. This then, is dive-bombing in peace and warfrom the sharp end!

I would wish to thank and acknowledge the debt of gratitude due to the dive-bomber pilots themselves, who so patiently answered all my many, many questions all those years ago, and who allowed me to quote them in this book. All opinions expressed otherwise are my own interpretations, and the blame for any mistakes is purely mine, not theirs. Most have now passed on, but their legacy in partly contained in these pages. In alphabetical order these gentlemen were: Colonel F.D.G. Bird OBE, Royal Marines; Captain E.M. Brown, Royal Navy; Major V.B.G. Cheesman DSO, CBE, DSC, Royal Marines; Donald B. Cooney, US Navy; Generale B.A. Antonio Cumbat; Ing. Hans Drescher; Wing Commander Arthur Murland Gill, RAF (Rtd); Captain Halliday DSC, Royal Navy; Captain T.W. Harrington DCS, Royal Navy; Major L.A. Harris OBE, DSC, Royal Marines; Rear Admiral Paul A. Holmberg, USN; Lieutenant-Commander Mike Horndern, Royal Navy; Captain G.B.K. Griffiths, Royal Marines; George M. Lane, US Navy; Oberst a. D. Friedrich Lang; Generalleutnant a. D. Helmut Mahlke; Major Alan Marsh, Royal Marines; Lieutenant-Commander H.A. Monks DSC, Royal Navy; Major R.T. Partridge DSO, Royal Marines; Charles R. Shuford, US Navy; and Mr Dennis Young, RAF (Rtd).

Warmest thanks and best wishes are due to my friends who helped with information and photographs concerning their own nations developments with translationsAlberto Borgiotti; Brian Gordon; Pierre Hervieux; Captain Claude Huan; Mrs Helga Hinsby; Nicola Malizia; Hans Obert; Giorgio Pini; Corrado Ricci; Hanfried Schliephake; Franz Selinger and Commander Sadao Seno. JMSDF (Rtd).