SBD Production

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

I maintain that AE is almost unique in gaming history in pissing off both sets of fanbois. It's really quite the feat we accomplished.

If both sides are mad at you, you've probably hit the happy medium. Disgruntled medium?

Bill

[spence]

The production of the SBD-4 occurred during 7 months from October 42 until April 1943. 780 were produced. That's an average of 111 per month. That's a major change in rate of production from the 21 given in the game.

With the "recycling" of airframes that occurred with the USN, USMC, apparently USAAF, and New Zealanders it becomes difficult to just count airframes since the same airframe could show up in up to 3 of the categories previously mentioned. The overall number of SBD-3s (reinforcements & replacement a/c) in the game in units which show up before the advent of the SBD-5 is about 900 (included USN units but not USMC that show up on CVs within a month or two after May 43). That's nearly 500 shy of the combined production runs of the SBD-3 and SBD-4. The overwhelming majority of the SBD-3/4s were sent to the Pacific Theater: less than 100 to the Atlantic Fleet. There is a shortage of this a/c in the game.

[RyanCrierie]

ORIGINAL: spence

However it seems to be the Allied Player who has to worry about having no replacements for his aircraft in this game because he's stuck with whatever the game gives him: 21 SBD-3s per month from start until April 1943.

Official Munitions Production of the United States: By Months, July 1 1940 – August 31, 1945; 1 May 1947 – pages 41 to 42:

Which I OCRed over at:

http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Stats ... ly_Det.htm

has a detailed listing of monthly acceptances by the USN of SBD Dauntlesses.

Production began of the SBD Dauntless in June 1940 with one plane accepted that month [page 63 hidden stat showing Jan-June 1940 aircraft production]

Numbers were:

SBD/A-24/A-24A
Douglas
El Segundo, CA (DE)

Jul-40 1
Aug-40 5
Sep-40 15
Oct-40 13
Nov-40 21
Dec-40 7
Jan-41 24
Feb-41 22
Mar-41 26
Apr-41 23
May-41 29
Jun-41 35
Jul-41 42
Aug-41 39
Sep-41 12
Oct-41 44
Nov-41 17
Dec-41 19
Jan-42 1
Feb-42 0
Mar-42 22
Apr-42 54
May-42 60
Jun-42 64
Jul-42 74
Aug-42 104
Sep-42 107
Oct-42 147
Nov-42 152
Dec-42 179
Jan-43 89
Feb-43 202
Mar-43 214
Apr-43 154
May-43 376
Jun-43 350
Jul-43 270
Aug-43 266
Sep-43 282
Oct-43 260
Nov-43 282
Dec-43 238
Jan-44 208
Feb-44 201
Mar-44 150
Apr-44 146
May-44 108
Jun-44 93
Jul-44 57
Aug-44 16

A-24B
Douglas
Tulsa, Oklahoma (DT)

Mar-43 1
Apr-43 8
May-43 19
Jun-43 35
Jul-43 65
Aug-43 75
Sep-43 103
Oct-43 81
Nov-43 114
Dec-43 114

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse

ORIGINAL: spence

I CAN DO A MOD THAT VAPORIZES ALL OF JAPAN ON TURN 2 WITH DEATH RAYS FIRED BY B-17DS FLYING WITHIN 10 HEXES OF THE HOME ISLANDS.

I would like to play that mod.

As the Allied player. [;)]

I'll play it as Japan. Now i don't have to worry about managing production and can focus on invading Australia on Turn one instead. What happens after Turn one doesn't matter.

[JSG]

Keep in mind some units back in CONUS (and not represented in the game) did all the type qualification and flight deck operations (landing mostly) training.
Such squadrons inevitably require a substantial portion of the aircraft.

I suppose there was also some use for SBDs in Atlantic Ocean locations.

Some more may be lost to ferrying or be used for development and testing projects.

[wdolson]

Almost universally the CONUS training squadrons were equipped with older models aircraft pulled from combat. The land based Atlantic squadrons also equipped with surplus aircraft from the Pacific squadrons. They flew Kingfishers until there were enough spare SBDs to upgrade the squadrons.

The only new -4s which served in the Atlantic were used in Operation Torch. All were soon transferred to the Pacific. Soon after Torch SBDs were removed from all carriers in the Atlantic and Atlantic CAGs only had Wildcats and TBFs. Some CVEs had Hellcats by 1944, but SBDs without folding wings were not well suited to the Ranger or CVEs.

Bill

[spence]

Keep in mind some units back in CONUS (and not represented in the game) did all the type qualification and flight deck operations (landing mostly) training.
Such squadrons inevitably require a substantial portion of the aircraft.

I suppose there was also some use for SBDs in Atlantic Ocean locations.

Some more may be lost to ferrying or be used for development and testing projects.

The location of Naval Aircraft of all types was the subject of an official report about every 10 days (if not more) throughout WWII.

http://www.history.navy.mil/a-record/ww ... loc-ac.htm