Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "USS Des Moines - Guide 251" video.

If you compare the two TBD Devastator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_TBD_Devastator TBF Avenger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_TBF_Avenger The Avenger is a much more capable aircraft being much faster and carrying about twice the bomb load. Here - while American Torpedoes were still defective for much of the war - in doing Shore Bombardment - the Avengers would make a real difference. I doubt though that the replacement of the TBD's with TBF's would have made any difference in the way they carriers that used them would have been thought of. Before and after - they would simply use whatever they had to accomplish their missions. The thing with the TBD's was that they had not been bad aircraft when they were first deployed - but - aircraft technology was moving ahead by leaps and bounds so that there were a lot of other aircraft in the same boat as the TBDs when the war started. .
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