Hmmm .... that's fairly interesting.
First time I've ever heard anything good said about the SB2C.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SB2CAn author who flew both:
Dr. Harold L. Buell's "Dauntless Helldivers"
www.amazon.com/Dauntless-Helldivers-Harold-L-Buell/dp/0440212391/ref=sr_1_1/103-0138531-7219023?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187430812&sr=8-1And the best analysis of American & Japanese early war aircraft I have ever read:
Eric M. Bergerud's "Fire In The Sky"
www.amazon.com/Fire-Sky-Air-South-Pacific/dp/0813338697/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0138531-7219023?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187430961&sr=1-1By and large ... neither SB2C's nor SBD's were supposed to be fighting A6M's ... Of course by the time the SB2C showed up ... there were a lot less of them and they were flown by inferior pilots (mostly) as (mostly) all the good ones were dead.
Japanese fighter design was actually atrocious. Their engineer's had two problems. First the aircraft power plants they had to work with were weak - so if they built a conventional aircraft it would be underpowered. Second, the Japanese flight crews had cut their teeth on the Chinese Air Force - which flew a lot of bi-planes - and the pilots wanted aircraft that were highly maneuverable.
The end result were aircraft that sacrificed everything in the name of that maneuverability.
The air frames were so light they were structurally fragile.
The aircraft had very poor armament.
And worst of all - they had no self sealing fuel tanks.
Thus, Japan, which had some of the best trained air crews in the world - partly due to their combat experience in China and partly due to an excessively stringent flight training program - sent their people out to die in fire traps - and die they did.
Combined with the fact that they weren't producing a lot of air crew - with the fact that they left the ones they sent out to combat there until they died - and thus couldn't pass on their experience - by 1944 their aircraft were really only good for Kamikaze attacks. If you look at the results of the conventional attacks by Japanese aircraft later in the war - they all died anyway - so they may as well have been used as Kamikaze's ...
Early in the war - the A6M's got an unjustifiably good reputation because:
1) They outnumbered their enemies
2) They were flown by the most experienced pilots in the world.
3) People didn't know how to fight against them (except in the AVG under Chennault).
The meat grinder that is aerial warfare took care of #1 & #2 - while Chennault published his tactics (which were also figured out by other air crews in combat with the Japanese) - and they had no response. So they died.
Later in the war the Japanese did develop some fine aircraft - but by then it was way, way to late to matter as our submarines were sinking all their aviation fuel - and they couldn't train anybody to a useful standard.
*shrug*
Bergerud makes the point that it was the First Generation American aircraft - P-40's, F4F's and P-39's - that beat the Japanese in 1942 & 1943. By the time the Second Generation P-38's, P-47's, F6F's and F4U's came along - they were being used against a beaten enemy (which meant they really slaughtered them). Thus, "The Great Marianna's Turkey Shoot".
