The experimental contract for the Helldiver was awarded by the US Navy on 15 May 1939 and the prototype XSB2C-1 first flew on 18 December 1940, although contemporary reports suggest the first flight was made in the previous month. From that date the Helldiver two-seat carrier-borne dive bomber was the subject of constant development. Armour, self-sealing tanks, protected fuel and oil lines, increased armament, a lengthened fuselage and a completely new tail unit with greatly enlarged fixed and moveable surfaces were incorporated in the production SB2C-1, the first of which flew in June 1942. From that date until November 1943 (when the Helldiver first went into action in the Pacific theatre of war) more than 880 design changes were made, some of which were part of the Army-Navy standardisation programme to permit the production of an Army version of the Helldiver as the A-25, which later served with the Marine Corps.
As noted above, the first production version was the SB2G-1 (A-25). This version, 978 of which were built by Curtiss, was powered by a 1,267kW Wright R-2600-8 engine driving a three-bladed Curtiss Electric constant-speed propeller. Armament consisted of four 12.7mm machine-guns in the wings and one on a hydraulic mounting in the rear cockpit. Following the experimental XSB2C-2 long-range reconnaissance-bomber seaplane version, delivered in 1943, 1,112 examples of the SB2C-3 were produced with 1,416kW R-2600-20 engines and Curtiss Electric four-bladed propellers. Armament changed to two 20mm cannon. The SB2C-4 and SB2C-5, more than 3,000 of which were built, were developments of the SB2C-3 with perforated wing flaps and under-wing bomb racks under the outer wings for eight 115mm rockets.
To supplement Curtiss production, Helldiver contracts were also placed with the Canadian Car and Foundry Company and Fairchild Aircraft, which were terminated in 1945. These were produced as SBW and SBF respectively.
My Dad worked at Curtiss in Columbus Oh from early in 1942 thru the end (for him '46).
He couldnt enlist because of a bad foot. So he stood on that foot for 10 and sometimes 12 hours a day, six and yes sometimes seven days a week building HellDivers for you guys in the South Pacific fleets.
THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR GIVING THE JAPS 'WHATFOR' OUT THERE!!
PS I was 10 on the day they signed the surrender on the deck of the 'Mo' in Toykyo Bay..
Did I say: THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR GIVING THE NIPS 'WHATFOR' OUT THERE! Bears repeating anyway. Thanks guys and Semper Fi!!!
The SB2C is a mean looking airplane. It seems like once they got the bugs worked out, it did fairly well.
Regarding the .30 cal tail guns, does anyone know if the expended cases and likes were collected in a bag under the guns, or did the cases and links just fall to the floor and get collected later (or get blown out in the slipstream)?
Maybe C.Reed Rollins can provide a definitive answer.
I wrote a book called: 'TWO AND A HALF MISSIONS,MAX'. It tell of flying the SB2C in the Atlantic. We blew two Germen tankers out of the water and we were on,(after) but not a part of the Guadalcanal CVE 60 when it captured the U505 German Submarine. The book tells of some of my adventures while I flew the SB2C. Thanks to that plane, I am now (2010) 84 years af age.
Accident rates were so high in this bomber that the crews sung a special little song about it: "My body lies under the ocean," "My body lies under the sea," "My body lies under the ocean," "Wrapped up in an SB2C!"
I flew about 30 Combat Missions in the "Beast" from the USS Yorktown and the USS Hancock.
My pilot, Lieutenant Woodson, and I dropped a bomb on a Jap carrier in the "Mission Beyond Darkness" raid that Lieutenant Standard talked about in his e-mail. One good thing I can say about the "Beast"is: Due to it's large wing span, it floated long enough on the water landing we had to make on returning from that Mission, for me to get into our Life Raft and paddle over to my pilot in his Mae West and pull him into the raft. The "Beast" didn't hold up well though when we blew a tire on landing and went into the Island Structure and sheared everything off the right side of the plane.
My father, Lt. (jg) David (Tex) Weaver, JR. flew "The Beast" from workups in Jan, 1943 through the end of the war. I have his ribbons, with four major battle stars and picture of his beast pushing over into an 89 degree practice dive.
Mt brother and I are trying to find out more about our Dad's operations during training and in the Pacific. As most veterans of that era, he never said much but we have some old pictures from both Cecil Field and Bouganville.
my squadron VB1 after training in SBD's were assigned SB2C's several months before boarding the USS Yorktown originally the rear gun was a single 50 caliber machine gun hydrawlic opperated then were changed back to the freewheeling twin 30's we had rumers the planes tail would rip off in a dive but this never happened in our squadron flying with my pilot Chuck Standard we had no problems with the aircraft. after returning from overseas I became an aircrew instructor at Cecil Field till the end of the war fly in the beast every day dive bombing, gunnery section tactics the only problem Chuck Standard had the plane could not do a slow roll flying straight up we always went in a spin
Many of you probably are aware that the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola has received an SB2C this past week. I am a volunteer who works on the cockpit restorations and we are now working on an F6F-3. Eventually we will begin on the SB2C and I have looked at the radio and radar equipment on this aircraft. Does anyone know what was normally installed? A T-47 /ART-13 liaison transmitter is installed in the front of the rear cockpit but it is difficult to identify the other units due to all of the mud and clams. Any information will be appreciated.
I flew an SB2C in the Pacific with Air Group 1 off the USS Yorktown and I had little trouble with the Beast. It wasn't as good in a dive as the SBD, but I believe I got a hit on a heavy Cruiser during the "Mission beyond Darkness" on June 20th 1944. My gunner, Bob Phillips, and I are still in touch.
My comments in the frame below about flying as an aircrewman /gunner in the rear cockpit of the plane, left out some important points. The gunner had to operate twin 30 caliber machine guns that could be moved by hand on a circular swivel. They were stored under the canopy behind the rear cockpit until ready for use. The section of the canopy would be collapsed allowing an area to move the guns from side to side. The gunner was able to shoot holes in the tail assembly if not careful. There were several times that happened to some of our gunners. Also, with the carrier's straight deck the first few planes to take off loaded with bombs risked loss of lift leaving the deck and could mush into the seas as the pilot lowered the right wing to clear the bow of the carrier. One of our pilots and crewman lost two planes due to loss of lift on takeoff. Few bombers were catapulted off the deck. That's all.
In 1944, I was an 18 year old aircrewman (radio /gunner) flying in the rear seat of the SB2C with two different bombing squadrons, VB87 (USS Randolph)and VB92 (USS Lexington) All of us referrred to the plane as "The Beast". VB 92 insignia had the name "Battling Beasts". I personally never experienced a problem aircraft but we lost a number of pilots and gunners in training accidents. It was a difficult plane for the pilots to handle for carrier landings. The crewman could not see the carrier in the final approach so we did a lot of praying until that hook caught the wire. The last plane I flew in was the one at the Naval Aviation Museum NAS Pensacola, off the Lex as we approached Tokyo Bay shortly after the end of the war. It is now back at the Smithsonian Air and Space facility at Dulles Airport. We managed to have both squadron reunions in Pensacola in 2001 while there were enough members still alive to enjoy the get together. We liked the SBD better than the SB2C Helldiver but the heavier payload was important. Our ranks are thining. Only one pilot among several with whom I flew are still alive as of Jan. 2010.
Canadian Car and Foundry (Cancar)built the Helldiver here in Fort William (Thunder Bay) Ontario, after having built Hawker Hurricanes for the RAF. Not only was the Helldiver a poor, badly designed aircraft, but Cancar's staff were driven crazy by the constant stream of requests for changes and modifications due to the US armed forces' standardization program referred to above. Apparently, the SB-2 was referred to as "Son of a Bitch, Second Class", by US aircrew.
I believe the most significant contribution of the Beast was the advancement of the multi-role combat aircraft. The use of Avengers as glide bombers and the shackles added to F6F5 fighters and Corsairs meant that fewer SB2C's were carried onboard and when no one was looking, you could roll them off the side without anyone missing them. Everyone liked the SBD, no one liked the Beast.
My uncle Ens Edmund F. Kulka is lost at sea in the Caribean Sea in a SB2C, a plane nicknamed by his fellow pilots as "The Beast" My uncle was with VB76 Squadron during the shakedown cruise of the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1946. This was a Coral Sea class carrier that was to be named the Coral Sea but was named the FDR to honor the late president after his death. I understand the SB2C had some significant problems with the tail assemblies and vertical stabilizers and there were problems with the Canadian manufactured aircraft. After the war, many of the SB2C's were used by the greek Air Force and the French in Indo China. I believe several were also sold or given to Latin American countries. There is one on static display at the Pensacola NAS aviation museum.
My Father flew the SB2-C in the Pacific. He was shot out of the sky twice over Atsugi Bay Japan and was rescued both times,out at sea; once by a destroyer and once by a submarine. He also lost some of his best friends in that airplane. I've heard they had some problems but dad never got specific.
