My Forgotten Hobby III

VMSB-241 was a US Marine dive bombing unit operating from Midway island, commanded by Major Lofton R. Henderson. Due to the urgency in building up Midway’s defenses men and aircraft were rapidly transferred in with little time form cohesive combat teams.  VMSB-241s inventory consisted of sixteen newly assigned SBD-2 Dauntless and twelve older Vought SB2U-3 Vindicator dive bombers, but only three of the Marine pilots had any time logged in the Dauntless.  Ten of the other pilots had only joined the squadron a week prior to the battle and a shortage of aviation fuel on Midway severely limited opportunities for training.

The Marines made due with what they had and flew a total of three missions during the battle. The first strike launched early in the morning of 4 June was a maximum effort against the Japanese carriers consisting of sixteen Dauntlesses and eleven Vindicators.  The Dauntlesses attacked the carriers…