Douglas TBD Devastator: America's First World War II Torpedo Bomber

by David Doyle

The Douglas Devastator was the US Navy's first all-metal combat aircraft, the Navy's first airplane with a fully enclosed cockpit, the first aircraft to have hydraulically folding wings, and the first US Navy torpedo bomber to see combat. Although facing staggering losses in the early stages of the war in the Pacific, the brave men flying the Devastator from the decks of such famed ships as Enterprise , Hornet , Yorktown , and Lexington held the line against the enemy. Through carefully researched photos, many of which have never before been published and which are reproduced in remarkable clarity, the history and details of this iconic aircraft are revealed. This clarity, and the large size of many of the photos, coupled with descriptive and informative captions, puts the reader in the skies with this historic aircraft.

112 pages, Hardcover

Published November 28, 2017

Reviews

[Jeff]

A very nice photographic survey of the TBD-1 Devastator. The first half of the book contains detailed photographs of the XTBD-1 prototype and of the TBD-1, especially of the crew positions and the engine. The latter half of the book has chapters dedicated to each squadron that flew the TBD, but the photos are mostly pre-war. It seems that there are relatively few wartime photos of the Devastator, which shouldn't be surprising considering its short combat service record. Anyway, this is a great book for anyone who's interested in the details of the Devastator, especially modelers.

[Roger Sandri]

Awesome reference material for model aircraft builders, with plenty of information for anyone not familiar with this airplane type.