Quote:
Originally Posted by Vulcan607
The Vindicator never saw service with the Raf in contary to the clue i was given. It did however serve with the Fleet air arm.
|
Yes, the image given on one of the Vultee websites now turns out to have been mis-labelled as a Vindicator, and I took that as gospel. It goes to prove that not everything on a website is correct.
The Vultee Vindicator was the SB2-A, The Brewster Buccaneer was the SB2-B and the Curtis Helldiver was the SB2-C.
The Vindicator was known as the Chesapeake in the Fleet Air Arm.
The Buccaneer was known as the Bermuda and the Helldiver as the Cleveland.
The Helldiver was found to be a poor aircraft by both the US Navy and Fleet Air Arm, though only the Fleet Air Arm was smart enough to reject it for service.
Anyone whose tried to divebomb with a Helldiver in "Battle Stations Pacific" will have experienced just how crap they are as a divebomber, requiring a lot of height in order to pull up, unlike the SBD Dauntless. The poor to non-existant rear defence, clumsy handling, lack of speed, poor rate of climb, easy to stall, etc. are all accurately modelled in the game.
As the Buccaneer (Bermuda) was even worst than the Helldiver, having the worst recorded divebombing hit to miss ratio ever recorded in trails, the Vindicator was the remaining choice available for service with the Fleet Air Arm and Australian Naval Forces.
The Buccaneer saw no combat service and most were either scrapped straight off the production lines or launched into the sea from carriers as unmanned catapult test aircraft.
The Buccaneer was the US's most heavily gunned divebomber (6 x Fixed and 2 x Rear Defence).
Finland had an order for Buccanners but the entry of the US into the war, in 1941, and the fact that Finland was allied to the Axis powers against the Soviets ended the order. With Fins flying them, the aircraft would have probally have shone brightly as a ground attack aircraft.
Ironically, Fleet Air Arm and Commonwealth Vindicator pilots would have trained on Buccaneers. The same went for US Naval Helldiver pilots.