The Devistator would have had a much better combat record if it was armed with a functional torpedo

Nice video. I agree that the TBD has reputation for being a bad design, which was not the case. I'm glad you touched on the limitations of torpedo attacks in general and the limitations of the torpedo, but the real problem at Midway was mostly doctrine, but indirectly. USN carrier doctrine pre-war had carriers operating independently. It was seeing what the Japanese could do with a concentrated carrier doctrine that caused the USN to hurriedly create a new doctrine...and the bugs were not worked out by the time of Midway. What should have happened is the the carrier's attacks should have been internally coordinated (fighters/dive bombers/torpedo planes) and arrived at the target at the same time...along with the other carrier's strikes. So the planes from all three carriers should have attacked at the same time, from different angles and altitudes, overwhelming the defenses. But what happened was the strikes were completely uncoordinated, and came in piecemeal. So the full force of the CAP fell on the strikes from Midway, and then the TBDs. Remember, the Avenger made it's combat debut at Midway too...and was also slaughtered. It wasn't the TBD being a bad plane...it was in a combat situation that no plane could have survived. Had the attack went off as planned, the carriers would have been attacked by a swarm of American planes. They would not have been able to dodge torpedoes like they did because there would have been too many bombs and torpedoes coming in at the same time. The CAP would have been pulled in 100 different directions, and have been unable to concentrate like it did. The command situation was also not ideal. Hornet was completely green. The American force was commanded by Fletcher, alone in Yorktown, with Enterprise/Hornet commanded by Spruance...new to commanding carriers. It would have been difficult to coordinate even if the fleet was used to cooperating. And it's not usually talked about, but the intelligence supplied to the carriers was not all correct. They were told that the Japanese were operating two supporting task forces of carriers...and that was in the back of everyone's head during the battle. It also let to otherwise bizarre actions (like Ring's 'flight to nowhere'...he was following orders based on faulty intelligence).

Probably would have done quite well with the Fleet Air Arm in the Atlantic and Med

Failed to mention that the survivors after Midway were used stateside as trainers and squadron hacks until around 1944 when they were scrapped.

TIL Torpecker

Where did you find the digital graphics? Was it a sim? I been wishing to find a TBD-1 sim. Great TBD-1 guide. My intrest comes from my great uncle that flew in VT-6 in TBD 6T6 and was KIA at the battle of Midway.

IIRC, Devastators were used in about 9 or 10 battles and raids prior to Midway. Their combat losses: zero. Not a single one shot down by enemy fighters or flak. Then.... Midway....

35 of 41 shot: I began to cry.

"Fair" doesn't count in war. The B-26 Marauder and TBF Avenger suffered higher percentages of losses, and the PBY was more successful as a torpedo bomber at Midway. Some of the TBD flew again--not so with any of the six Avengers and with the Marauders. None of these four types had fighter escort.

Sadly the torpedo the Devastator carried doomed the aircraft.

The award for the worst planes ever built goes to Brewster.

What a useless plane the devastator, with its tiny engine. dropping torpedoes that were no good for two years… so many good men wasted at Midway. If only the Navy had stuck with dive bombers.