The Douglas SBD Dauntless was a naval scout plane and dive bomber that was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft from 1940 through 1944. The SBD ("Scout Bomber Douglas") was the U.S. Navy's main carrier-borne scout plane and dive bomber from mid-1940 through mid-1944.

Dauntless bomb-cradle 1942

Weighing down wing to stop Hellcat from flipping over on the side - somewhere in the Pacific


Hellcat in trouble

A naked PBY gunner mans his machine gun after a rescue. The author of the photo describes the situation as follows "...we got a call to pick up an airman who was down in the Bay. The Japanese were shooting at him from the island, and when they saw us they started shooting at us. The man who was shot down was temporarily blinded, so one of our crew stripped off his clothes and jumped in to bring him aboard. He couldn't have swum very well wearing his boots and clothes. As soon as we could, we took off. We weren't waiting around for anybody to put on formal clothes. We were being shot at and wanted to get the hell out of there. The naked man got back into his position at his gun in the blister of the plane." No exact location or date provided besides the year 1944.