goldhammer
Nice start. As usual I know you will knock it out of the park.
Interesting side note (from "The Big E"), when Hornet and Enterprise got back to Pearl, the surviving TBD's were off-loaded and replaced with TBF's. There were around 13-15 of them and lined up side by side were the #7 planes from all three squadrons. Either survived the attack or were not launched.
TBDs at Midway... on the morning of the 4th 41 were launched from the three US carriers. VT-8 launched 15, engaged first and were all shot down, with only Ensign Gay surviving. Any surviving TBDs from Hornet were ”spares” that were not launched. VT-6 from Enterprise launched 14, with 1 breaking down prior to launch. They attacked after VT-8, led by Gene Lindsey. Of the 14, 4 survived their strike on the Japanese carriers, and one of those ditched upon return. VT-3 from Yorktown launched 12 TBDs led by Lance Massey, and attacked with fighter escort. Their attack was at the end of its final run in as the dive bombers arrived and began their strike. Of the 12, 5 were able to drop, but only 2 escaped from their strike. Both of those TBDs had to ditch due to fuel exhaustion after they were turned away from recovering back on Yorktown due to the inbound Japanese dive bombers from Hiryu, and not having enough remaining fuel to reach Enterprise.
TBDs were again launched on June 6 against Mogami and Mikuma, but with orders not to attack if heavy defenses were encountered. Per those orders they returned without attacking.
The TBD gets a bad rap due to Midway. Yet up until that morning it had performed well enough for an obsolete aircraft. In the early 1942 raids on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, as well as at Wake, it did ok. Again at Lae and Tulagi, performance was acceptable. The fist day of Coral Sea was its finest moment, when they helped sink the carrier Shoho. On the second day of Coral Sea, against an equal opponent, and with fighter escort, they again performed well enough, only to be let down by their weapon, the Mk. XIII Torpedo. They suffered few losses, and nearly all returned to their carriers. But at Midway, two out of three squadrons were inexperienced, two out of three had no fighter escort, and they were flying outnumbered against the best naval fighter of the time flown by very battle experienced aviators. Had Hornet’s and Enterprise’s fighters stuck with them, instead of getting separated on the way out, more than likely, many more would have survived.