THE ONLY SUPERIOR AMERICAN WEAPON AT THE START OF WORLD WAR II.

THE ONLY SUPERIOR AMERICAN WEAPON AT THE START OF WORLD WAR II. Mr. Murphy’s blog aims to call attention to the importance of dive bombers as a weapon. It was the only American weapon that was superior to the Japanese counterpart. Murphy says: “As World War II began in the Pacific, the weapons the Japanese Navy brought into battle outclassed the United States Navy in every category except one. The SBD Dauntless dive bomber surpassed Japan’s Val dive bomber in speed, range, bomb load, and diving characteristics.” Murphy adds: “The torpedoes with which our submarines and torpedo planes were equipped were defective during the decisive years of 1942 and 1943, a time when the outcome of the war with Japan was still in doubt. Our Navy’s most effective offensive weapons were the Marines on the ground and the dive bombers in the air. We did not have reliable torpedoes until September 1943, almost two years after Pearl Harbor.”