To begin with, it was never, ever known as SOB second class. That was a name given to the Helldiver by a young writer. It was known as, "Two-Cee" or a "Beast". Both we crewman and pilots liked it. It had some hydraulic problems.That's the only rblems with it. It was a poor gunners platform. Only shots along side or straight over head were OK but the wing and tail limits kind of stopped anything down below.
Plus when you got the rear canopy down and you pumped the seat up to the gunners position, you caused such turbulence the pilot loses some tail control. So the guy in the rear was limited to keep the logistic board, trying to figger out five letter code groups and looking at the radar. And of course keeping the pilot awake. Miles and miles of sea gets pretty boring. Couple o blasts of pure oxygen would correct any hangover. Well, most of them.
The plane landed pretty good. It landed at 65 MPH and the deck was moving (37 knots) or 40 MPH. Never had a landing gear accident. One cruise we lost three F6-F (N) two TBFs and one Corsair. All Helldivers were safe. None of them ran into the crash barrier.
By the way, the Beast has the record of ships sunk by all forces, both allied and enemy. Dive bombing is not as easy as it looks.
One English man wrote about three SB2C squadrons that were trained in my home town in Beverly. I have a personal reason to contact any one that were in those squadrons. I been trying for years.
It was this crewman's opinion the Two-Cee was a large, comfortable and reliable aircraft/ A bomber that would keep up with the fighters.
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