Divebomber Gunner Ace

[Jack Cook]

An earlier post on gunner aces got me motivated to dig out this photo of the Navy's only Divebomber gunner ace John Liska.
He scored 3 Zero kills during Coral Sea May 1942 and 2 more while flying in SB2Cs in 1944.

Ltjg John Leppla and gunner John Liska shake hands after the Coral Sea battle where they downed 7 Zeros. Leepla
switched to F4Fs and made ace but was KIA with VF-10 in late 1942.

[Tom Crawford]

I've always thought these rear gunners flying early on in the SBD's and the like were a special breed. The SBD only had twin 30 cal. guns, I'm not real sure about the Devastators. The later TBF/TBM's had the single 50 Cal. in the turret and a dorsal gun that may have been a 30 Cal. In any event you never got to see that target you were diving on, you had to trust your pilot to do his job. Brave men all, gutsy business....

[blacksheep]

Hey Jack,

Great pic.

Gunners were among the many undersung heros of WW2. Another significant SBD crewman, Aviation Machinist Mate Second Class Herman H. Caruthers was Lt. Carl H. Horenburger's rear gunner, and was given credit for the destruction of Saburo Sakai's Zero.

[Former Member]

It's too bad rear-seaters weren't given the official status of "ace" after shooting down 5 or more enemy aircraft. I've heard that other countries like Great Britain actually did recognize gunner aces. Can anyone confirm this??

John

[tom d. friedman]

devastator had a single .30 caliber on a flex mount in the rear & i believe a fixed 1 in each wing.

[Jack Cook]

devastator had a single .30 caliber on a flex mount in the rear & i believe a fixed 1 in each wing.

After Pearl Harbor TBDs were modified and equipted with twin .30s for the rear gunner and has 1 fixed mg on the right side of the fuselage firing through the propellor. The TBF had 1 cowl and 1 wing mounted mg.

[Bill Greenwood]

It's hard to believe someone riding backward in a 250 mph dive bomber could hit anything with 1 or 2 small machine guns, much less a Zero. It doesn't sound like an job with a lot of longevity. I wonder if there is any combat footage?

[Jack Cook]

Take it step further Bill.
Liska is in the back of the SBD and in a couple dogfights where his pliot Leppla downs 4 Zeros and Liska another 3.
In a stinking dogfight no less!

[Bill Greenwood]

BDK, It doesn't seem possible. If an SBD downed 7 Zeros, I'd say we finally found a weapon of mass destruction! Why did we even bother with elaborate planes like P-38 or Corsair?

[Jack Cook]

Bill,
SBDs scored around 30 kills including 3 by LTjg William Hall who downed 3 Zeros in a Coral Sea dogfight before being KIA defending the USS Lexington on May 6, 1942. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumisly. Famed F2G race pilot Cook Cleland downed 2 Zeros and his gunner another with VB-16 on the new Lexington during the Philippine Sea Battle in addition to scoring a hit on a Japanese carrier. cleland received the Navy Cross.

[B-29 Super Fort]

That was quite an achievement at the time.

[Dan K]

The following gives a pretty good summary of the Coral Sea heroes--especially those SBD crews that found themselves flying CAP.

http://www.aviation-history.com/airmen/coralsea.htm

They did the best they could with a really bad situation.

Last edited by Dan K on Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Former Member]

Quick question about rear-seater gunners on aircraft like the SBD.

How did the gunners manage to not shoot off the vertical stabilizer during a rolling and turning pursuit??

I'm sure that other warbirds like the TBM/TBF had some sort of fire cut-off cam to prevent shooting the tail off. Other turrets on bombers like the Sperry Upper, Martin Upper, and Lower Ball Turrets all had fire cut-off cams. Did any of these early planes have devices to protect the plane from the gunner's defensive fire???

John

[Jack Cook]

Did any of these early planes have devices to protect the plane from the gunner's defensive fire???

just the Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeball and a good set of reflexes.

[Dan K]

Did any of these early planes have devices to protect the plane from the gunner's defensive fire???

Yeah Johnny...I believe the device was called "The Pilot." Shoot your own tail off and you both swam back!