Dive bombers

A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughout the bomb run. This allows attacks on point targets and ships, which were difficult to attack with conventional "level" bombers, even en-masse.

A dive bomber dives at a steep angle, normally between 45 and 90 degrees, and thus requires an abrupt pull-up after dropping its bombs. This puts great strains on both pilot and aircraft. It demands an aircraft of strong construction, with some means to slow its dive. This limited the class to light bomber designs with ordnance loads in the range of 1,000 lb (450 kg) although there were larger examples. The most famous examples are the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, which was widely used during the opening stages of World War II, the Aichi D3A "Val" dive bomber, which sank more Allied warships during the war than any other Axis aircraft, and the Douglas SBD Dauntless, which sank more Japanese shipping than any other allied aircraft type. The SBD Dauntless helped win the Battle of Midway, was instrumental in the victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea, and fought in every US battle involving carrier aircraft.

A second and simpler technique is to bomb from a shallow dive angle, sometimes referred to as "glide bombing". This reduces the accuracy, but still allows line of sight to the target during the bomb run. The Junkers Ju 88 and Petlyakov Pe-2 were widely used in this role. The Heinkel He 177 is often mentioned as having its development upset by the demand that it be able to dive bomb, although this actually referred to glide bombing. The phrase "glide bombing" should not be confused with the term "glide bomb", where the bomb glides towards its target while the aircraft remains in level flight. Attachments for this type of bombing were fitted to the Norden bombsight, but in practice this proved unworkable.

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