• Scale 1/72

The SBD-5 Dauntless was the best variant built with 2,965 aircraft being built. Even with its upgrades
there was one major stumbling block for this plane and that was its lack of folding wings. As the USN
built more and more carriers for their offensive against Japan this problem became even larger. So
after the invasion of the Mariannas the USN SBDs were assigned to secondary land based
operations where they spent the rest of WWII.

In 1944 the French Naval Aviation (Aeronautique Navale) received 32 SBD-5s for 2 squadrons
(flotilles) 3FB and 4FB. The aircraft retained standard USN colors with added French markings. In
April 1945 each SBD-5 averaged 3 missions a day in the European theater. In 1946 4FB became 4F
and was assigned to the former Royal Navy aircraft carrier Colossus now named Arromanches. In late
1947 during one operation in the Indo-China War 4F flew 200 missions and dropped 65 tons of
bombs. 1950 saw the TBM replace the SBD-5s.