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| On one winter Sunday in 1941, the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Company hosted an open house for the families of its employees, and among the aircraft they saw was the TBF, the company's new torpedo-bomber. The date was December 7th, and over the course of the next four years the airplane would more than live up to its nickname- Avenger. Built in response to a 1939 requirement for a carrier-based torpedo-bomber to replace the TBD Devastator, the TBF Avenger proved one of the most versatile aircraft of World War II. Equipped with an electrically powered gun turret and an internal bomb bay, the aircraft carried a crew of three. All told, a total of 9,842 production versions rolled off assembly lines, including 7,546 examples (designated TBM) built by the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors, which took over production fully in 1943 so that Grumman could concentrate on building the F6F Hellcat fighter.
The combat debut of the Avenger occurred during the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942, when six TBF-1s of Torpedo Squadron (VT) 8 launched from Midway Atoll without fighter escort to attack the approaching Japanese fleet. Jumped by Zero fighters during their attack runs, five were shot down while the sixth was so badly damaged-one crewman was killed and another crewman and the pilot were wounded- that it was scrapped after landing at Midway. The Avenger survived this inauspicious beginning and became a mainstay on carrier decks throughout the war, helping sink the super battleship Yamato in April 1945, flying the U.S. Navy's first night carrier raid, and scoring naval aviation's first night air-to-air kills. In the Atlantic, it played a major role in carrier-based antisubmarine warfare, which sent 34 U-boats to the bottom. Perhaps the most famous Avenger pilot during the war was future President of the United States George H.W. Bush. In September 1944 while flying from the light carrier San Jacinto (CVL 30) on a bombing mission against a Japanese radio station on Chichi Jima, Bush's aircraft was severely damaged by antiaircraft fire. Despite a flaming engine, he continued his dive to score a direct hit before being forced to bail out over water. He was picked up by a submarine and subsequently returned to his squadron to fly additional combat missions. Both of his crewmen failed to survive. The Avenger was also at the center of one of the great mysteries surrounding the so-called Bermuda Triangle when five aircraft from Naval Air Station (NAS) Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, disappeared over that area of water while on a training flight in late1945. The world's first airborne early warning (AEW) airplane, the Avenger soldiered on into the early stages of the Cold War, still appearing in the naval aircraft inventory as late as 1956. SPECIFICATIONS (TBM-3): Manufacturer: Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors Dimensions: Length: 40 ft., 11 ½ in.; Height: 16 ft., 5 in.; Wingspan: 54 ft., 2 in. Weights: Empty: 10,545 lb.; Gross: 17,895 lb. Power Plant: One 1,900 horsepower Wright R-2600-20 engine Performance: Maximum Speed: 276 m.p.h. at 16,500 ft.; Service Ceiling: 30,100 ft.; Range: 1,010 miles Armament: Two fixed forward-firing .50-in. guns, one flexible-mounted .50-in. gun, one flexible-mounted .30-in. gun, and provisions for up to 2,000 lb. of ordnance carried internally Crew: Pilot, gunner, and radioman |
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| Bibliography: National Museum of Naval Aviation |