Originally Posted by
Chugalug2
Admittedly that elephant in the room, luck, was ever present as it usually is in war. The planned co-ordinated attack of torpedo bombers and dive bombers came awry and the TBDs paid a dreadful price for that.
What's worse was that the torpedoes that the TBDs were using were crap - routinely either detonating when they hit the water, or turning off course. So not only were the torpedo squadrons unlikely to return, they were unlikely to do any real damage. In a sense, being decoys to allow the dive bombers to attack relatively unmolested was the best they could have hoped for.
Truly courageous young men.