Q&A: George J. Walsh, WWII dive bomber pilot

As a Navy dive bomber pilot during World War II, George J. Walsh survived four crash landings and two kamikaze attacks on ships he was aboard - including one that struck 20 feet from the pilots' ready room. Now 89, he writes and speaks about the role of dive bombers at the 1942 Battle of Midway, a pivotal American victory in the Pacific, arguing that both historians and Hollywood have underplayed their significance. He spoke to The Pilot about his work, which appears at midway-divebomber.blogspot.com.

Q. You didn't serve at Midway yourself - what got you started on this campaign to bring more recognition to the Midway dive bomber pilots?

A. At our reunion in 1989, I began wondering why there were no films or books about dive bombing, and I began to look into it. I found that there just wasn't anything, and I decided to do something about it. The more I looked into it, the more concerned I became that dive bombing had been overlooked.

Whenever anybody thought about the Battle of Midway, they immediately thought about the sacrifice of Torpedo Squadron 8.... You had just as many dive bomber pilots lost, but there's never been a book about them, there's never been a film about them.

Yet they're the ones that won the battle (by sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers).

Q. The conventional wisdom on Midway has focused on the heroic sacrifice of the torpedo pilots and the idea that the Americans got lucky. You argue that in fact, the American dive bomber was the superior weapon. What made it so effective?

A. Of all the weapons that the Japanese and the U.S. had at the beginning of World War II, they had superior battleships with 18-inch guns, they had superior torpedoes where ours were delinquent. They had a better fighter plane in the Zero. The only weapon that the U.S. Navy had at the beginning of the war that was superior to its Japanese counterpart was the Dauntless dive bomber.

It had a steep dive... and you're only 30 seconds in a dive, which doesn't give them much time to aim their anti-aircraft weapons. They're practically invulnerable because of the slim profile. Whereas a torpedo plane starts out having to go through the entire profile of Japanese ships and has to go low and slow... directly into the guns of the ship they were attacking.

Q. You'd like to see a new movie made about the Battle of Midway. Are you working on a script?

A. No, but I have lots of material, including some great stories about Virginia Beach.

Q. What lessons can today's naval aviators take from Midway?

A. Flying is completely different now. In the old days, planes were expendable, and to some extent, pilots, too. But nowadays, where the planes cost millions and millions of dollars, they're a lot more careful about how the planes are handled.

midway-divebomber.blogspot.com/