The Avenger was Grumman's first
torpedo aircraft, and its design had much in common with that of the Company's
fighters - as its chunky and robust appearance testifies. The design and
engineering team under W.T. Schwendler developed the aircraft very quickly - the
order for two prototypes was placed on 8 April 1940 and the first Avengers went
into service just over two years later.
The new plane first saw action on 4
June 1942 against the Japanese carrier strike force at the Battle of Midway -
only six Avengers were involved, operating from Midway Island. They were
forced to attack against overwhelming odds, and five of the six were shot down,
the surviving plane returning to Midway severely damaged and with its gunner
dead. However, the survival of this aircraft demonstrated the TBF's great
toughness, and it was immediately apparent that its battle-worthiness justified
its production in great numbers.
The Avenger rapidly displaced the
obsolete Devastator aboard US carriers, and from the Guadalcanal landings
in August 1942 until the end of the Pacific War it remained the only shipboard
torpedo aircraft of the US Navy.
The US Navy's demands for Grumman
production of the F6F Hellcat fighter led to manufacture of the Avenger being
taken over by Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors - the GM-produced
aircraft being designated the "TBM".
The Avenger took part in every
carrier-versus-carrier battle and indeed almost all carrier operations from
Midway onwards, working from every fast carrier and escort carrier of the
Pacific Fleet. At Guadalcanal and in subsequent campaigns it was also active
from land bases. For almost all of this time it operated as a bomber, and
as a search and anti-submarine aircraft, rather than as a torpedo-plane.
As a torpedo-plane it was initially hampered by the many serious defects in the
American torpedoes. Moreover the crushing losses inflicted on their
torpedo squadrons at the Battle of Midway left the United States Navy with
little confidence in aerial torpedo attack, confidence which was only regained
with the success of the Avengers at the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Nonetheless, in the Naval Battle of
Guadalcanal, November 1942, TBFs inflicted heavy damage on the
Japanese battleship Hiei with torpedoes after she had been
crippled by US surface forces. At Philippine Sea in June 1944, equipped
with greatly improved torpedoes, Avengers hit the carrier Hiyo, which
sank soon afterwards. In this respect they were more successful than the
American dive-bombers at Philippine Sea, and this increased US Navy's emphasis
on torpedo attack in subsequent operations.
In the Battle for Leyte Gulf the TBF
/ TBM achieved one of its most notable successes by sinking (with 19 torpedo
hits) the Japanese battleship Musashi, which at 67,000 tons was one of
the two largest warships in the world (the other being her sister ship Yamato).
Later in the battle Avengers played an heroic and vital role in the
desperate defense of the US escort carrier group "Taffy 3" which
unexpectedly came under surface attack from the main Japanese force off Samar.
On 7 April 1945, during the
Okinawa operation, Avengers of Task Force 58 played the main part in
sinking the Yamato, formerly Admiral Yamamoto's flagship -
hitting the huge battleship with ten or more torpedoes.
The Avenger's virtues, especially its
ruggedness, reliability, and stability as a weapons platform, ensured it a
remarkably long operational history. It in fact remained in service - as
an anti-submarine and airborne early-warning aircraft - until 1954.
Jack Kosko was a Grumman
TBM radio operator with torpedo squadron VT-23 aboard the USS Langley (CVL-27)
fighting with Task Force 38 during the closing months of World War II.
the war Jack earned his pilot's certificate, met his wife, began a family and
today heads up a successful business in the government contracting arena.
so many of his WW II counterparts, his service in the war left an
indelible mark on him and the desire to someday own, restore and
recreate "his" TBM, which was lost in a landing accident while coming
aboard the Langley. That aircraft was subsequently pushed over the
side, but today that airplane is as alive in Jack's mind as if it were
In 1996 Jack
purchased a former Canadian Forrest Protection Service TBM "project" from an
individual in Maine, transported the disassembled TBM to a farm in south central
Pennsylvania, built a building in which to work and began the restoration of the
former US Navy torpedo bomber.
Seven years later the
big Grumman has come full circle and has completed its transition from
C.F.P.S. tanker #9 back to US Navy Bureau No. 53638 and Jack's old
tri-colored TBM #4 thanks to his determination and a crew of eighteen
highly dedicated volunteers from the surrounding area.
with original radios, tail hook, gun turret, diamond tread tires, "Stinger" gun
and USS Langley markings, #4 is quite a sight to behold as Jack and his crew
have spared nothing when it came to restoring the TBM to its original
previously approached the Mid Atlantic Air Museum to see if there was any
interest in having the aircraft placed with the museum for display and to be
flown to airshows.
Later Jack made the decision to donate the aircraft to the museum rather
than place it on long-term loan as originally proposed.
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THUMBNAIL PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT
||Wright R-2600 radial engine
of 1900 HP
54 Feet, 2 Inches
Normal Cruising Speed
Pilot, Gunner, Radio Operator/Bombardier
.50 caliber machine guns: one in each wing and one in a
dorsal turret; and one .30 caliber machine gun
"stinger" in a ventral port
||One 22 inch
torpedo or 2000 lb bombs/depth charges