047: Curtiss SBC-4 Helldiver
HM0047

I wanted to build a SBC-4 that saw active service in WW II. I liked the machines sent to Great Britain and used as trainers (these were actually 5 machines of a larger order destined for French Air Force, but sent to Great Britain following France’s surrender). As these never really saw combat (they were actually only used for ground instruction), I chose to build one of the machines that served with the Marine Observation Squadron 151 (VMO-151), based at Tutuila on Samoa island in mid-1942. These machines were used to patrol the seas around Samoa, looking for Japanese submarines that usually preceded invading forces in the months just after Pearl Harbor. These twelve Helldivers represented the last biplanes to serve in combat duty with the US Navy and were replaced by Douglas SBD "Dauntlesses" in July 1943.