How good or bad was it? On another website I've been told it's handling was awful,it's accuracy in bombing naval targets bad along with the TBF/TBM ,just how true is that?
I can't attest to its combat capability, but I can say that it was rough to fly. Pilots refereed to it as a "Son-of-a-B****, Second Class". There were numerous accidental losses, and its crews underwent more extensive training on it than did the crews of most other aircraft. In the right hands, I think it was a potent weapon -- in my opinion, accuracy is primarily due to the pilot, not the design of aircraft itself.
From what I have read there were rough patches but it was a good dive bomber in range & speed and it sunk ships.
Well, the early SB2C models were very problematic and they were fairly heavy & considered underpowered. The USN had some 900 changes made to the aircraft before they were satisfied - no wonder it took almost 3 years from it's first flight to enter combat. It would not be until the introduction of the SB2C-3 model, with a more powerful engine and four-bladed prop, that the Helldiver finally came into it's own. Several of the early accidental losses of the Helldiver can be partly explained by an unfamiliarity with the aircraft's handling characteristics. When the USS Hornet began training her first batch of Helldivers, she lost more than a few on take-off. The pilots knew the problem was that the SB2Cs were being spotted to close to the end of the deck for take-off, but the carrier's commander was reluctant to institute spotting the dive bombers further back on the deck. Of course, the pilots refused to fly under what they considered un-safe conditions, so the captain reluctantly gave in, once the change was made no more Helldivers were lost on take-off. However, that is not to say that the Helldiver was not totally at fault, since the early models did have some very unfavorable handling characteristics. A "must" read book on the Dauntless & Helldiver is, "Dauntless Helldivers: A Dive Bomber Pilot's Epic Story of the Carrier Battles" by Harold L. Buell. Having flown dive bombers at the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, the Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, and the Philippines, his book gives a good insight into the life of a dive bomber pilot throughout the Pacific War. Yes, if the aircraft is a "stable" platform, however, the early Helldivers were not. In a dive, they suffered from very "stiff" ailerons & a good bit of tail buffeting. Look at it this way; take the most accurate sniper you know, put him in the back of a pick-up truck. Now, drive that truck over a freshly paved road, and have him hit his target. Then, drive the truck over a road filled with pot-holes & other debris. The Dauntless is the truck on the newly paved road, while the early Helldivers are the truck on the pot-hole & debris laden road. The sniper will hit his target more often on the newly paved road, because there is a lot less random motion to take into account when aiming.
Tough to fly, poorly designed, and delivered too slowly, the early models of the Curtiss SB2C would have come somewhere near the top of most lists of "Worst Aircraft of World War Two." Of course, that judgement is no reflection on the crews who had to fly "The Beast," who were as brave, skilled, and resourceful as any other pilots - perhaps more so! http://acepilots.com/planes/helldiver.html
What the other guys said. The plane had a bad start and servicemen LOVE to complain. IIRC the SB2C was also rushed into service, which is always a great way to get into trouble. Once debugged and with the pilots accustomed to it, it looks great to me. The plane could not just carry a lot of bombs but also a torpedo, meaning you needed just two instead of three different types of planes on a carrier. This is quite the advantage because space comes at a premium on carriers. And she was fast too, almost 300mph. The SBD is often credited for its fighter-ish qualities, when confronting enemy bombers, the 'Beast' should have been able to take out a lot of kamikazes if need be.
the carrier's commander was reluctant to institute spotting the dive bombers further back on the deck. Of course, the pilots refused to fly under what they considered un-safe conditions, so the captain reluctantly gave in That captain of Hornet would have been the brilliant but erratic Miles Browning, later relieved of his command after an incident involving the drowning of a crewman. Shattered Sword records another instance of him arguing with his pilots, including Wade McClusky, about dive bomber operations; on that occasion Browning was overruled by Admiral Spruance and went to sulk in his cabin for a bit.
