This show contains real footage of WWII dive bombing. Meet the skillful pilots and amazing aircraft on Battle of Midway: The True Story. It airs tonight at 10PM. 🇺🇸 http://bit.ly/2Jl5D9t | Smithsonian Channel

24K views · 985 reactions | The act of dive-bombing during World War II was a death defying trial of skill and nerve. You aimed your plane down, four miles above the ocean, and plummeted at speeds of up to 275-miles per hour. Battle of Midway: The True Story | Smithsonian Channel Aviation Nation | Facebook

The Douglas SBD Dauntless took its #firstflight on May 1, 1940. The aircraft then went on to play a starring role in the war in the Pacific during WWII. The diving Dauntless saw action at Pearl Harbor – flying from the USS Enterprise, but are best known as the bomber that delivered the fatal blows to Japanese carrier at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. In total, the Dauntless sank more enemy ships than any other Allied bomber, destroying 18 enemy warships, including a battleship and six carrie