Douglas DB-7

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A-20 Havoc/DB-7 Boston/P-70
A-20G of the USAAF
Type	Light bomber Night fighter
Manufacturer	Douglas
Designed by	Ed Heinemann
Maiden flight	23 January 1938
Status	Retired
Primary users	Soviet Air Force US Army Air Force Royal Air Force Armée de l'Air
Produced	1939-1944
Number built	7,478

The Douglas DB-7 was an American-developed family of attack, light bomber and night fighter aircraft of World War II, serving several Allied air forces, principally those of the Soviet Union, United States and United Kingdom. The DB-7 was also used by the air forces of Australia, South Africa, France and The Netherlands during the war, and Brazil afterwards. The aircraft was known as Boston among Commonwealth air forces, while the night fighter variants were known as Havoc. The USAAF assigned the DB-7 the designation "A-20" and gave it the popular name "Havoc", adopted from the RAF classification.

Contents 1 Design and development 2 Operational history 2.1 Boston Mks I & II 2.2 Havoc Mk I 2.3 DB-7A Havoc Mk II 2.4 DB-7B Boston Mk III, DB-73, DB-7C 2.5 A-20 2.6 A-20A 2.7 A-20B 2.8 A-20C 2.9 A-20G & A-20H 2.10 A-20J, Boston Mk IV 2.11 A-20K, Boston Mk V 2.12 P-70 2.13 F-3A 3 Legacy 4 Operators 5 Survivors 6 Specifications (Douglas DB-7B Boston Mk III) 7 References 8 External links 9 Related content

[edit] Design and development

In March 1937, a design team headed by Donald Douglas, Jack Northrop and Ed Heinemann produced a proposal for a light bomber powered by a pair of 450 hp (340 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior engines mounted on a high-mounted wing. It was estimated it could have carried a 1000 lb (450 kg) bomb load at 250 mph (400 km/h). Reports of aircraft performance from the Spanish Civil War indicated that this design would be seriously underpowered and, subsequently, it was cancelled.

In the autumn of the same year, the U.S. Army Air Corps issued its own specification for an attack aircraft. The Douglas team, now headed by Heinemann, took the Model 7A design, upgraded massively to 1100 hp (820 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830 S3C3-G Twin Wasp engines, and submitted the design as the Model 7B. It faced competition from the North American NA-40, the Stearman X-100 and the Martin 167F. The Model 7B was maneuverable and fast, but did not attract any US orders.

The model did, however, attract the attention of a French Purchasing Commission visiting the USA. The French discreetly participated in the flight trials, so as not to attract criticism from US isolationists, but the secret was blown when the 7B crashed on 23 January 1939, while demonstrating single-engine performance. The French were still impressed enough to order 100 production aircraft, with the order increased to 270 when the war began.

[edit] Operational history

The French order called for substantial modifications, and the new designation DB-7 (for Douglas Bomber 7) was introduced. It had a narrower, deeper fuselage, 1000 hp (750 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-SC3-G radials, French-built guns, and metric instruments. Midway through the delivery phase, engines were switched to 1100 hp (820 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C4-G. The French designation was DB-7 B-3 (the B-3 signifying "three-seat bomber").

The DB-7s were shipped in sections to Casablanca for assembly and service in France and French North Africa. When the Germans attacked France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, the 64 available DB-7s were deployed against the advancing Panzers. Before the armistice they were evacuated to North Africa to avoid capture by German forces. Here, they fell under control from the Vichy government, but saw practically no action against the Allies except briefly during Operation Torch. After French forces in North Africa had sided with the Allies, DB-7 were used as trainers and were replaced in frontline units by B-26 Marauders. In early 1945, a few DB-7s were sent back to France where they saw action against the remaining isolated German pockets on the Western coast.

[edit] Boston Mks I & II

The Royal Air Force agreed to take up the balance of the now-frustrated French order which was diverted to Britain, and the aircraft were designated Boston Mk I or Mk II according to the earlier or later engine type.

[edit] Havoc Mk I

The aircraft was not really suitable for RAF use as its range was too limited for day-time raids on Germany. Many of the Boston Mk II, plus some re-engined Mk Is, were converted for night time duties - either as intruders with 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) bombs, or as night-fighters with AI Mk IV radar. These were known collectively as Havoc Mk I. A total of 181 Bostons were converted to Havocs. In interdiction raids, Havoc intruders caused considerable damage to German targets.

Twenty Havocs were Havoc Mk I (Pandora) intruder aircraft, trailing the Long Aerial Mine (LAM) which was an explosive charge trailed on a long cable in the path of enemy aircraft in the hope of scoring a hit. It was not successful and they were converted back to Mk I intruders.

A further 31 were Havoc Mk I Turbinlite fitted with a 2,700 million candela (2.7 Gcd) searchlight in the nose. They were unarmed and were supposed to illuminate targets for accompanying Hurricane fighters, but in practice they just made nice bright targets for German gunners.

[edit] DB-7A Havoc Mk II

The French Purchasing Commission ordered a further 200 bombers, to be fitted with 1600 hp (1195 kW) Wright R-2600-A5B Double Cyclone engines. This variant was designated DB-7A by Douglas. None had been delivered before the fall of France, and they served instead as night-fighters with the RAF under the name of Havoc Mk II. They had an impressive top speed of 344 mph (550 km/h) at altitude. 39 of them were used briefly in Turbinlite roles.

[edit] DB-7B Boston Mk III, DB-73, DB-7C

The DB-7B was the first batch of the series to actually be ordered by Britain, in February 1940. Powered by the same engines as the DB-7A, with better armor and, crucially, larger fuel tanks, these were at last suitable for British use in the light bomber role. This was the batch for which the name "Boston" was first reserved, but since the commandeered DB-7s entered service first, this batch became known as the Boston Mk III. Amongst other operations, they took part in the attacks on the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen during their dash through the English Channel (Operation Cerberus) and the infamous raid on Dieppe (Operation Jubilee). Three hundred were delivered and some were converted for use in intruder and night fighter roles.

The DB-73 was a very similar design for France, which again were diverted to England as Boston Mk III's. Many of these were built under licence by Boeing. Events further overtook this shipment after the German attack on the Soviet Union and the Attack on Pearl Harbor, when many Bostons were sent to the USSR and many more retained by the USAAF for its own use. Twenty-two were also sent to the RAAF by the British.

The DB-7C was a Netherlands variant intended for service in the Netherlands East Indies, but the Japanese invasion was complete before they were delivered. The order was sent instead to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease which would receive 3,125 examples of different variants of the Douglas DB-7 series. ^[1]

When shipments to the UK finally resumed, they were delivered under the terms of Lend-Lease. These aircraft were actually refitted A-20Cs known as the Boston Mk IIIA.

[edit] A-20

The original American indifference to the Model 7B was overcome by the improvements made for the French and British, and the Army Air Corps ordered two models, the A-20 for high-altitude bombing and the A-20A for lower-altitude work. Both were similar to the DB-7B, the A-20 was to be fitted with turbosupercharged Wright R-2600-7 engines, but these were bulky and the prototype suffered cooling problems, so the remainder were completed with the un-supercharged R-2600-11, 59 as P-70 fighters and 3 as F-3 reconnaissance planes (described below).

One A-20 was evaluated by the US Navy as the BD-1, while the US Marine Corps operated eight examples as the BD-2.

[edit] A-20A

The US Army ordered 123 A-20As with R-2600-3 engines, and a further 20 with more powerful R-2600-11. They entered service in spring 1941. The Army liked the A-20A because of its excellent performance and because it had no adverse handling characteristics. Nine of them were transferred to Australia in 1943. The British name "Havoc" was adopted for the A-20A.

[edit] A-20B

The A-20B received the first really large order — 999 — from the US Army. They resembled the DB-7A rather than the DB-7B, with light armor and stepped rather than slanted glazing in the nose. In fact, 665 were exported to the Soviets, so relatively few actually served with the USAAC.

[edit] A-20C

The A-20C was an attempt to standardize a common British and American version, produced from 1941. It reverted to the slanting nose-glass and had RF-2600-23 engines, self-sealing fuel tanks and additional armor. They were equipped to carry an external 2000 lb (900 kg) naval torpedo. A total of 948 were built for Britain and the Soviet Union, but many were retained by the USAAF after Pearl Harbor. The Soviet A-20s were often fitted out with turrets of indigenous design. ^[2]

[edit] A-20G & A-20H

The A-20G, delivered from February 1943, would be the most produced of all the series - 2850 were built. The glazed nose was replaced by a solid nose contain four 20 mm cannon and two 0.50 in (12.7 mm) Colt-Browning machine guns, making the aircraft slightly longer than previous versions. After the first batch of 250 the unreliable cannon were replaced by more machine guns. Some had a wider fuselage to accommodate a power driven gun turret. Many A-20Gs were delivered to the Soviet Union. The powerplant was the 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) R-2600-23. US A-20Gs were used on low-level sorties in the New Guinea theatre.

The A-20H was the same continued with the 1,700 hp (1,270 kW) R-2600-29. 412 of these were built. The take-off weight was raised to 24,170 lb (10,960 kg).

[edit] A-20J, Boston Mk IV

The A-20J carried an additional bombardier in an extended acrylic glass nose section. These were intended to lead bombing formations, with the following standard A-20s dropping their bombs when signaled by the leader. A total of 450 were built, 169 for the RAF which designated them Boston Mk IV from summer 1944.

[edit] A-20K, Boston Mk V

The A-20K (Boston Mk V in RAF parlance) was the final production version of the A-20 series, the same as the A-20J except for R-2600-29s instead of -23s.

[edit] P-70

In October 1940 the USAAC felt a need for long-range fighters more than attack bombers, so some of the production run of A-20s were converted to P-70 and P-70A night-fighters. They were equipped with SCR-540 radar (a copy of British AI Mk IV), the glazed nose often painted black to reduce glare and hide the details of the radar set, and had four 20 mm forward-firing cannon in a ventral bomb bay tray. Further P-70 variants were produced from A-20C, G and J variants. The singular airframe P-70B-1 (converted from an A-20G) and subsequent P-70B-2s (converted from A-20Gs and Js) had American centimetric radar (SCR-720 or SCR-729) fitted. The P-70s and P-70As saw combat ONLY in the Pacific during World War II and only with the USAAF. The P-70B-1 and P-70B-2 aircraft never saw combat but served as night fighter aircrew trainers in the US in Florida and later in California. All P-70s were retired from service by 1945.

[edit] F-3A

The F-3A was a conversion of 46 A-20J and K models for night-time photographic reconnaissance (F-3 were a few conversions of the original A-20). The first Allied aircraft to land at Itazuke, Japan after the August 1945 surrender was an F-3A.

[edit] Legacy

When DB-7 series production finally ended on 20 September 1944, a total of 7,098 had been built by Douglas and a further 380 by Boeing. Some military historians consider it the third most important twin-engined aircraft of World War II, behind the Junkers Ju 88 and De Havilland Mosquito^{[citation needed]}. This is probably due to its extensive use by the Soviets, yet the DB-7 remains largely unknown.

Although not the fastest or longest-legged in its class, the Douglas DB-7 series distinguished itself as a tough, dependable combat aircraft with an excellent reputation due to its turn of speed and good manoeuvrability. In a report to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (AAEE) at Boscombe Down, test pilots summed it up as "has no vices and is very easy to takeoff and land... The aeroplane represents a definite advantage in the design of flying controls... extremely pleasant to fly and manoeuvre." ^[3]Ex-pilots often consider it their favorite aircraft of the war due to the ability to toss it around like a fighter ^[4]. Its true impact was that the Douglas bomber/fighter was extremely adaptable and found a role in every combat theater of the war and excelled as a true "pilot's aeroplane." ^[5]

[edit] Operators

•  Australia: Royal Australian Air Force
•  Brazil
• Canada: Royal Canadian Air Force
•  France: Armée de l'Air
• Netherlands East Indies
•  New Zealand
•  Poland: Polish Air Force in Exile
• South Africa: South African Air Force
•  Soviet Union
•  United Kingdom: Royal Air Force
•  United States: U.S. Army Air Corps/U.S. Army Air Forces, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy

[edit] Survivors

An A-20G (S/n 43-22200) is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Dayton, Ohio. Another A-20G (S/n 42-21709) is in the collection of the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas. The Air Heritage Museum in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania has an A-20H (S/N 44-0020) currently under restoration to flying condition.

[edit] Specifications (Douglas DB-7B Boston Mk III)

General characteristics

• Crew: 2-3
• Length: 47 ft 6 in (14.5 m)
• Wingspan: 61 ft 4 in (18.7 m)
• Height: 17 ft 7 in (5.4 m)
• Wing area: 465 ft² (43.2 m²)
• Empty weight: 15,051 lb (6,827 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 20,320 lb (9,215 kg)
• Powerplant: 2× Wright R-2600-A5B "Double Cyclone" radial engines, 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 338 mph (294 knots, 544 km/h) at 12,500 ft (3,800 m)
• Range: 1,050 mi (912 nm, 1,690 km)
• Service ceiling: 27,600 ft (8,400 m)
• Rate of climb: 2,000 ft/min (10.2 m/s)

Armament

• Guns:
  
  • 4× fixed 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the nose
  • 2× flexible 0.303 in Browning machine guns, mounted dorsally
  • 1× flexible 0.303 in Vickers K machine gun, mounted ventrally
• Bombs: 2,000 lb (900 kg)

[edit] References

• Gann, Harry. The Douglas A-20 (7A to Boston III). London: Profile Publications, 1971.
• Mesko, Jim. A-20 Havoc in action. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1983. ISBN 0-89747-131-8.
• Taylor, John W. R. "Douglas DB-7, A-20 Havoc, and Boston (Bombers) and Douglas DB-7, Havoc, P-70 (Fighters)." Combat Aircraft of the World from 1909 to the present. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969. ISBN 0-425-03633-2.
• Winchester, Jim. "Douglas A-20 Boston/Havoc." Aircraft of World War II: The Aviation Factfile. Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2004. ISBN 1-84013-639-1.

[edit] External links

• Douglas DB-7
• A photograph of the Douglas P-70 39-736

[edit] Related content

Comparable aircraft

• A-26 Invader
• B-25 Mitchell
• B-26 Marauder
• Bristol Blenheim
• Bristol Beaufighter
• Junkers Ju 88
• Messerschmitt Me 210
• Petlyakov Pe-2

Designation sequence

• Army sequence: A-17 - A-18 - YA-19 - A-20 - XA-21 - A-22 - A-23
• Navy sequence: BD - BTD - BT2D
• Douglas sequence: DB-4 - DB-5 - DB-6 - DB-7 - DB-8

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of the United States
• List of aircraft of the RAF
• List of aircraft of the Armée de l'Air, World War II
• List of military aircraft of the Soviet Union and the CIS

See also

• Boeing Y1B-20