Historic WWII Torpedo Bomber Flying Again

Under the deft touch and in accordance with the fine air-sense of CAF Colonel Bill Shepard, the Commemorative Air Force’s Rocky Mountain Wing’s Grumman TBM-3 309 delighted attendees at the recent Grand Junction Airshow.

Operations Officer CAF Colonel Bob Thompson remarked: “[The] Grand Junction Airshow was without a doubt successful, both financially and with Rocky Mountain Wing member's enthusiasm. What was accomplished? TBM, both static and flying in the show. [The] First paid TBM riders in over two years. [A] J-3 Cub was on display and sold rides after the show. [The] PX sold out of toy aircraft models and most "T's." Excess Museum Books sold out, [and] record TBM ‘Wing Walk’ tours."

The Grumman TBF Avenger—specimens manufactured under license by General Motors were registered TBM—is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, but eventually fielded by several Allied air and naval aviation services.

The Avenger entered U.S. service in 1942, and saw its first action during the Battle of Midway, where five of the six machines committed to the fight were lost. Notwithstanding its inauspicious combat debut, the Avenger would go on to be the most effective and widely-used torpedo bomber of the Second World War. In addition to being credited with sinking thirty Axis submarines, Avengers share credit for sinking the Japanese super-battleships Yamato and Musashi—the only battleships sunk exclusively by American aircraft while under way.

The CAF Rocky Mountain Wing’s Avenger—Bu. No. 53503—was delivered to the U.S. Navy in June of 1945 and did not see combat service in WWII. Rather, the aircraft served with the VT-17 Fish Hawks torpedo squadron until 1947, then transferred to VT-82 Devil’s Advocates torpedo squadron before being allocated to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1950 via a lend/lease program. During its Canadian tenure, the Avenger performed Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) duty aboard the RCN aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent.

In 1958, the 13-year-old Avenger was retired from military service and commended to storage. The aircraft was subsequently sold to a private concern and, in 1963, embarked on a seven-year stint as an aerial applicator—read “crop duster.”

In 1970, the world-weary Avenger was donated to the CAF’s Harlingen, Texas Wing and flew with the CAF’s Ghost Squadron until 1981. Regrettably the period spanning 1981 to 1984 saw the Avenger packed off to Mesa, Arizona, where it languished in the desert awaiting repair/restoration.

In 1985, the sun-bleached and forlorn Avenger was adopted by the CAF’s Rocky Mountain Squadron and limped to Grand Junction where it began the protracted process of resurrection.

Throughout its 78-years, the old Avenger racked up numerous distinctions, serving as the lead aircraft in a formation flyover of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation review of the Royal Navy’s fleet, and appearing as one of the Flight-19 aircraft in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 blockbuster, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Avenger 53503 is the one and only aircraft ever to be placed on the Colorado Register of Historic Properties, the seventh aircraft to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and one of only three Avengers still flying.

FMI: www.commemorativeairforce.org/aircraft/13