WC vs History ReRelease: Tools of the Trade

The plane types found during the Battle of Midway can be seen in museums around the United States and the world. Wing Commander borrowed many of those iconic names and turned them into ships we've all come to love. The "Tools of the Trade" found in today's WC vs History update represent the aircraft that played a role in the battle and their Wing Commander counterparts. Seventy years after the battle, the last surviving aircraft of it is an SBD Dauntless dive-bomber that now resides at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

These aircraft defined the early part of the War in the Pacific. It is no surprise that the names of many of those aircraft and ships ended up in Wing Commander.

In today's Battle of Midway commemorative update we're going to look at four aircraft and one ship that served during the battle--and the Wing Commander equivalents named in their honor!

At the close of the Terran-Kilrathi war the F2M Vindicator was one of the most popular Home Defense planes. A "jack of all trades but master of none", the Vindicator was an ideal choice for units on distant frontier worlds who might be called upon to fly many mission types with a single ship. Vindicator units went on to serve aboard the makeshift carriers that formed the backbone of the Outerworlds Fleet.

The Vought SB2U Vindicator was a mid-1930s American naval dive bomber design. It served on four American carriers during the interwar and early war years. It also served with the US Marine Corps, the French Navy, and the Royal Navy. By the outbreak of World War II, they were obsolete but were still in service in some roles until 1943. During the Battle of Midway, a group of Vindicators, part of Marine squadron VMSB-241, led by Major Benjamin W. Norris attacked the battleship Haruna at 0820 am. They bracketed the ship with five or six near misses but they caused no damage. Marine pilots who had gone on to fly the Douglas SBD Dauntless called the SB2U's with disdain “vibrators” or “wind indicators.”

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