Japanese Couldn’t Hit This “Slow” Bomber — The Pilot Shot Down 3 Zeros and Sank Their Carrier DD
At 7:30 a.m. on May 8th, 1942, Lieutenant Junior Grade Stanley Vatasa strapped into his Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber on the flight deck of USS Yorktown, watching radar operators track incoming Japanese aircraft 70 m to the northwest. 27 years old, 5 months of combat flying, zero air-to-air kills. The Japanese had launched 69…
