196-835: The Vultee A-31 Vengeance is an American dive bomber of World War II that was built by Vultee Aircraft . A modified version was designated A-35 . The Vengeance was not used operationally by the United States, but was operated as a front-line aircraft by the British Royal Air Force , the Royal Australian Air Force , and the Indian Air Force in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific . The A-31 remained in service with U.S. units until 1945, primarily in
392-620: A Cherokee town preceding the first European American settlement. Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later the Southwest Territory , before its admission to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. It earned the nickname "The Volunteer State" due to a strong tradition of military service. A slave state until the American Civil War , Tennessee was politically divided, with most of its western and middle parts supporting
588-655: A series of sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville organized by the Nashville Student Movement resulted in the desegregation of facilities in the city. On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. King had traveled there to support striking African American sanitation workers . The 1962 U.S. Supreme Court case Baker v. Carr arose out of
784-629: A target-tug role. In 1940, Vultee Aircraft started the design of a single engined dive-bomber , the Vultee Model 72 (V-72) to meet the requirements of the French Armée de l'Air . The V-72 was built with private funds and was intended for sale to foreign markets. The V-72 was a low-wing, single-engine monoplane with a closed cockpit and a crew of two. An air-cooled radial Wright Twin Cyclone engine rated at 1,600 hp (1,200 kW ) powered
980-606: A temperate deciduous forest biome commonly known as the Eastern Deciduous Forest. It has eight ecoregions : the Blue Ridge , Ridge and Valley , Central Appalachian, Southwestern Appalachian, Interior Low Plateaus , Southeastern Plains, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains, and Mississippi Alluvial Plain regions. Tennessee is the most biodiverse inland state, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
1176-573: A Cherokee faction loyal to the British led by Dragging Canoe , opposed the settling of the Washington District and Transylvania Colony, and in 1776 attacked Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals. The warnings of Dragging Canoe's cousin Nancy Ward spared many settlers' lives from the initial attacks. In 1779, James Robertson and John Donelson led two groups of settlers from the Washington District to
1372-776: A French expedition led by missionary Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Mississippi River and became the first Europeans to map the Mississippi Valley. In 1682, an expedition led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle constructed Fort Prudhomme on the Chickasaw Bluffs in West Tennessee. By the late 17th century, French traders began to explore the Cumberland River valley, and in 1714, under Charles Charleville's command, established French Lick,
1568-592: A challenge to the longstanding rural bias of apportionment of seats in the Tennessee legislature and established the principle of " one man, one vote ". The construction of Interstate 40 through Memphis became a national talking point on the issue of eminent domain and grassroots lobbying when the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) attempted to construct the highway through the city's Overton Park . A local activist group spent many years contesting
1764-791: A cooler mountain temperate or humid continental climate . The Gulf of Mexico is the dominant factor in Tennessee's climate, with winds from the south responsible for most of the state's annual precipitation. Generally, the state has hot summers and mild to cool winters with generous precipitation throughout the year. The highest average monthly precipitation usually occurs between December and April. The driest months, on average, are August to October. The state receives an average of 50 inches (130 cm) of precipitation annually. Snowfall ranges from 5 inches (13 cm) in West Tennessee to over 80 inches (200 cm) in East Tennessee's highest mountains. Summers are generally hot and humid, with most of
1960-652: A deliberate tactic. At the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1917, 320 Mark IV tanks and 300 aircraft, mostly Sopwith Camels and Airco DH 5s with 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs, were used to suppress artillery and machine guns. The cost in pilots was very high, with casualties on some days reaching 30 percent. The initial impact at Cambrai was highly successful. The staff officer to the Royal Tank Corps Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. C. Fuller published findings which were later taken up by Heinz Guderian to form
2156-419: A dive bomber and was used extensively in this role during World War Two. The British Air Ministry issued Specification 4/34 in 1934 for a ground attack aircraft with dive bombing capability. The Hawker Henley was a two-seat version of the Battle of Britain -winning Hawker Hurricane . It was fast, at almost 300 mph (480 km/h) at sea level and 450 mph (720 km/h) in a dive, but development
SECTION 10
#17328520914162352-542: A dive bomber. It had dive brakes that doubled as flaps for carrier landings. The Hawker Henley had a top speed only 50 mph (80 km/h) slower than the Hawker Hurricane fighter from which it was derived. The American and Japanese navies and the Luftwaffe chose vertical dive bombers whose low speed had dire consequences when they encountered modern fighters. The Royal Naval Air Service developed dive bombing as
2548-692: A few North American P-51 Mustangs from a British order but, as there were no funds to buy more fighters, they were modified as dive bombers with a new wing and with dive brakes. First flown in October 1942 as the North American A-36 Apache , they arrived in Morocco in April 1943 to assist with driving the Afrika Korps out of Africa. The aircraft was very fast at low altitude. It was also accident-prone, achieving
2744-676: A fur trading settlement at the present location of Nashville near the Cumberland River . In 1739, the French constructed Fort Assumption under Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville on the Mississippi River at the present location of Memphis, which they used as a base against the Chickasaw during the 1739 Campaign of the Chickasaw Wars . In the 1750s and 1760s, longhunters from Virginia explored much of East and Middle Tennessee. Settlers from
2940-660: A group of Overmountain Men from Fort Watauga to the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina, where they defeated the British. Three counties of the Washington District broke off from North Carolina in 1784 and formed the State of Franklin . Efforts to obtain admission to the Union failed, and the counties, now numbering eight, rejoined North Carolina by 1788. North Carolina ceded
3136-422: A handful of pilots who have been forgotten in the overwhelming mass of the heavy-and medium bomber fleets that were pounding both Europe and Asia by 1945." This capacity was exemplified in the raid by RAAF Nos. 21 and 23 Squadrons on Hansa Bay . Smith wrote, "...the jungle-clad hills and islands of forgotten or unknown lands would become the major stage for the ultimate expression of the dive-bombers' skill." While
3332-413: A horizontal bomber veers offline while approaching the bomb release point, turning to the angle that would correct this also changes the speed of the aircraft over the ground (when there is a wind) and thereby changes the range as well. In the 1930s and early 1940s, dive bombing was the best method for attacking high-value compact targets, like bridges and ships , with accuracy. The forces generated when
3528-513: A limited number of aircraft available for attack, each with only a small bomb load. Targets were often likely to be small or fast-moving and the need for accuracy made dive bombers essential. Ernst Udet , a German First World War ace, persuaded Hermann Göring to buy two Curtiss Hawk IIs for the newly reformed Luftwaffe . Udet, then a stunt pilot, flew one in aerobatic displays during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games . Due to his connections with
3724-597: A low priority for Allied air planners, and forces in that theater got what was left over. Aircraft such as the Vickers Wellington and Hawker Hurricane spent their last days in Burma. The Vengeance saw considerable action attacking Japanese supply, communications and troop concentrations in Burma. Its service in that theater has been described as "...very effective." Peter Smith, author of Jungle Dive Bombers at War , wrote that, "Their pilots had difficulty in getting them off
3920-631: A more diversified economy. This was aided in part by massive federal investment in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the city of Oak Ridge , which was established during World War II to house the Manhattan Project 's uranium enrichment facilities for the construction of the world's first atomic bombs . After the war, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory became a key center of scientific research. The state's economy
4116-587: A name later reused by Curtiss for other dive bombers. The Imperial Japanese Navy ordered the Heinkel He 50 in 1931 as a floatplane and carrier-based dive bomber and embarked some on new carriers from 1935 in a developed form as the Heinkel He 66 , from which the Aichi D1A was further developed in Japan. The Luftwaffe confiscated a Chinese export shipment and ordered more. Navies increasingly operated carriers, which had
SECTION 20
#17328520914164312-503: A number of Vengeance Mk IV series Is were made available to the 8th Air Force and assigned to target-towing flights and Combat Crew Replacement Center stations. All armament was removed and a light cable winch fitted in the rear fuselage for sleeve towing. Some of these aircraft continued to be flown with British national markings and serial numbers. By late June 1944, there were seven A-35Bs at RAF Cluntoe , seven at Greencastle, ten at RAF Sutton Bridge and six at RAF East Wretham . When
4508-559: A population of 35,691 in the first United States census that year, including 3,417 slaves. As support for statehood grew among the settlers, Governor Blount called for elections, which were held in December 1793. The 13-member territorial House of Representatives first convened in Knoxville on February 24, 1794, to select ten members for the legislature's upper house, the council. The full legislature convened on August 25, 1794. In June 1795,
4704-472: A second referendum on secession by a 69–31% margin, becoming the last state to secede. In response, East Tennessee Unionists organized a convention in Knoxville with the goal of splitting the region to form a new state loyal to the Union. In the fall of 1861, Unionist guerrillas in East Tennessee burned bridges and attacked Confederate sympathizers, leading the Confederacy to invoke martial law in parts of
4900-738: A single day. Rudel co-wrote a post-war book about his experiences and consulted with the US Air Force. When Italy joined the war (10 June 1940) on the Axis side, the Regia Aeronautica shipped Breda Ba.65s to North Africa for use against the British but they also proved vulnerable. By February 1941 British fighters had shot down most of the Italian planes. In Morocco on 11 November 1942, American Curtiss P-40 Warhawks shot down 15 Ju 87Ds in one encounter. The United States Army Air Forces took delivery of
5096-521: A staff officer, and Basil Liddell-Hart (a military journalist) propounded the concept of mobile tank forces supported by ground-attack aircraft creating a breakthrough. These were eagerly studied by the German army officer Heinz Guderian , who created the combination of Panzers and dive bombers that later proved so potent in Poland and France. The Ju 87 Stuka could be used as aerial artillery moving far ahead of
5292-554: A steep angle, normally between 45 and 60 degrees or even up to a near vertical dive of 80 degrees with the Junkers Ju 87 , and thus requires an abrupt pull-up after dropping its bombs. This puts great strains on both the pilot and aircraft. It demands an aircraft of strong construction, with some means to slow its dive. This limited the class to light bomber designs with ordnance loads in the range of 1,000 lb (450 kg) although there were larger examples. The most famous examples are
5488-439: A straight line directly towards the defenders. At higher levels, this was less of a problem, as larger AA (anti-aircraft) shells were fused to explode at specific altitudes, which is impossible to determine while the plane is diving. In addition, most higher-altitude gunners and gunnery systems were designed to calculate the lateral movement of a target; while diving, the target appears almost stationary. Also, many AA mounts lacked
5684-423: A straight line of sight to the target. This was simplified as the aircraft was pointed directly at the target, making sighting over the nose much easier. Differences in the path of different bombs due to differing ballistics can be corrected by selecting a standardised bombing altitude and then adjusting the dive angle slightly for each case. As the bomber dives, the aim could be continually adjusted. In contrast, when
5880-616: A tactic against Zeppelin hangars and formed and trained a squadron at Manchester for this task. On 8 October 1914, a Sopwith Tabloid with two 50 lb (23 kg) bombs attacked a hangar at Düsseldorf after a dive to 600 ft (180 m). On 14 November 1914, four Avro 504s attacked the Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance , diving from 1,200 ft (370 m) to 500 ft (150 m) to ensure hits. As Zeppelins were tethered close to stores of hydrogen, results were often spectacular. The first use of dive bombing by
6076-561: A tank-buster Stuka with 20mm cannon, he claimed over 100 Soviet tanks destroyed, mostly at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943. The Ju 87G Kanonenvogel , equipped with two 37mm BK 3,7 anti-tank guns, as suggested by Rudel, proved to be a lethal weapon in skilled hands. In the Soviet counter-offensive, Operation Kutuzov (July to August 1943), which concluded Kursk, the Luftwaffe claimed 35 tanks destroyed in
Vultee A-31 Vengeance - Misplaced Pages Continue
6272-447: A virtually straight line between release and impact, eliminating the need for complex calculations. The aircraft simply aims at the target and releases its bombs. The primary source of error is the effect of wind on the bomb's flight path after release. As bombs are streamlined and heavy, wind has only a slight effect on them and the bomb is likely to fall within its lethal radius of the target. Bomb sighting becomes trivial, requiring only
6468-405: Is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughout the bomb run. This allows attacks on point targets and ships, which were difficult to attack with conventional level bombers , even en masse . After World War II ,
6664-616: Is characterized by relatively level plains dotted by rolling hills, and the Western Highland Rim and western Nashville Basin are covered with uneven rounded knobs with steep ravines separated by meandering streams. The Nashville Basin has rich, fertile farmland, and porous limestone bedrock very close to the surface underlies both the Nashville Basin and Eastern Highland Rim. This results in karst that forms numerous caves, sinkholes, depressions, and underground streams. West of
6860-658: Is displayed at the Camden Museum of Aviation at Narellan, New South Wales , Australia . Components of Vengeance IIA A24-247 are held at the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society , Australia, to form the basis of a restoration project. Data from British Warplanes of World War II. General characteristics Performance Armament Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Model numbering continued by Convair Dive bomber A dive bomber
7056-420: Is dominated by the health care , music , finance , automotive , chemical , electronics , and tourism sectors, and cattle , soybeans , poultry , corn , and cotton are its primary agricultural products. Tennessee has played a major role in the development of many forms of popular music , including country , blues , rock and roll , soul , and gospel . Tennessee derives its name most directly from
7252-400: Is far enough from the coast to avoid any direct impact from a hurricane, its location makes it susceptible to the remnants of tropical cyclones , which weaken over land and can cause significant rainfall. The state annually averages about 50 days of thunderstorms, which can be severe with large hail and damaging winds. Tornadoes are possible throughout the state, with West and Middle Tennessee
7448-743: Is in the Green River watershed. All three of these basins are tributaries of the Ohio River watershed. Most of West Tennessee is in the Lower Mississippi River watershed. The entirety of the state is in the Mississippi River watershed , except for a small sliver near the southeastern corner traversed by the Conasauga River , which is part of the Mobile Bay watershed. Tennessee is within
7644-630: Is known as the Trail of Tears , and an estimated 4,000 died along the way. As settlers pushed west of the Cumberland Plateau, a slavery-based agrarian economy took hold in these regions. Cotton planters used extensive slave labor on large plantation complexes in West Tennessee's fertile and flat terrain after the Jackson Purchase. Cotton also took hold in the Nashville Basin during this time. Entrepreneurs such as Montgomery Bell used slaves in
7840-559: Is relatively distinct, but the western escarpment is irregular, containing several long, crooked stream valleys separated by rocky cliffs with numerous waterfalls . The Cumberland Mountains , with peaks above 3,500 feet (1,100 m), comprise the northeastern part of the Appalachian Plateau in Tennessee, and the southeastern part of the Cumberland Plateau is divided by the Sequatchie Valley . The Cumberland Trail traverses
8036-574: Is the most biodiverse national park, and the Duck River is the most biologically diverse waterway in North America. The Nashville Basin is renowned for its diversity of flora and fauna. Tennessee is home to 340 species of birds, 325 freshwater fish species, 89 mammals, 77 amphibians, and 61 reptiles. Forests cover about 52% of Tennessee's land area, with oak–hickory the dominant type. Appalachian oak–pine and cove hardwood forests are found in
Vultee A-31 Vengeance - Misplaced Pages Continue
8232-401: Is water. It is the 16th smallest state in land area. The state is about 440 miles (710 km) long from east to west and 112 miles (180 km) wide from north to south. Tennessee is geographically, culturally, economically, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions : East Tennessee , Middle Tennessee , and West Tennessee . It borders eight other states: Kentucky and Virginia to
8428-514: The Manumission Intelligencier (later The Emancipator ), the nation's first exclusively anti-slavery newspaper. At the onset of the American Civil War , most Middle and West Tennesseans favored efforts to preserve their slavery-based economies, but many Middle Tennesseans were initially skeptical of secession. In East Tennessee, most people favored remaining in the Union. In 1860, slaves composed about 25% of Tennessee's population,
8624-429: The 2020 United States census is approximately 6.9 million. Tennessee is geographically, culturally, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions of East , Middle , and West Tennessee . Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, and anchors its largest metropolitan area. Tennessee has diverse terrain and landforms, and from east to west, contains a mix of cultural features characteristic of Appalachia ,
8820-614: The Appalachian Mountains in an effort to mitigate conflicts with the Natives. But migration across the mountains continued, and the first permanent European settlers began arriving in northeastern Tennessee in the late 1760s. Most of them were English , but nearly 20% were Scotch-Irish . They formed the Watauga Association in 1772, a semi-autonomous representative government, and three years later reorganized themselves into
9016-478: The Battle of Britain (July to October 1940). Losses were such that the Luftwaffe rapidly withdrew Stukas from operations over the United Kingdom. A similar fate befell unescorted RAF Fairey Battles over France. The Stuka had 7.92mm machine guns or 20mm cannons mounted in the wings. Some were modified to destroy tanks with heavy calibre, 37mm Bordkanone BK 3,7 autocannons mounted in gun pods below
9212-626: The Battle of Imphal and Battle of Kohima of April–July 1944. Following the successful defeat of the Japanese attack, the RAF and IAF started to phase out the Vengeance in favour of more versatile fighter bombers and twin-engine light bombers; the last Vengeance operations over Burma were carried out on 16 July 1944. After Burma service, a detachment from 110 Squadron RAF was sent to Takoradi in West Africa via
9408-519: The Battle of the Coral Sea , and fought in every US battle involving carrier aircraft. An alternative technique, glide-bombing, allowed the use of heavier aircraft, which faced far greater difficulties in recovering from near-vertical approaches, though it required greater use of sophisticated bombsights and aiming techniques, by a specialised member of aircrews, namely a bombardier/bomb aimer . The crews of multi-engined dive-bombers, such as variants of
9604-494: The Blackburn Skua , Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, Aichi D3A "Val" , Douglas Dauntless , Breda Ba.65 and Curtiss SB2C Helldiver , indicated that the Vengeance would be vulnerable to enemy fighters. To be effective, all those aircraft required an environment of local air superiority and fighter escort. Fighter escort and lack of fighter opposition in the theatres in which it served, combined with its vertical dive capability, meant that
9800-887: The Blue Ridge Mountains , Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , and Cumberland Plateau , part of the Appalachian Mountains ; the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin , part of the Interior Low Plateaus of the Interior Plains ; and the East Gulf Coastal Plain , part of the Atlantic Plains . Other regions include the southern tip of the Cumberland Mountains , the Western Tennessee Valley , and
9996-431: The Chattanooga campaign , Confederates attempted to besiege the Army of the Cumberland into surrendering, but reinforcements from the Army of the Tennessee under the command of Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman , and Joseph Hooker arrived. The Confederates were driven from the city at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in November 1863. Despite Unionist sentiment in East Tennessee, Confederates held
SECTION 50
#173285209141610192-511: The Cherokee town of Tanasi (or "Tanase", in syllabary : ᏔᎾᏏ) in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee , on the Tanasi River, now known as the Little Tennessee River . In 1567, Spanish explorer Captain Juan Pardo and his party encountered a Native American village named "Tanasqui" in the area while traveling inland from modern-day South Carolina ; however, it is unknown if this was the same settlement as Tanasi. The town appeared on British maps as early as 1725. Recent research suggests that
10388-534: The Cherokee National Forest , the Great Smoky Mountains National Park , and several federal wilderness areas and state parks. The Appalachian Trail roughly follows the North Carolina state line before shifting westward into Tennessee. Stretching west from the Blue Ridge Mountains for about 55 miles (89 km) are the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , also known as the Tennessee Valley or Great Valley of East Tennessee. This area consists of linear parallel ridges separated by valleys that trend northeast to southwest,
10584-461: The Colony of South Carolina built Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee River in 1756, the first British settlement in what is now Tennessee and the westernmost British outpost to that date. Hostilities erupted between the British and the Cherokees into an armed conflict , and a siege of the fort ended with its surrender in 1760. After the French and Indian War , Britain issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , which forbade settlements west of
10780-406: The Confederacy , and most of the eastern region harboring pro - Union sentiment. As a result, Tennessee was the last state to officially secede from the Union and join the Confederacy , and the first former Confederate state readmitted to the Union after the war had ended during the Reconstruction era . During the 20th century, Tennessee transitioned from a predominantly agrarian society to
10976-406: The Douglas A-20 Havoc , first flying in January 1939, for a similar role, although originally ordered by France. Many were also supplied to the Soviet Air Force, which also used the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik ground-attack aircraft in huge numbers. None of these were dive bombers. No Allied air force operated a modern dive bomber at the outbreak of the Second World War, although both the Royal Navy and
11172-430: The Emancipation Proclamation was announced, Tennessee was largely held by Union forces and thus not among the states enumerated, so it freed no slaves there. Andrew Johnson declared all slaves in Tennessee free on October 24, 1864. On February 22, 1865, the legislature approved an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting slavery, which was approved by voters the following month, and would go into effect later on in
11368-496: The Fairey Swordfish from 1936 and Blackburn Skuas from November 1938. The Skua had a secondary function of intercepting attacks by unescorted long-range bombers. With four .303 Browning guns and another rear-facing gun, it was expected to defend against air attack with a top speed of 225 mph (362 km/h) at sea level, which was a low-altitude speed comparable with other navies' carrier borne fighters in 1938–39. The Royal Navy's dedicated, pre- and early-war, fleet fighter
11564-409: The Great Smoky Mountains , Bald Mountains , Unicoi Mountains , Unaka Mountains , and Iron Mountains . These mountains, which average 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above sea level in Tennessee, contain some of the highest elevations in eastern North America. The state's border with North Carolina roughly follows the highest peaks of this range, including Kuwohi. Most of the Blue Ridge area is protected by
11760-409: The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka , which was widely used during the opening stages of World War II , the Aichi D3A "Val" dive bomber, which sank more Allied warships during the war than any other Axis aircraft, and the Douglas SBD Dauntless , which sank more Japanese shipping than any other allied aircraft type. The SBD Dauntless helped win the Battle of Midway , was instrumental in the victory at
11956-444: The Junkers Ju 88 and Petlyakov Pe-2 , frequently used this technique. The heaviest aircraft to have dive-bombing included in its design and development, the four-engined Heinkel He 177 , also utilised a glide-bombing approach; the requirement that the He 177 be able to dive/glide-bomb delayed its development and impaired its overall performance. Dive bombing was most widely used before and during World War II; its use declined during
SECTION 60
#173285209141612152-448: The Lend-Lease scheme, with those given the US Army Air Corps designation 'A-31'. After the U.S. entered the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor , a number of V-72 and A-31 aircraft were repossessed for use by the USAAF . As the USAAF became interested in dive bombing, it decided to order production of an improved version of the Vengeance, designated the A-35 , for both its own use and for supply to its allies under Lend-Lease. It
12348-441: The Mississippi Alluvial Plain . The state's highest point, which is also the third-highest peak in eastern North America, is Kuwohi , at 6,643 feet (2,025 m) above sea level. Its lowest point, 178 feet (54 m), is on the Mississippi River at the Mississippi state line in Memphis. Tennessee has the most caves in the United States, with more than 10,000 documented. Geological formations in Tennessee largely correspond with
12544-425: The Muscogee Creek , Yuchi , and Shawnee . By the early 18th century, most Natives in Tennessee had disappeared, most likely wiped out by diseases introduced by the Spaniards. The Cherokee began migrating into what is now eastern Tennessee from what is now Virginia in the latter 17th century, possibly to escape expanding European settlement and diseases in the north. They forced the Creek, Yuchi, and Shawnee out of
12740-424: The Nazi party , he became the development director of the Ministry of Aviation , where he pushed for dive bomber development. Dive bombing would allow a low-cost Luftwaffe to operate effectively in the tactical role. Against small targets, a single-engine dive bomber could achieve four times the accuracy at one tenth of the cost of a four-engine heavy bomber, such as the projected Ural bomber , and it could reach
12936-407: The New Guinea campaign . Australian Vengeances flew their last operational sorties on 8 March 1944, as they were considered less efficient than fighter bombers, having a short range and requiring a long runway, and were withdrawn to allow more effective fighter bombers to move into the forward area. The Vengeance squadrons were re-equipped with Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers. The view of
13132-418: The Oise River to block rapidly advancing German armour. Stukas quickly broke the defences, and the Wehrmacht forced a crossing long before German artillery arrived. On 12/13 May 1940, Stukas flew 300 sorties against strong French defensive positions at the Battle of Sedan . This enabled German forces to make a fast and unexpected breakthrough of the French lines, eventually leading to the German advance to
13328-422: The Royal Colonial Boundary of 1665 , but due to faulty surveys, begins north of this line in the east, and to the west, gradually veers north before shifting south onto the actual 36°30′ parallel at the Tennessee River in West Tennessee. Uncertainties in the latter 19th century over the location of the state's border with Virginia culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court settling the matter in 1893 , which resulted in
13524-464: The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) found its biplane two-seat bombers insufficiently accurate in operations on the Western Front . Commanders urged pilots to dive from their cruising altitude to under 500 ft (150 m) to have a better chance of hitting small targets, such as gun emplacements and trenches. As this exposed the aircraft and crew to destructive ground fire in their unprotected open cockpits, few followed this order. Some recorded altitude at
13720-429: The State of Tennessee , is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States . It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia , Alabama , and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the southwest, and Missouri to the northwest. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. Tennessee's population as of
13916-433: The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition in Nashville. A full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens was designed by architect William Crawford Smith and constructed for the celebration, owing to the city's reputation as the "Athens of the South". Due to increasing racial segregation and poor standards of living, many black Tennesseans fled to industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest as part of
14112-458: The Tennessee River , and the Mississippi River forms its western border. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park , the nation's most visited national park, is in eastern Tennessee. Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association , a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachian Mountains . Its name derives from Tanasi ( ᏔᎾᏏ ),
14308-510: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created in 1933 to provide electricity, jobs, flood control, improved waterway navigation, agricultural development, and economic modernization to the Tennessee River Valley . The TVA built several hydroelectric dams in the state in the 1930s and 1940s, which inundated communities and thousands of farmland acreage, and forcibly displaced families via eminent domain . The agency quickly grew into
14504-551: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operate many hydroelectric dams on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and their tributaries, which form large reservoirs throughout the state. About half the state's land area is in the Tennessee Valley drainage basin of the Tennessee River. The Cumberland River basin covers the northern half of Middle Tennessee and a small portion of East Tennessee. A small part of north-central Tennessee
14700-574: The U.S. Navy captured the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in February 1862 at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson . Grant then proceeded south to Pittsburg Landing and held off a Confederate counterattack at Shiloh in April in what was at the time the bloodiest battle of the war. Memphis fell to the Union in June after a naval battle on the Mississippi River. Union strength in Middle Tennessee
14896-568: The Upland South , and the Deep South . The Blue Ridge Mountains along the eastern border reach some of the highest elevations in eastern North America, and the Cumberland Plateau contains many scenic valleys and waterfalls . The central part of the state is marked by cavernous bedrock and irregular rolling hills, and level, fertile plains define West Tennessee. The state is twice bisected by
15092-570: The Washington District to support the cause of the American Revolutionary War . The next year, after an unsuccessful petition to Virginia, North Carolina agreed to annex the Washington District to provide protection from Native American attacks. In 1775, Richard Henderson negotiated a series of treaties with the Cherokee to sell the lands of the Watauga settlements at Sycamore Shoals on
15288-506: The Wehrmacht 's lightly armed parachute and airborne troops. The invasion of Poland (September to October 1939) and the Battle of France (May to June 1940) saw the Stuka used to devastating effect. German blitzkrieg tactics used dive bombers in place of artillery to support highly mobile ground troops. The British Expeditionary Force had set up strong defensive positions on the west bank of
15484-721: The whitewater slalom events at the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games were held on the Ocoee River in Polk County . In 2002, Tennessee amended its constitution to establish a lottery . In 2006, the state constitution was amended to outlaw same-sex marriage . This amendment was invalidated by the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges . On December 23, 2008, the largest industrial waste spill in United States history occurred at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant when more than 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry
15680-518: The "Cotton Capital of the World" during the late 19th century, and Nashville, Knoxville, and several smaller cities saw modest industrialization. Northerners also began exploiting the coalfields and mineral resources in the Appalachian Mountains. To pay off debts and alleviate overcrowded prisons, the state turned to convict leasing , providing prisoners to mining companies as strikebreakers , which
15876-654: The 36th and final state necessary to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which gave women the right to vote . In 1925, John T. Scopes , a high school teacher in Dayton , was tried and convicted for teaching evolution in violation of the state's recently passed Butler Act . Scopes was prosecuted by former Secretary of State and presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan and defended by attorney Clarence Darrow . The case
16072-522: The 37 Salamanders produced before the end of October 1918, only two were delivered to France, and the war ended before those saw action. Whether the Salamander counts in more modern parlance as a fighter-bomber or as a dive bomber depends on the definition of "dive". It had armoured protection for the pilot and a fuel system to attack at low level, but lacked dive brakes for a vertical dive. Heavy casualties resulting from air-to-ground attack on trenches set
16268-682: The A-31 saw extensive front-line combat with the 10th Air Force located in China throughout the spring of 1944. As many as 60 A-31's could be fielded for a single mission. The A-31 first saw combat in China on 14 March 1944, when 41 A-31's along with British aircraft hit targets in Arakan and Chin Hills China. It was last used on 25 May 1944, when 20 A-31s scored bombing hits on the Manipar R bridge at Tonzang. From April 1944,
16464-670: The Air Service United States Army , arranged tests with captured German and obsolete US ships in June and July 1921 and repeated over the next two years using Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5as as dive bombers and Handley Page O/400s and Martin NBS-1s as level bombers carrying bombs of different weights up to 2,000 lb (910 kg). The SMS Ostfriesland was sunk and so later were the USS Alabama , USS Virginia and USS New Jersey . Opposite conclusions were drawn by
16660-540: The Blue Ridge Mountains and Cumberland Plateau, and bottomland hardwood forests are common throughout the Gulf Coastal Plain. Pine forests are also found throughout the state. The Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest in the highest elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains is considered the second-most endangered ecosystem in the country. Some of the last remaining large American chestnut trees grow in
16856-559: The Blue Ridge Mountains and on the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee has the third-highest number of amphibian species, with the Great Smoky Mountains home to the most salamander species in the world. The state ranks second in the nation for the diversity of its freshwater fish species. Most of Tennessee has a humid subtropical climate , with the exception of some of the higher elevations in the Appalachians, which are classified as
17052-557: The CCRCs were dissolved in the autumn, the Vengeances were transferred to combat groups, with most fighter and several bomber groups having one on hand at some time during 1945. A-35Bs did not show a high state of serviceability by this time and were generally considered troublesome to maintain. They were also designated RA-35B (R for Restricted) by this time. One complete Vengeance IA that did not see squadron service, serial number A27-99 (EZ999),
17248-555: The Channel and the cutting off of much of the Allied army. The skies over Sedan also showed the Stuka's weakness when met with fighter opposition; six French Curtiss H-75s attacked a formation of unescorted Ju 87s and shot down 11 out of 12 without loss. The Stuka was even more vulnerable to the Hawker Hurricane with its 100 mph (160 km/h) speed edge and eight machine guns, which it first met over France and then in larger numbers in
17444-504: The Cherokees adapted the name from the Yuchi word Tana-tsee-dgee , meaning "brother-waters-place" or "where-the-waters-meet". The modern spelling, Tennessee , is attributed to Governor James Glen of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. In 1788, North Carolina created " Tennessee County ", and in 1796, a constitutional convention , organizing
17640-713: The Chickasaw to sell the land between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers to the United States, which included all of West Tennessee and became known as the " Jackson Purchase ". The Cherokee moved their capital from Georgia to the Red Clay Council Grounds in southeastern Tennessee in 1832, due to new laws forcing them from their previous capital at New Echota . In 1838 and 1839, U.S. troops forcibly removed thousands of Cherokees and their black slaves from their homes in southeastern Tennessee and forced them to march to Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma . This event
17836-636: The French Lick. These settlers constructed Fort Nashborough , which they named for Francis Nash , a brigadier general of the Continental Army . The next year, the settlers signed the Cumberland Compact , which established a representative government for the colony called the Cumberland Association . This settlement later grew into the city of Nashville. That same year John Sevier led
18032-806: The German Junkers Ju 87 , "Stuka" was shopping for a dive bomber for the Royal Air Force , and as it was the only aircraft available, placed an order for 200 V-72s (named Vengeance by Vultee) on 3 July 1940, with orders for a further 100 being placed in December. As Vultee's factory at Downey was already busy building BT-13 Valiant trainers, the aircraft were to be built at the Stinson factory at Nashville , and under license by Northrop at Hawthorne, California . The first prototype V-72 flew from Vultee's factory at Downey, California, on 30 March 1941. Additional aircraft were ordered for Britain in June 1941 under
18228-562: The German battleship Tirpitz which lay protected by torpedo nets in a Norwegian fjord during 1944. On 3 April 1944, in Operation Tungsten , 42 aircraft flying from the carriers HMS Victorious and HMS Furious scored 14 hits with 500 lb (230 kg) and 1,600 lb (730 kg) bombs and put the battleship out of action for over two months. Tennessee Tennessee ( / ˌ t ɛ n ɪ ˈ s iː / , locally / ˈ t ɛ n ɪ s i / ), officially
18424-676: The Highland Rim is the Western Tennessee Valley , which consists of about 10 miles (16 km) in width of hilly land along the banks of the Tennessee River. West of this is the Gulf Coastal Plain , a broad feature that begins at the Gulf of Mexico and extends northward into southern Illinois . The plain begins in the east with low rolling hills and wide stream valleys, known as the West Tennessee Highlands, and gradually levels out to
18620-527: The Kittyhawk could not carry the same bomb load even after their undercarriage had been strengthened. I remember the Vultee as a lovely aircraft to fly, an aircraft that was hard to stall and was fully aerobatic. You could do anything in them, rolls, loops, stall turns, and there was enough room in the cockpit to hold a ball. I used to like flying them, although a lot of blokes thought that they were too cumbersome." By
18816-516: The Luftwaffe. Udet was impressed with the Stuka's performance in Spain, so he ordered that the Junkers Ju 88 medium bomber should also be retrofitted as a dive bomber. He also insisted, against the advice of Ernst Heinkel , that the Heinkel He 177 bomber, ordered in November 1937, be able to dive bomb. Lack of a sufficiently powerful, reliable powerplant fatally compromised its utility, it never performed in
19012-583: The Middle East, a number of aircraft breaking down en route. Between September and December 1944, 11 Vultees took part in air-spraying trials against malarial mosquitoes , using under wing spray dispensers. Although phased out of front line service with the RAF, Britain continued to receive large numbers of Vengeances, with bulk deliveries of Lend Lease aircraft (as opposed to those purchased directly by Britain) having only just started. Many of these surplus aircraft, including most Vengeance Mk IVs, were delivered to
19208-502: The Nashville Basin and are being used to help breed blight -resistant trees. Middle Tennessee is home to many unusual and rare ecosystems known as cedar glades , which occur in areas with shallow limestone bedrock that is largely barren of overlying soil and contain many endemic plant species. Common mammals found throughout Tennessee include white-tailed deer , red and gray foxes , coyotes , raccoons , opossums , wild turkeys , rabbits , and squirrels . Black bears are found in
19404-660: The RAAF still had 58 Vengeances on order in March 1944, this order was cancelled and the aircraft were never delivered. Small numbers of Vengeances remained in service with support and trials units until 1946. Thirty-three V-72s and A-35s were supplied to Brazil from 1943, carrying out a few anti-submarine patrols. They were withdrawn by April 1948. The Free French Air Force received 67 A-35As and -Bs in 1943, being used to equip three bomb groups in North Africa. The French, however, keen to get
19600-447: The RAF and USAS, from two very different tests regarding the usefulness of dive bombers, with the RAF concluding that the cost in pilots was too high to justify the results and the USAS considering it as a potent anti-ship weapon. Both naval staffs opposed the view taken by the respective airmen. In 1919, United States Marine Corps (USMC) pilot Lt. L. H. Sanderson mounted a rifle in front of
19796-868: The RFC, which had been urging its pilots to drop bombs at heights below 500 ft (150 m) in order to hit within 150 ft (46 m) of the target since February 1915, was later that year. On 27 November 1915, Lieutenant Duncan Grinnell-Milne arrived in his Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c over railway marshalling yards near Lys in Northern France, to find the target already crowded by other bombers. He dived from 10,000 ft (3,000 m) to 2,000 ft (610 m) before releasing his 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs. A few weeks later, Lieutenant Arthur Gould dived to just 100 ft (30 m) to hit buildings near Arras. The Royal Flying Corps developed strafing with diving aircraft using both machine guns and small bombs as
19992-485: The Spanish Civil War. Several problems appeared, including the tendency of the fixed undercarriage to sink into soft ground and an inability to take-off with a full bomb load. Condor Legion 's experience in Spain demonstrated the value of dive bombers, especially on the morale of troops or civilians unprotected by air cover. The aircraft did not encounter opposing modern fighters, which concealed its vulnerability from
20188-452: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Oak Ridge High School in 1955 became the first school in Tennessee to be integrated . The next year, nearby Clinton High School was integrated, and Tennessee National Guard troops were sent in after pro-segregationists threatened violence. Between February and May 1960,
20384-562: The UK and modified as target tugs , being used in that role both by the RAF and the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). In those roles, all armament was removed from the aircraft. Australia placed an order for 400 Vengeances as an emergency measure following the outbreak of war in the Pacific, which was met by a mixture of Lend Lease and diversions from the original British orders. While the first Vengeance
20580-599: The US Navy had shipboard dive bombers. On 10 April 1940, 16 British Royal Navy Blackburn Skuas flying at extreme range from the naval air station at Hatston in Orkney led by Lieutenant Commander William Lucy sank the German cruiser Königsberg in Bergen harbour, whilst trying to prevent the German invasion of Norway . On the German side Stukas augmented or replaced artillery support for
20776-459: The V-72. It was armed with fixed forward-firing and flexible-mounted .30 in (7.62 mm) machine guns in the rear cockpit. The aircraft carried up to 1,500 lb (680 kg) of bombs in an interior bomb bay and on external wing racks. The Vengeance was uniquely designed to dive vertically without lift from the wing pulling the aircraft off target. To this end, it had a 0° angle of incidence on
20972-491: The Vengeance suffered only light combat losses. Early experience with the aircraft showed that there were problems with engine cooling. In service, the RAF managed to solve those problems, but Free French aircraft that did not have these problems remedied were grounded, being declared uneconomical and unreliable to operate. The aircraft was described as being stable in flight and in a dive, with heavy elevator and rudder control, but with light aileron control. Forward visibility
21168-569: The Vengeance's limitations is disputed by Peter Smith in Jungle Dive Bombers at War , "The precision and skill of the dive-bombing method...and its clear superiority over most other means of air attack when it came to destroying small and well-hidden targets in difficult country, was proven over and over again in the Asian jungle campaigns. Yet the men who achieved these excellent results, for such economy of effort and comparatively small loss, were but
21364-403: The Vultee plant in Nashville, Tennessee . Indecision about which aircraft type should replace it in production at the Vultee plant led to several "make-work" contracts for Vengeance aircraft to prevent dispersion of the skilled workforce. That resulted in the overproduction of what was considered an obsolete aircraft. Operational experience with other dive bomber aircraft of the period, such as
21560-522: The Woodland period. Later generations of Woodland peoples constructed the first mounds. Rapid civilizational development occurred during the Mississippian period, when Indigenous peoples developed organized chiefdoms and constructed numerous ceremonial structures throughout the state. Spanish conquistadors who explored the region in the 16th century encountered some of the Mississippian peoples, including
21756-405: The ability to fire directly up, so dive bombers were almost never exposed to fire from directly ahead. Dive brakes were employed on many designs to create drag which slowed the aircraft in its dive and increased accuracy. Air brakes on modern aircraft function in a similar manner in bleeding off excessive speed. It is difficult to establish how dive bombing originated. During World War I ,
21952-417: The aircraft can time the drop of its bombs at the instant when the target is lined up in the sight. This was only effective for "area bombing", however, since the path of the bomb is only roughly estimated. Large formations could drop bombs on an area hoping to hit a specific target, but there was no guarantee of success, and huge areas around the target would also be hit. The advantage to this approach, however,
22148-405: The aircraft levels out at the bottom of the dive are considerable. The drawback of modifying and strengthening an aircraft for near-vertical dives was the loss of performance. Aside from the greater strength requirements, during normal horizontal flight, aircraft are normally designed to return to fly straight and level, but when put into a dive the changes in forces affecting the aircraft now cause
22344-700: The aircraft operational as soon as possible did not incorporate improvements found necessary by Britain and Australia, so their aircraft proved to be unreliable and had extremely high oil consumption. As such, they were restricted to training operations, being finally withdrawn in September 1944. While the U.S. received 243 V-72s and A-31s diverted from the RAF orders together with large numbers of A-35s specifically built for it, these saw no combat, being used as initial equipment for light bomber squadrons that re-equipped with twin-engine aircraft before deploying overseas, and as trainers or target tugs. According to other sources
22540-419: The aircraft to track across the target unless the pilot applies considerable force to keep the nose down, with a corresponding decrease in accuracy. To compensate, many dive bombers were designed to be trimmed out, either through the use of special dive flaps (such as Fairey Youngman flaps ) or through changes in tailplane trim that must be readjusted when the dive is completed. The Vultee Vengeance , which
22736-558: The area for most of the war. A few days after the fall of Chattanooga, Confederates led by James Longstreet unsuccessfully campaigned to take control of Knoxville by attacking Union General Ambrose Burnside 's Fort Sanders . The capture of Chattanooga allowed Sherman to launch the Atlanta campaign from the city in May 1864. The last major battles in the state came when Army of Tennessee regiments under John Bell Hood invaded Middle Tennessee in
22932-691: The area to the federal government in 1790, after which it was organized into the Southwest Territory on May 26 of that year. The act allowed the territory to petition for statehood once the population reached 60,000. Administration of the territory was divided between the Washington District and the Mero District, the latter of which consisted of the Cumberland Association and was named for Spanish territorial governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró . President George Washington appointed William Blount as territorial governor. The Southwest Territory recorded
23128-714: The banks of the Watauga River . An agreement to sell land for the Transylvania Colony , which included the territory in Tennessee north of the Cumberland River, was also signed. Later that year, Daniel Boone , under Henderson's employment, blazed a trail from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap , which became part of the Wilderness Road , a major thoroughfare into Tennessee and Kentucky. The Chickamauga,
23324-482: The basis for the blitzkrieg tactics of using dive bombers with tanks employed by the Germans in 1939–40. Second Lieutenant William Henry Brown , a Canadian from British Columbia serving with the RFC and flying a Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a , made the first attack on a vessel on 14 March 1918, destroying an ammunition barge on a canal at Bernot near St Quentin, diving to 500 ft (150 m) to release his bombs. He
23520-550: The battlefield well ahead of field artillery. Soon the Luftwaffe issued a contract for its own dive bomber design, resulting in the Junkers K 47 , which, following extensive trials, would in turn result in the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka (a contraction of Sturzkampfflugzeug , literally 'diving combat airplane'). Several early Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers, which first flew on 13 September 1935, were shipped secretly from Germany to Spain to assist General Francisco Franco 's Nationalist rebels in
23716-430: The bomb to accelerate after it is dropped. The combination of these two forces, drag and gravity, results in a complex pseudo- parabolic trajectory . The distance that the bomb moves forward while it falls is known as its range. If the range for a given set of conditions is calculated, simple trigonometry can be used to find the angle between the aircraft and the target. By setting the bombsight to this "range angle",
23912-406: The country's largest electric utility and initiated a period of dramatic economic growth and transformation that brought many new industries and employment opportunities to the state. During World War II , East Tennessee was chosen for the production of weapons-grade fissile enriched uranium as part of the Manhattan Project , a research and development undertaking led by the U.S. to produce
24108-453: The cultural groups who inhabited the area before European contact are unknown, but archaeologists have named several distinct cultural phases, including the Archaic (8000–1000 BC), Woodland (1000 BC–1000 AD), and Mississippian (1000–1600 AD) periods. The Archaic peoples first domesticated dogs, and plants such as squash , corn , gourds , and sunflowers were first grown in Tennessee during
24304-460: The dive bomber role, and the requirement was eventually dropped. Some 23 Breda Ba 65s were flown by Italian pilots also in support of Nationalist forces. First flown in 1935, it was a single-seat dive bomber carrying the same bomb load as the Stuka with a 30 mph (48 km/h) speed advantage in level flight. As the Royal Navy again took control of the Fleet Air Arm , it began to receive
24500-408: The division between Middle and West Tennessee. Tennessee's eastern boundary roughly follows the highest crests of the Blue Ridge Mountains , and the Mississippi River forms its western boundary. Due to flooding of the Mississippi that has changed its path, the state's western boundary deviates from the river in some places. The northern border was originally defined as 36°30′ north latitude and
24696-455: The division of Bristol between the two states. An 1818 survey erroneously placed Tennessee's southern border 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the 35th parallel ; Georgia legislators continue to dispute this placement , as it prevents Georgia from accessing the Tennessee River. Marked by a diversity of landforms and topographies, Tennessee features six principal physiographic provinces , from east to west, which are part of three larger regions:
24892-514: The eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains. West of the Cumberland Plateau is the Highland Rim , an elevated plain that surrounds the Nashville Basin , a geological dome . Both of these physiographic provinces are part of the Interior Low Plateaus of the larger Interior Plains . The Highland Rim is Tennessee's largest geographic region, and is often split into eastern and western halves. The Eastern Highland Rim
25088-602: The end of the war. Colonel, later general, Billy Mitchell arrived in France with the first US Army and Air Force units soon after 6 April 1917 and began to organise the US Army Air Force flying French Salmson 2s , a spotter plane. The later Salmson 4 was to be a ground attack and dive bomber, but production was cancelled at the end of the war. Mitchell became a strong advocate of dive bombers after witnessing British and French aerial attacks. Mitchell, by now assistant chief of
25284-612: The entirety of East Tennessee from northwestern Alabama to southwestern Virginia, and is considered one of the most active zones in the Southeastern United States, frequently producing low-magnitude earthquakes. The New Madrid seismic zone in the northwestern part of the state produced a series of devastating earthquakes between December 1811 and February 1812 that formed Reelfoot Lake near Tiptonville . The southwestern Blue Ridge Mountains lie within Tennessee's eastern edge, and are divided into several subranges, namely
25480-453: The fact that other states had not yet ratified it. Johnson became vice president when Lincoln was reelected , and president after Lincoln's assassination in May 1865. On July 24, 1866, Tennessee became the first Confederate state to have its elected members readmitted to Congress. The years after the Civil War were characterized by tension and unrest between blacks and former Confederates,
25676-428: The fall of 1864 in an effort to draw Sherman back. They were checked by John Schofield at Franklin in November and completely dispersed by George Thomas at Nashville in December. On April 27, 1865, the worst maritime disaster in American history occurred when the Sultana steamboat, which was transporting freed Union prisoners, exploded in the Mississippi River north of Memphis, killing 1,168 people. When
25872-518: The first wave of the Great Migration between 1915 and 1930. Many residents of rural parts of Tennessee relocated to larger cities during this time for more lucrative employment opportunities. As part of the Temperance movement , Tennessee became the first state in the nation to effectively ban the sale, transportation, and production of alcohol in a series of laws passed between 1907 and 1917. During Prohibition , illicit production of moonshine became extremely common in East Tennessee, particularly in
26068-492: The general direction of the entire Appalachian range. Most of these ridges are low, but some of the higher ones are commonly called mountains. Numerous tributaries join to form the Tennessee River in the Ridge and Valley region. The Cumberland Plateau rises to the west of the Tennessee Valley, with an average elevation of 2,000 feet (610 m). This landform is part of the larger Appalachian Plateau and consists mostly of flat-topped tablelands . The plateau's eastern edge
26264-442: The ground with a full load. At Newton Field they were using the full length of the 6,000 feet [1,800 m] runway before becoming airborne. Kittyhawk aircraft could carry the same bomb load and in addition carry out ground-strafing". In contrast, many crew spoke well of the Vengeance. "I certainly didn't have that experience of the Vultee. I can recall no incidents of pilots having difficulty in taking off with full bomb loads, and
26460-614: The highest casualty-rate during training of any USAAF aircraft and was officially restricted to no more than a 70-degree dive. The Apache did not fly with the RAF, but served with US squadrons in Sicily, Italy and, by late summer of 1943, was based in India for use over Burma and China. It proved to be an excellent dive-bomber and a good fighter: one ace in Italy shot down five German fighters. The Royal Navy's Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore torpedo-dive bombers and Blackburn Skua fighter-bombers were replaced by Fairey Barracuda torpedo-dive bombers, which made repeated diving attacks on
26656-435: The increased casualties from ground fire. Again, the angle of dive in these attacks was not recorded. Beginning on 18 June 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF), successor to the RFC, ordered large numbers of the Sopwith TF.2 Salamander , a single-seat biplane. The "TF" stood for "Trench Fighter", and the aircraft was designed to attack enemy trenches both with Vickers .303 machine guns and with 25 lb (11 kg) bombs. Of
26852-420: The juncture of the Holston and French Broad rivers in Knoxville, flows southwest to Chattanooga, and exits into Alabama before reemerging in the western part of the state and flowing north into Kentucky. Its major tributaries include the Clinch , Little Tennessee , Hiwassee , Sequatchie , Elk , Beech , Buffalo , Duck , and Big Sandy rivers. The Cumberland River flows through the north-central part of
27048-404: The jungles. The first RAF squadrons ( No. 82 and No. 110 ) received Vengeances in October 1942. The first dive bombing missions against Japanese forces were flown on 19 March 1943. A further two RAF squadrons in Burma received Vengeances, ( No. 84 and No. 45 ), together with two squadrons of the Indian Air Force (IAF) ( No. 7 and No. 8 ). In cases of heavy monsoon clouds, which obstructed
27244-564: The legislature allowed African American men to vote, disenfranchised former Confederates, and with martial law, took action against the Ku Klux Klan , which was founded in December 1865 in Pulaski as a vigilante group to advance former Confederates' interests. In 1870, Southern Democrats regained control of the state legislature, and over the next two decades, passed Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation . A total of 251 lynchings , predominately of Black people, took place in Tennessee. A number of epidemics swept through Tennessee in
27440-403: The legislature conducted a census of the territory, which recorded a population of 77,263, including 10,613 slaves, and a poll that showed 6,504 in favor of statehood and 2,562 opposed. Elections for a constitutional convention were held in December 1795, and the delegates convened in Knoxville on January 17, 1796, to begin drafting a state constitution. During this convention, the name Tennessee
27636-425: The lowest share among the states that joined the Confederacy . Tennessee provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state, and the second-highest number of Confederate troops, behind Virginia. Due to its central location, Tennessee was a crucial state during the war and saw more military engagements than any state except Virginia. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 , secessionists in
27832-474: The main forces with Panzers to smash enemy strong points without waiting for the horse-drawn artillery to catch up. It was central to the concept of Blitzkrieg , which required close co-ordination between aircraft and tanks by radio. The RAF had chosen the single-engined Fairey Battle and the twin-engined Bristol Blenheim as its tactical bombers. Both were level bombers with similar bomb-loads and entered service in 1937. The US Army Air Corps (USAAC) adopted
28028-439: The minds of senior officers in the newly formed RAF against dive bombing. So not until 1934 did the Air Ministry issue specifications for both land-based and aircraft carrier -based dive bombers. The RAF cancelled its requirement and relegated the Hawker Henley dive bomber to other roles, while the Fleet Air Arm's Blackburn Skua was expected to do double duty: as a fighter when out of reach of land-based fighter support, and as
28224-400: The most recent world's fair to be held in the U.S. In 1986, Tennessee held a yearlong celebration of the state's heritage and culture called "Homecoming '86". Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial in 1996 with a yearlong celebration called "Tennessee 200". A new state park that traces the state's history, Bicentennial Mall , was opened at the foot of Capitol Hill in Nashville. The same year,
28420-408: The most vulnerable. The state averages 15 tornadoes annually. They can be severe, and the state leads the nation in the percentage of total tornadoes that have fatalities. Winter storms such as in 1993 and 2021 occur occasionally, and ice storms are fairly common. Fog is a persistent problem in some areas, especially in East Tennessee. Tennessee is divided into 95 counties , each of which has
28616-538: The mountains, and continued for many decades afterward. Sgt. Alvin C. York of Fentress County became one of the most famous and honored American soldiers of World War I . He received the Congressional Medal of Honor for single-handedly capturing an entire German machine gun regiment during the Meuse–Argonne offensive . On July 9, 1918, Tennessee suffered the worst rail accident in U.S. history when two passenger trains collided head on in Nashville, killing 101 and injuring 171. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became
28812-450: The new state out of the Southwest Territory , adopted "Tennessee" as the state's name. The first inhabitants of Tennessee were Paleo-Indians who arrived about 12,000 years ago at the end of the Last Glacial Period . Archaeological excavations indicate that the lower Tennessee Valley was heavily populated by Ice Age hunter-gatherers , and Middle Tennessee is believed to have been rich with game animals such as mastodons . The names of
29008-480: The nickname "The Volunteer State" during the War of 1812 , when 3,500 Tennesseans answered a recruitment call by the General Assembly for the war effort. These soldiers, under Andrew Jackson 's command, played a major role in the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, the last major battle of the war. Several Tennesseans took part in the Texas Revolution of 1835–36, including Governor Sam Houston and Congressman and frontiersman Davy Crockett , who
29204-455: The north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia , Alabama , and Mississippi on the south, and Arkansas and Missouri on the west. It is tied with Missouri as the state bordering the most other states. Tennessee is trisected by the Tennessee River , and its geographical center is in Murfreesboro . Nearly three–fourths of the state is in the Central Time Zone , with most of East Tennessee on Eastern Time . The Tennessee River forms most of
29400-468: The problems of inaccuracy were amplified by the fact that the target could be moving, and could change its direction between the time that the bombs were released and the time that they arrived. Successful strikes on marine vessels by horizontal bombers were extremely rare. An example of this problem can be seen in the attempts to attack the Japanese carriers using B-17s at altitude in the Battle of Midway , with no hits scored. The German battleship Tirpitz
29596-457: The production arm of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, which enriched uranium at three major facilities for use in atomic bombs. The first of the bombs was detonated in Alamogordo, New Mexico , in a test code-named Trinity , and the second, nicknamed " Little Boy ", was dropped on Imperial Japan at the end of World War II. After the war, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory became an institution for scientific and technological research. After
29792-467: The production of iron in the Western Highland Rim, and slaves also cultivated such crops as tobacco and corn throughout the Highland Rim. East Tennessee's geography did not allow for large plantations as in the middle and western parts of the state, and as a result, slavery became increasingly rare in the region. A strong abolition movement developed in East Tennessee, beginning as early as 1797, and in 1819, Elihu Embree of Jonesborough began publishing
29988-404: The project, and in 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the group and established the framework for judicial review of government agencies in the landmark case of Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe . TVA's construction of the Tellico Dam in Loudon County became the subject of national controversy in the 1970s when the endangered snail darter fish was reported to be affected by
30184-419: The project. After lawsuits by environmental groups, the debate was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court case Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill in 1978, leading to amendments of the Endangered Species Act . The 1982 World's Fair was held in Knoxville. Also known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, the fair's theme was "Energy Turns the World". The exposition was one of the most successful, and
30380-440: The region. Because of this, many southern unionists were sent fleeing to nearby Union states, particularly the border state of Kentucky . Other southern unionists, who stayed in Tennessee after the state's secession, either resisted the Confederate cause or eventually joined it. In March 1862, Lincoln appointed native Tennessean and War Democrat Andrew Johnson as military governor of the state. General Ulysses S. Grant and
30576-517: The rise of precision-guided munitions and improved anti-aircraft defences —both fixed gunnery positions and fighter interception—led to a fundamental change in dive bombing. New weapons, such as rockets, allowed for better accuracy from smaller dive angles and from greater distances. They could be fitted to almost any aircraft, including fighters , improving their effectiveness without the inherent vulnerabilities of dive bombers, which needed air superiority to operate effectively. A dive bomber dives at
30772-432: The rivers in East Tennessee in the early 18th century. The first recorded European expeditions into what is now Tennessee were led by Spanish explorers Hernando de Soto in 1540–1541, Tristan de Luna in 1559, and Juan Pardo in 1566–1567. In 1673, English fur trader Abraham Wood sent an expedition from the Colony of Virginia into Overhill Cherokee territory in modern-day northeastern Tennessee. That same year,
30968-464: The state averaging a high of around 90 °F (32 °C). Winters tend to be mild to cool, decreasing in temperature at higher elevations. For areas outside the highest mountains, the average overnight lows are generally near freezing. The highest recorded temperature was 113 °F (45 °C) at Perryville on August 9, 1930, while the lowest recorded temperature was −32 °F (−36 °C) at Mountain City on December 30, 1917. While Tennessee
31164-483: The state government led by Governor Isham Harris sought voter approval to sever ties with the United States, which was rejected in a referendum by a 54–46% margin in February 1861. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April and Lincoln's call for troops in response, the legislature ratified an agreement to enter a military league with the Confederacy on May 7, 1861. On June 8, with Middle Tennesseans having significantly changed their position, voters approved
31360-417: The state in the early 18th century. The Chickasaw remained confined to West Tennessee, and the middle part of the state contained few Native Americans, although both the Cherokee and the Shawnee claimed the region as their hunting ground. Cherokee peoples in Tennessee were known by European settlers as the Overhill Cherokee because they lived west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Overhill settlements grew along
31556-528: The state's topographic features, and, in general, decrease in age from east to west. The state's oldest rocks are igneous strata more than 1 billion years old found in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the youngest deposits in Tennessee are sands and silts in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and river valleys that drain into the Mississippi River. Tennessee is considered seismically active and contains two major seismic zones, although destructive earthquakes rarely occur there. The Eastern Tennessee seismic zone spans
31752-470: The state, emerging in the northeastern Highland Rim, passing through Nashville, turning northwest to Clarksville, and entering Kentucky east of the Tennessee River. Its principal branches in Tennessee are the Obey , Caney Fork , Stones , Harpeth , and Red rivers. The Mississippi River drains nearly all of West Tennessee. Its tributaries are the Obion , Forked Deer , Hatchie , Loosahatchie , and Wolf rivers. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and
31948-419: The target ship HMS Centurion . Tests against a stationary target showed an average error of 49 yd (45 m) from a release height of 1,300 ft (400 m) and a dive angle of 70 degrees. Tests against a manoeuvring target showed an average error of 44 yd (40 m) from a drop height of 1,800 ft (550 m) and a dive angle of 60 degrees. The Fairey Albacore was also designed to act as
32144-425: The target visible, but true dive bombers have not been a part of military forces since the start of the jet age. When released from an aircraft, a bomb carries with it the aircraft's trajectory. In the case of a bomber flying horizontally, the bomb will initially only be travelling forward. This forward motion is opposed by the drag of the air, so the forward motion decreases over time. Additionally, gravity causes
32340-485: The time that Britain had received large numbers of Vengeances, its opinion on the usefulness of specialised dive bombers had changed. As the Battle of Britain and operations over North Africa had shown the dive bomber to be vulnerable to fighter attack, the Vengeance was rejected for use over Western Europe or in the Mediterranean. It was decided to use the Vengeance in the Burma theatre to carry out dive-bombing operations in close support of British and Indian troops in
32536-403: The top and bottom of their dive in log books and in squadron records, but not the steepness of the dive. It was certainly not near-vertical, as these early aircraft could not withstand the stresses of a sustained vertical dive. The Royal Naval Air Service was bombing the Zeppelin sheds in Germany and in occupied Belgium and found it worthwhile to dive onto these sheds to ensure a hit, despite
32732-415: The training of mechanics. The Japanese introduced the Aichi D3A Val monoplane as a successor to the biplane Aichi D1A in 1940, with trials aboard the carriers Kaga and Akagi . It was to prove a potent weapon against surface ships. Only the Wehrmacht learned from the Battle of Cambrai (1917) in using dive bombers in conjunction with tanks. The writings of Britain's Colonel J. F. C. Fuller ,
32928-535: The use of the Aldis gunsight , which had been invented in 1916 to aid pilots to calculate the deflection required to hit a traversing enemy aircraft. In principle, it obviated the need for a vertical dive. The results showed that a vertical dive into the wind sighting along the top of rather than through the sight was best. But they were not considered good enough to justify the expected casualties. The Royal Air Force, which took over both army and naval aviation in April 1918, retired its Sopwith Salamander dive bombers at
33124-415: The view during the dive, IAF pilots practiced the unconventional method of shallow bombing, releasing bombs at 800 ft (240 m) only. Enough hits were landed using this technique, that they were persuaded by commanders to use this technique when conditions were similar. Vengeances were heavily deployed in support of the second Arakan campaign of 1943/44, and defending against the Japanese attacks in
33320-407: The war, when its vulnerability to enemy fighters became apparent. In the post-war era, this role was replaced with a combination of improved and automated bombsights , larger weapons and even nuclear warheads that greatly reduced the need for accuracy, and finally by precision guided weapons as they became available in the 1960s. Most tactical aircraft today allow bombing in shallow dives to keep
33516-478: The west. It ends at steep loess bluffs overlooking the Mississippi embayment , the westernmost physiographic division of Tennessee, which is part of the larger Mississippi Alluvial Plain . This flat 10 to 14 miles (16 to 23 km) wide strip is commonly known as the Mississippi Bottoms, and contains lowlands, floodplains , and swamps . Tennessee is drained by three major rivers , the Tennessee , Cumberland , and Mississippi . The Tennessee River begins at
33712-460: The windshield of his Curtiss JN-4 (a training aircraft) as an improvised bomb sight , loaded a bomb in a canvas bag attached to the aircraft's underside, and made a solo attack in support of USMC troops trapped by Haitians during the United States occupation of Haiti . Sanderson's bomb hit its target and the raids were repeated. During 1920, Sanderson familiarised aviators of USMC units on the Atlantic coast with dive bombing techniques. Dive bombing
33908-409: The wing root. This gives the impression of an inverted gull wing when seen from an angle, when in fact the wing has a more conventional dihedral on the outer wing panels. France placed an order for 300 V-72s, with deliveries intended to start in October 1940. The fall of France in June 1940 stopped these plans, but at the same time the British Purchasing Commission , impressed by the performance of
34104-414: The wing to better align the nose of the aircraft with the target during the dive. This resulted in the aircraft cruising in a nose-up attitude, giving a poor forward view for the pilot, particularly during landing. It had an unusual, W-shaped wing planform. This resulted from an error in calculating its centre of gravity. Moving the wing back by "sweeping" the centre section was a simpler fix than re-designing
34300-466: The wings. They were very successful in this role in the early days (1941) of Operation Barbarossa before the Red Army Air Force countered with modern fighters, such as the Yakovlev Yak-1 and later the Yakovlev Yak-3 . The most successful dive-bomber pilot, Hans-Ulrich Rudel , made 2,530 sorties. He contributed to the sinking of the Soviet battleship Marat at Kronstadt on 23 September 1941 using 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombs. Later, flying
34496-417: The world's first atomic bombs . The planned community of Oak Ridge was built to provide accommodations for the facilities and workers; the site was chosen due to the abundance of TVA electric power, its low population density, and its inland geography and topography, which allowed for the natural separation of the facilities and a low vulnerability to attack. The Clinton Engineer Works was established as
34692-447: The worst of which occurred in Memphis in 1866 . Because Tennessee had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment before its readmission to the Union, it was the only former secessionist state that did not have a military governor during Reconstruction . The Radical Republicans seized control of the state government toward the end of the war, and appointed William G. "Parson" Brownlow governor. Under Brownlow's administration from 1865 to 1869,
34888-404: The year. This made Tennessee the only Southern state to abolish slavery at the time. Tennessee ratified the Thirteenth Amendment , which outlawed slavery in every state, on April 7, 1865, and the Fourteenth Amendment , which granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to former slaves, on July 18, 1866. Both amendments went into effect after Tennessee's readmission to the union due to
35084-405: The years after the Civil War, including cholera in 1873, which devastated the Nashville area, and yellow fever in 1878, which killed more than one-tenth of Memphis's residents. Reformers worked to modernize Tennessee into a " New South " economy during this time. With the help of Northern investors, Chattanooga became one of the first industrialized cities in the South. Memphis became known as
35280-417: Was accidentally released into the Emory and Clinch Rivers . The cleanup cost more than $ 1 billion and lasted until 2015. Tennessee is in the Southeastern United States . Culturally, most of the state is considered part of the Upland South , and the eastern third is part of Appalachia . Tennessee covers roughly 42,143 square miles (109,150 km ), of which 926 square miles (2,400 km ), or 2.2%,
35476-401: Was also used during the United States occupation of Nicaragua . As aircraft grew more powerful, dive bombing became a favoured tactic, particularly against small targets such as ships. The United States Navy overcame its hostility to Mitchell's findings and deployed the Curtiss F8C Falcon biplane from 1925 on carriers, while the Marine Corps operated them from land bases as the Helldiver,
35672-619: Was awarded the Military Cross for this and other exploits. Brown's technique was emulated by other British squadrons. But the heavy casualties to unprotected pilots cast a pall over the results and influenced RAF thinking for 20 years. The Royal Flying Corps was initially impressed with the potential of the dive bomber, but was aware of its suicidal nature. It ran a series of tests at the Armament Experimental station at Orfordness in Suffolk. Sopwith Camels and Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5as were used in early 1918 to dive bomb targets from various heights, with different bombs and with and without
35868-442: Was chosen for the new state. The constitution was completed on February 6, which authorized elections for the state's new legislature, the Tennessee General Assembly . The legislature convened on March 28, 1796, and the next day, John Sevier was announced as the state's first governor. Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state and the first created from federal territory. Tennessee reportedly earned
36064-449: Was considered poor due to the large radial engine. There were a number of fatal accidents with the Vengeance due to improper dive procedures, as well as a center of gravity problem when the aircraft was flown with the rear cockpit canopy open, but without a rear gunner. In combat, the type was considered rugged, reliable, stable, and generally well-behaved. Commonwealth forces operated the type from May 1942 to July 1944. Burma tended to be
36260-421: Was delayed when Hurricane development took priority. Just 200 were built and it was relegated to target towing. The RAF ordered the US-built Vultee A-31 Vengeance in 1943, but it, too, was similarly relegated to target towing after a brief operation period in secondary theatres. The Curtiss SBC Helldiver was a biplane dive bomber that had been taken aboard the USS Yorktown (CV-5) in 1934, but it
36456-421: Was delivered to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in May 1942, the aircraft did not arrive in substantial numbers until April 1943. The RAAF's first Vengeance squadron, No. 12 Squadron flew its first operational mission against Selaru Island in the Dutch East Indies . Squadrons equipped with the Vengeance included Nos. 12, 21 , 23 , 24 and 25 Squadrons . Of these, all but 25 Squadron served briefly in
36652-436: Was fitted with a more powerful Wright Twin Cyclone R-2600-19 engine and improved armament. As US Army test pilots disliked the poor pilot view resulting from the zero-incidence wing, that was "corrected" in the A-35, giving the plane a better attitude in cruise but lessening its accuracy as a dive bomber. When production of the Vengeance was completed in 1944, a total of 1,931 aircraft had been made. The majority were produced at
36848-454: Was intentionally publicized, and highlighted the creationism-evolution controversy among religious groups. In 1926, Congress authorized the establishment of a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains , which was officially established in 1934 and dedicated in 1940. When the Great Depression struck in 1929, much of Tennessee was severely impoverished even by national standards. As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal ,
37044-492: Was killed at the Battle of the Alamo . The state's nickname was solidified during the Mexican–American War when President James K. Polk of Tennessee issued a call for 2,800 soldiers from the state, and more than 30,000 volunteered. Between the 1790s and 1820s, additional land cessions were negotiated with the Cherokee, who had established a national government modeled on the U.S. Constitution . In 1818, Jackson and Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby reached an agreement with
37240-401: Was mostly used by the RAF and RAAF in Burma, was designed to be trimmed for diving, with no lift to distort the dive. The drawback was that it flew nose up in level flight, increasing drag. Failure to re-adjust trim made the aircraft difficult or impossible to pull out of a dive. A dive bomber was vulnerable to low-level ground fire as it dived towards its target, since it was often headed in
37436-519: Was protested by miners forced to compete with the system. An armed uprising in the Cumberland Mountains known as the Coal Creek War in 1891 and 1892 resulted in the state ending convict leasing. Despite New South promoters' efforts, agriculture continued to dominate Tennessee's economy. The majority of freed slaves were forced into sharecropping during the latter 19th century, and many others worked as agricultural wage laborers. In 1897, Tennessee celebrated its statehood centennial one year late with
37632-407: Was slow, at 234 mph (377 km/h). Fifty ex-US Navy examples were flown to Halifax, Nova Scotia , by Curtiss pilots and embarked on the French aircraft carrier Béarn in a belated attempt to help France, which surrendered while they were mid-Atlantic. Five airframes left behind in Halifax later reached the RAF, which quickly relegated them to the status of ground instructional airframes for
37828-428: Was subjected to countless attacks, many while in dock and immobile, but was not sunk until the British brought in enormous 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) Tallboy bombs to ensure that even a near miss would be effective. An aircraft diving vertically minimises its horizontal velocity component. When the bomb is dropped, the force of gravity simply increases its speed along its nearly vertical trajectory. The bomb travels
38024-438: Was tested in a series of Confederate offensives beginning in the summer of 1862, which culminated in General William Rosecrans 's Army of the Cumberland routing General Braxton Bragg 's Army of Tennessee at Stones River , another one of the war's costliest engagements. The next summer, Rosecrans's Tullahoma campaign forced Bragg's remaining troops in Middle Tennessee to retreat to Chattanooga with little fighting. During
38220-412: Was that it is easy to build such an aircraft and fly it at high altitude, keeping it out of range of ground-based defences. The horizontal bomber was thus ill-suited for tactical bombing, particularly in close support. Attempts at using high-altitude bombing in near-proximity to troops often ended in tragedy, with bombs both hitting their targets and friendly troops indiscriminately. In attacking shipping,
38416-521: Was the Gloster Sea Gladiator . The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Mitsubishi A5M and USN Grumman F3F were nominally faster than the Skua but this speed was achieved at much higher altitudes; at low altitudes the Skua was quite comparable in speed and was also better armed. The Swordfish was also capable of operating as a dive-bomber and in 1939 HMS Glorious used her Swordfish for a series of dive-bombing trials, during which 439 practise bombs were dropped at dive angles of 60, 67 and 70 degrees, against
#415584