Douglas SBD-5 "Devilbirds" Major Christian Lee (1:72)

General information about the SBD-5 The SBD-5 Dauntless was the best variant built with 2,965 aircraft being built. Even with its upgrades there was one major stumbling block for this plane and that was its lack of folding wings. As the USN built more and more carriers for their offensive against Japan this problem became even larger. So after the invasion of the Marianna’s the USN SBDs were assigned to secondary land based operations where they spent the rest of WWII.

Prior to WWII the USMC had three Marine Scouting Squadrons with only one stationed east of the USA. VMS-3 known as the “Devilbirds” were located in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands where their task was to deploy on anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic during 1943-44. The last aircraft type used by VMS-3 prior to the end of WWII was the Douglas SBD Dauntless. The S-1 of Major Christian Lee is a fine example of an Atlantic color scheme of insignia white and blue-grey.