abstract:A torpedo bomber is a bomber aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes, but which could usually also carry out conventional attacks using bombs. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight of a torpedo, and remained an important type of aircraft until the 1950s when the role devolved to conventional bombers, and later taken over by anti-ship missiles in part due to their vulnerability in making an attack.
On one mission over the Pacific as a torpedobomber pilot he was shot down by Japanese antiaircraft fire and was rescued from the water by a U. S. submarine.