U.S. Navy In August 1936, the Navy signed a contract for 83 SBC-3s (Curtiss Model 77A). Delivery of the SBC-3s to the fleet began on 17 July 1937 when the first aircraft were issued to Scouting Squadron Five (VS-5) serving in
USS Yorktown (CV-5) however,
Yorktown was not commissioned until 30 September 1937 and the ship then began sea trials. On 10 December 1937, VS-5 went aboard
Yorktown and served aboard her until replaced by
Douglas SBD-3 Dauntlesses in 1940. By June 1938, three of the five scouting squadrons serving in aircraft carriers were equipped with SBC-3s while the other two were equipped with
Vought SBU-1s. The three ships with SBC-3s were: •
USS Enterprise (CV-6): Fighting Squadron Six (VF-6) had an SBC-3 and VS-6 had 20 Helldivers. •
USS Saratoga (CV-3): Bombing Squadron Three (VB-3) had one SBC-3, VF-3 had an SBC-3 and VS-3 had 21 Helldivers. •
USS Yorktown (CV-5): VS-5 had ten SBC-3s. One of the SBC-3s was kept at the factory and redesignated XSBC-4 (Curtiss Model 77B). This aircraft was re-engined with the Wright R-1820-22 nine cylinder, single row, air-cooled radial engine. The initial contract for 58 SBC-4s was signed on 5 January 1938. This was followed by two additional contracts, one for 31 Helldivers on 27 July 1938 and the third contract for 35 aircraft on 13 August 1938. Total aircraft contracted for was 124. The aircraft were powered by the Wright R-1820-24 engine. The first squadron to receive the SBC-4s was VS-2 in
USS Lexington (CV-2) replacing the Vought SBU-1s. By 26 June 1939, VS-2 was fully equipped with 21 aircraft. This was the only aircraft carrier that flew the SBC-4 and they were replaced by
Douglas SBD-2 and -3 Dauntlesses in 1941. Because of the expanding aviation training program, the majority of SBC-4s, and other training aircraft, were assigned to Naval Reserve Air Bases (NRABs) to allow reserve Navy and Marine airmen, assigned to reserve scouting squadrons (VS and VMS), to maintain their proficiency. By June 1940, 11 NRABs had SBC-4s as follows: • NRAB Anacostia, District of Columbia: 3 SBC-4s assigned to VS-6R and VMS-3R, • NRAB Boston, Massachusetts: 3 SBC-4s assigned to VS-1R, VS-2R and VMS-1R, • NRAB Detroit, Michigan: 3 SBC-4s assigned to VS-8R and VMS-5R, • NRAB Glenview, Illinois: .4 SBC-4s assigned to VS-9R, • NRAB Kansas City, Kansas: 4 SBC-4s assigned to VS-12R and VMS-10R, • NRAB Long Beach, California: 4 SBC-4s assigned to VS-13R, VS-14R and VMS-7R, • NRAB Minneapolis, Minnesota: 3 SBC-4s assigned to VS-10R and VMS-6R, • NRAB New York, New York: 4 SBC-4s assigned to VS-3R, VS-4R and VMS-2R, • NRAB Oakland, California: 4 SBC-4s assigned to VS-15R and VMS-8R, • NRAB Seattle, Washington: 4 SBC-4s assigned to VS-16R and VMS-9R, • NRAB St. Louis, Missouri: 3 SBC-4s assigned to VS-11R As time passed, the Navy acquired newer, more modern aircraft and the SBC-3s were replaced by the Douglas SBD Dauntless. By 7 December 1941, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps had 69 SBC-3s and 118 SBC-4s in the inventory based at NASs, NRABs and the
Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The largest number were at NAS Miami, Florida, where they were used for intermediate and dive bombing training. In December 1941, the SBCs were based at: • NAF, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 1 XSBC-1 and 1 SBC-3, • NAS Corpus Christi, Texas: 34 SBC-4s, • NAS Miami, Florida: 55 SBC-3s, • NAS Norfolk, Virginia: 4 SBC-3s and 10 SBC-4s, • NAS San Diego, California: 9 SBC-3s and 11 SBC-4s, • Naval Mission, Lima, Peru: 1 SBC-4, •
USS Hornet (CV-8) • Bombing Squadron Eight (VB-8): 19 SBC-4s, • Scouting Squadron Eight (VS-8): 20 SBC-4s
Hornet was undergoing sea trials in the Atlantic on 7 December and the two squadrons kept their SBC-4s until the ship sailed to San Diego, California in March 1942. At that time, the two squadrons had transitioned to the SBD-3 Dauntless and she became the last aircraft carrier to operate the SBC. An additional 50 SBC-4s, originally ordered by the French, were built between February and May 1941 to replace those sent overseas. The major change was replacing the fuselage fuel tank with a self-sealing fuel tank. The last SBC-4 was delivered in May 1941. By 1944, the SBC-3s were no longer needed and they were stricken from the inventory. The longest to survive were 12 aircraft at
NAS Jacksonville, Florida, which were stricken on 31 October 1944.
U.S. Marine Corps until June 1943. The U.S. Marines received one SBC-3 in 1938 and which was assigned to Marine Fighter Squadron Two (VMF-2, redesignated VMF-211 on 1 July 1941) at NAS San Diego, California. It was sent to the Battle Fleet Pool in June 1939. In January 1940, the Marine Corps had four SBC-4s. Two were based at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), Quantico, Virginia; one was assigned to VMF-1 (redesignated VMF-111 on 1 July 1941) and the second, the XSBC-4, was assigned to Marine Utility Squadron One (VMJ-1 redesignated VMJ-152 on 7 July 1941). The other two aircraft were based at NAS, San Diego, California; one SBC-4 was assigned to VMF-2 and the second to VMJ-2 (redesignated VMJ-252 on 1 July 1941). On 7 December 1941, the Marine Corps had 23 SBC-4s in their inventory. Twelve of them were assigned to a Marine observation squadron (VMO): • MCAS Quantico, Virginia: 1 XSBC-4 and 5 SBC-4s, • NAS San Diego, California: 5 SBC-4s, and • VMO-151, MCAS Quantico, Virginia: 12 SBC-4s VMO-151 transferred to Tafuna (now
Pago Pago International Airport), Tutuila Island,
American Samoa, on 9 May 1942 with their SBC-4s. The squadron was redesignated Marine Scout Bombing Squadron One Hundred Fifty One (VMSB-151) on 15 September 1942. A second observation squadron, VMO-155, was commissioned in American Samoa on 1 October 1942 by taking half of VMSB-151's personnel and equipment. VMO-155 received ten SBC-4s and a
Grumman J2F-5 Goose however, six officers and 15 enlisted men of the squadron returned to the U.S. on 8 December 1942 as a nucleus to form a new VMO-155 and the remaining personnel were transferred to
Guadalcanal Island in the
Solomon Islands. In December 1942, the VMSB-151 SBC-4s were being replaced by Douglas SBD Dauntlesses and by June 1943, the squadron had been fully equipped with SBD-4s and moved to
Uvea Island in the
Wallis Group, leaving their SBC-4s behind. The last SBC reported in Marine squadron service was an SBC-4 at American Samoa in service with VMSB-151 on 1 June 1943.
French Navy When World War II began in 1939,
Britain and France came to the U.S. shopping for military aircraft. In early 1940, the French government placed an order with Curtiss-Wright for 90 SBC-4s. To aid the French, on 6 June 1940, the Roosevelt administration ordered the U.S. Navy to fly 50 SBC-4s of the Naval Reserve, currently in use by the Navy, to the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, New York, where the 50 planes would be refurbished to French standards. This included removing all U.S. markings on instruments and equipment, replacing the American machine guns with French Darne machine guns and repainting the aircraft in French camouflage colors. Once converted, the aircraft were to be delivered to
RCAF Station Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, where they would be loaded onto the
French aircraft carrier Béarn. Several neutrality acts had been passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law and the
Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed for arms trade with belligerent nations (Great Britain and France) on a "
cash-and-carry" basis. "Cash and carry" allowed the sale of materiel to belligerents, as long as the recipients arranged for the transport using their own ships or planes and paid immediately in cash. Because of this provision, the U.S. could not fly military aircraft into Canada; they had to land in the U.S. and be towed across the Canada–US border. The 50 aircraft were to fly from Buffalo, New York to Houlton Airport, Maine via Burlington, Vermont and Augusta, Maine.
Houlton Airport, Maine, was on the Canada–US border and local farmers used their tractors to tow the planes into New Brunswick, Canada, where the Canadians closed the Woodstock highway so that aircraft could use it as a runway and fly to RCAF Station Dartmouth. The 50 SBC-4s were to fly to RCAF Station Dartmouth in groups of three. One of the first groups that left encountered rain and fog while flying between Buffalo and Albany, New York, and one of the aircraft crashed. The remaining 49 aircraft were successfully flown to Nova Scotia to be loaded onto
Béarn and the light cruiser . Because of space limitations, only 44 of the SBC-4s could be carried on FR
Béarn; she also had 25 Stinson Model HW-75s (also known as
Stinson 105s), 17 Curtiss H75-A1s (U.S. Army Air Corps
P-36) and six
Brewster F2A-2 Buffalos for the Belgian Air Force. The ''Jeanne d'Arc'' carried 14 crated, unassembled aircraft: eight Stinson Model HW-75s and six Curtiss H75-A1s. The two ships sailed from Halifax on 16 June 1940 bound for
Brest, France. Two days later, Brest fell into German hands and both ships were ordered to
Fort-de-France, Martinique, French West Indies, an island in the
Lesser Antilles, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. They arrived on 27 June, five days after France surrendered to the Germans. The SBC-4s were unloaded and rolled to a field at the Pointe des Sables region and stored in the open. Under tropical climatic conditions, the aircraft stored in the open were slowly rotting and were no longer airworthy and were eventually scrapped.
Royal Air Force Five of the French aircraft could not fit on FR
Béarn and were left at RCAF Station Dartmouth. In August 1940, the
Royal Air Force acquired them, designated them "Cleveland Mk. Is" and shipped them to England in the aircraft carrier
HMS Furious. They were assembled at
RAF Burtonwood, Lancashire, and delivered to
RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire and later used by
No. 24 (Communications) Squadron at
RAF Hendon, Middlesex. These aircraft were never used operationally and became ground trainers. ==Variants==