SBD Dauntless Series Part 7: In the Atlantic and in French Service 

Though the great majority of the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bomber's wartime service took place in the Pacific against the Japanese, the aircraft was not absent from the European theater. Flying from land bases as well as carrier decks, the Dauntless flew against the European Axis from the coast of Africa to the frigid Arctic waters off the northern Norwegian coast. The Americans were not the only one of the Allied powers to fly this formidable aircraft into battle. Following the landings of the Americans and British in North Africa, the French forces which rallied to the Allied standard employed the Dauntless in the battle to liberate their homeland. Both the French Navy and Air Force would fly the type against the Germans, and continue to do so after the war, as they struggled to hold onto their prewar colonial territories in Indochina.