Air Force Museum
Douglas A-20G Havoc
Flown by the Allies in the Pacific, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Russia, the versatile A-20 went through many variants. The A-20G, which reached combat in 1943, was produced in larger numbers than any other model. By the time production ended in September 1944, American factories had built 2,850 "solid nose" A-20G models.
In depth
History & service
Flown by the Allies in the Pacific, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Russia, the versatile A-20 went through many variants. The A-20G, which reached combat in 1943, was produced in larger numbers than any other model. By the time production ended in September 1944, American factories had built 2,850 "solid nose" A-20G models. Attacking with forward-firing .50-cal.
machine guns and bombs, the A-20G lived up to its name by creating havoc and destruction on low-level strafing attacks, especially against Japanese shipping and airfields across the Southwest Pacific.
Originally trained to fly P-40s, the men of the 312th transitioned to the A-20G in the field. Calling themselves the "Roarin' 20s," the men of the 312th fought their way across the Southwest Pacific from New Guinea to the Philippines.
The aircraft in figures
Armament: Eight .50-cal. machine guns; 4,000 lbs. of bombs · Engines: Two Wright R-2600s of 1,600 hp each · Maximum speed: 317 mph · Cruising speed: 230 mph · Range: 1,025 statute miles · Ceiling: 25,000 ft. · Span: 61 ft. 4 in. · Length: 48 ft. · Height: 17 ft. 7 in. · Weight: 26,580 lbs. loaded
Aircraft change the battlefield
In the First World War, aircraft became valuable because they could see beyond the front line. Reconnaissance and artillery observation affected decisions on the ground. Once that information mattered, opposing forces had reason to attack the aircraft gathering it. Fighters, defensive armament, and increasingly specialized missions developed around this contest over observation and freedom of movement.
The aircraft were fragile by later standards, but their crews worked inside a rapidly expanding military system. Training, maintenance, replacement aircraft, photography, communications, and weather reporting supported each sortie. Improvements in engines and armament changed tactics, while the pressures of combat exposed weaknesses that might have taken much longer to discover in peacetime.
Personal stories should be read alongside those systems. A uniform or a named aircraft connects the war to an individual, but the individual depended on many others and operated under constraints that skill could not eliminate. Aircraft from opposing sides show how designers answered similar problems in different ways. The later military collections in Dayton and at Udvar-Hazy reveal what endured: the need to gather information, protect friendly forces, move people and supplies, and coordinate action across distance. The scale changed enormously; the relationship between an aircraft's design and the job it had to perform remained fundamental.
