Avenger Torpedo Bomber

Could a WWII torpedo bomber be used like a Dive Bomber?

I could just imagine a TBF-1 Avenger going into a steep dive, like a dive bomber and releasing a torpedo into a Japanese carrier of something. Could it do it? Here's the situation, there's a Japanese ship with no anti-aircraft defenses, flak, or anything. An avenger is aproaching the Japanese ship 2000 ft above it. Could it dive down and drop it's torpedo on the ship, or just drop it right on top of the ship without going into a dive? What would happen if it did? Would it damage the Avenger, because it is heavily armoured and rugged so i think it could handle the dive.

It wouldn't work and it would be a huge waste of resources. Most of the weight of a torpedo is in the body and not in the warhead, so dumping a torpedo on someone from the air wastes 2/3 of the load. The torpedo also wouldn't arm, it needs water flowing over it to arm the SAFU (Safety Arming and Fuzing Unit). So there'd be no bang. The Avenger also wouldn't be high enough to escape AA fire, so it would have little chance of getting close enough. The dive would rip its wings off.

There's lots of reasons why they don't dive bomb with torpedos.

Scott Air Show 2008 TBM Avenger Torpedo Bomber

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