One must also take into account the extremely poor IJN damage control procedures.
During the course of the war the IJN lost many ships that the USN or Royal Navy would have saved.
Also, don't disparage the TBD too much. It performed well at the Battle of the Coral Sea, and when it was introduced it was indeed the very best torpedo bomber on the planet, though that was a time when technology was in a state of rapid advancement when it came to aircraft design, to be sure.
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Personally speaking, the P-40 could contend on an equal footing with all the types of Messerschmitts, almost to the end of 1943.
~Nikolay Gerasimovitch Golodnikov
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