Curtiss worked on improving the base SBC-3 series design and set one airframe aside for such work. The resulting tests yielded the new Model 77B to which the US Navy appended the designation of SBC-4 to. To go along with several improvements was a more powerful Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 series radial piston engine of 850 horsepower. The US Navy signed a production contract for 174 examples of this mount on January 5th, 1938 with the first deliveries beginning in March of1939 followed by formal service entry. By this time, Europe was completely engulfed in a war that would soon spread beyond its borders.
Germany's blitzkrieg had taken all of Europe by surprise. Hitler's combined attacks utilizing coordinated strikes from land and air elements yielded tremendous results in the first phases of action. After much of Europe had fallen to the Germans, France was next in its sights. As such, France desperately attempted to counter the German advance by quickly improving their military inventory to help stave off mounting losses, even contracting American aircraft firms for whatever they could make available. In early 1940, the United States Navy rerouted some 50 of its actively serving SBC-4 Helldiver aircraft to the French Navy with a total of 90 on order to France in whole. Aircraft were repainted via French standards and the 0.30 caliber armament was upgraded to a more potent pairing of 2 x 0.50 caliber. All American instruments were replaced by French-labeled ones and Curtiss employees would be involved in delivering the aircraft to the French carrier Bearn by way of Nova Scotia. The Bearn eventually accepted the aircraft and made her way across the Atlantic back to France.
Like other military equipment earmarked for use by France from the United States, this delivery would arrive too late to be of much use in combat and the nation of France eventually capitulated after Paris fell to Hitler, leaving Britain essentially alone to "fight the good fight". The Bearn moved south to the Caribbean island of Martinique where the remaining forty-nine SBC-4s fell victim to the corrosive effects of the tropical environment, destined never to fight. At least five SBC-4s were accepted into the inventory of the Royal Air Force under the designation of Curtiss "Cleveland" Mk.I and generally used to train ground personnel out of Little Rissington, UK. While the SBC-4 failed to make much of an impact in the European war, the US Navy stood firm on their production and secured a revised SBC-4 model with the all-important addition of self-sealing fuel tanks.
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