Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
During 1942, dive bombing attacks by carrier-based D3A1 and D3A2 bombers significantly contributed to sinking of three US fleet carriers: "Lexington" at the Battle of the Coral Sea, "Yorktown" at the Battle of Midway and "Hornet" at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. In addition, they damaged carrier "Enterprise" both at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Besides carrier-based units, D3A dive bombers also operated from land bases during the Solomon Islands campaign, where they participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign, Operation I-Go, Operation SE and Operation RO, and during the New Guinea campaign, where they participated in the Battle of Milne Bay and Battle of Buna–Gona. The main land-based unit to operate D3A dive bombers during these campaigns and battles was the 2nd/582nd Air Group.