German success with dive bombers in Poland and France convinced the U.S. Army to acquire its own dive bombers, and in 1941 the Army Air Corps ordered the Douglas Dauntless, which was already in production for the U.S. Navy. Designated the A-24, it came without the tail hook used for carrier landings, and a pneumatic line replaced the solid tail wheel on some of them. First assigned to the 27th Bombardment Group (Light) at Hunter Field, Ga., A-24s participated in the Louisiana maneuvers during September 1941.

As war with Japan seemed imminent in the fall of 1941, the Army rushed the personnel of the 27th to the Philippine Islands to bolster American defenses, and 52 of their crated A-24s followed on another ship. However, the Japanese attacked before the airplanes arrived, and the A-24s were diverted to Australia for assembly. Most of the 27th's pilots were flown back to Australia to fly the A-24s back to the Philippines, where the enlisted mechanics waited to service them.

The A-24s left in Australia were assigned to the 8th Bombardment Squadron, 3rd Bombardment Group, to defend New Guinea against a Japanese attack. On July 26, 1942, seven A-24s attacked a convoy off Buna, but only one survived: the Japanese shot down five of them and damaged the sixth so badly that it did not make it back to base. Regarded by many pilots as too slow, too short-ranged and too poorly armed, the remaining A-24s were relegated to non-combat missions.

In the United States, the A-24s became training aircraft or towed targets for aerial gunnery training. The more powerful A-24B was used later against the Japanese forces in the Gilbert Islands.