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#Post#: 9715--------------------------------------------------
Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: vonofterdingen Date: February 10, 2020, 3:39 pm
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One of my earliest memories of my father was going to see Sink
the Bismarck at a drive-in theater in Daytona Beach Florida. My
mother inexplicably decided to stay at the hotel. I was
enthralled and completely happy when Kenneth Moore’s son
returned safely to Ark Royal. There is something I have always
liked also about planes that started the war obsolete, but ended
the war in service because they were just so damn good at what
they did. The Dauntless and the Swordfish are just 2 such
aircraft.
From Wikipedia:
The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber designed by
the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the
Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was operated by the Fleet Air
Arm of the Royal Navy, in addition to having been equipped by
the Royal Air Force (RAF) alongside multiple overseas operators,
including the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Royal
Netherlands Navy. It was initially operated primarily as a fleet
attack aircraft. During its later years, the Swordfish became
increasingly used as an anti-submarine and training platform.
The type was in frontline service throughout the Second World
War, but it was already considered obsolete at the outbreak of
the conflict in 1939.
Nonetheless, the Swordfish achieved some spectacular
successes during the war. Notable events included sinking one
battleship and damaging two others of the Regia Marina (the
Italian Navy) during the Battle of Taranto, and the famous
attack on the Bismarck, which contributed to her eventual
demise. By the end of the war, the Swordfish held the
distinction of having caused the destruction of a greater
tonnage of Axis shipping than any other Allied aircraft. The
Swordfish remained in front-line service until V-E Day, having
outlived multiple aircraft that had been intended to replace it
in service.
On 14 June 1940, shortly following the Italian declaration of
war, nine Swordfish of 767 Naval Air Squadron stationed in
Hyeres, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France took off and
conducted the first Allied bombing raid upon Italian soil. Four
days later, 767 Squadron relocated to Bone, Algeria before being
split, the training elements returning to Britain while the
operational portion proceeded to RAF Hal Far on Malta, where it
was re-numbered as 830 Naval Air Squadron. On 30 June,
operations re-commenced with an opening night raid upon oil
tanks at Augusta, Sicily.
On 3 July 1940, the Swordfish was one of the main weapons during
the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, an attack by the Royal Navy upon
the French Navy fleet stationed at Oran, French Algeria to
prevent the vessels falling into German hands. Twelve Swordfish
from 810 and 820 Naval Air Squadrons launched from the aircraft
carrier HMS Ark Royal and conducted three sorties of attacks
upon the anchored fleet. The torpedo attack, which crippled the
French battleship Dunkerque and damaged other vessels present,
demonstrated that capital ships could be effectively attacked
while in harbour; it was also the first time in history that the
Royal Navy had won a battle without the use of gunfire.
Shortly after the Mers-el-Kébir attack, a detachment of three
Swordfish were sent to support British Army operations in the
Western Desert, in response to a request for torpedo aircraft to
destroy hostile naval units operating off the coast of Libya. On
22 August, the three aircraft destroyed two U-boats, one
destroyer and a replenishment ship present in the Gulf of Bomba,
Libya, using only three torpedoes.
On 11 November 1940, Swordfish flying from HMS Illustrious
achieved great success in the Battle of Taranto. The main fleet
of the Italian Navy was based at Taranto in southern Italy; in
light of the success of the earlier attack upon the French Navy
at Mers-el-Kébir, members of the Admiralty sought another
victory under similar conditions. The Royal Navy had conducted
extensive preparations, with some planning having taken place as
early as 1938, when war between the European powers had already
seemed inevitable. Regular aerial reconnaissance missions were
flown to gather intelligence on the positions of specific
capital ships and Swordfish crews were intensively trained for
night flying operations, as an undetected aerial attack during
the night raid had been judged to be the only effective method
of reasonably overcoming the defences of the well-protected
harbour and to strike at the fleet anchored there.
Originally scheduled for 21 October 1940, the Taranto raid
was delayed until 11 November to allow for key reinforcements to
arrive and other commitments to be met. The aerial attack
started with a volley of flares being dropped by Swordfish
aircraft to illuminate the harbour, after which, the Swordfish
formation commenced bombing and torpedo runs. Due to the
presence of barrage balloons and torpedo nets restricting the
number of suitable torpedo-dropping positions, many of the
Swordfish had been armed with bombs and made a synchronised
attack upon the cruisers and destroyers instead. The six
torpedo-armed Swordfish inflicted serious damage on three of the
battleships. Two cruisers, two destroyers and other vessels were
damaged or sunk. The high manoeuvrability of the Swordfish was
attributed with enabling the aircraft to evade intense
anti-aircraft fire and hit the Italian ships. The Battle of
Taranto firmly established that naval aircraft were
independently capable of immobilising an entire fleet and were
an effective means of altering the balance of power. The
Japanese assistant naval attaché to Berlin, Takeshi Naito,
visited Taranto to view the consequences of the attack; he later
briefed the staff who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor.
On 28 March 1941, a pair of Swordfish based at Crete
contributed to the disabling of the Italian cruiser Pola during
the Battle of Cape Matapan. In May 1941, six Swordfish based at
Shaibah, near Basra, Iraq, participated in the suppression of a
revolt in the region, widely known now as the Anglo-Iraqi War.
The aircraft conducted dive bombing attacks upon Iraqi barracks,
fuel storage tanks and bridges.
The Swordfish also flew a high level of anti-shipping sorties in
the Mediterranean, many aircraft being based at Malta. Guided by
aerial reconnaissance from other RAF units, Swordfish would time
their attacks to arrive at enemy convoys in the dark to elude
German fighters, which were restricted to daytime operations.
While there were never more than a total of 27 Swordfish
aircraft stationed on the island at a time, the type succeeded
in sinking an average of 50,000 tons of enemy shipping per month
across a nine-month period.During one record month, 98,000 tons
of shipping were reportedly lost to the island's
Swordfish-equipped strike force. The recorded Swordfish losses
were low, especially in relation to the high sortie rate of the
aircraft and in light of the fact that many aircraft lacked any
blind-flying equipment, making night flying even more hazardous.
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In May 1941, Swordfish participated in the pursuit and
sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. On 24 May, nine
Swordfish from HMS Victorious conducted a late night sortie
against the Bismarck; under deteriorating weather conditions;
using ASV radar, the flight were able to spot and attack the
ship, resulting in a single torpedo hit that only caused minor
damage. Damage resulting from evasive manoeuvres against the
Swordfish, however, was credited with slowing the ship, making
it easier for Bismarck to be located and for her enemies to
catch up.
On 26 May, Ark Royal launched two Swordfish strikes against
Bismarck. The first of these failed to locate the ship. The
second strike scored two hits, one of which jammed the ship's
rudders at a 12° port helm on position. This made Bismarck
unmanoeuvrable and unable to escape to port in France. She sank
after intense Royal Navy attack within 13 hours. The low speed
of the attacking aircraft may have acted in their favour, as
they were too slow for the fire-control predictors of the German
gunners, whose shells exploded so far in front of the aircraft
that the threat of shrapnel damage was greatly diminished. At
least some of the Swordfish flew so low that most of Bismarck's
flak weapons could not depress enough to hit them.
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Throughout 1942, the Swordfish was progressively transferred
from the Royal Navy's fleet carriers as newer strike aircraft,
such as the Fairey Albacore and Fairey Barracuda, were
introduced. In the submarine-hunter role, the Swordfish made
critical contributions to both the Battle of the Atlantic,
detecting and attacking the roaming U-boat packs that preyed
upon merchant shipping between Britain and North America, and in
support of the Arctic convoys which delivered supplies from
Britain to Russia. In addition to attacking located submarines,
Swordfish would guide destroyers onto their positions to
coordinate attacks against them. On one such convoy, Swordfish
on board the escort carrier HMS Striker and HMS Vindex flew over
1,000 flight hours conducting anti-submarine patrols over a
10-day period.
One of the more innovative implementations of the Swordfish was
its use in combination with merchant aircraft carriers ("MAC
ships"). These were 20 civilian cargo or tanker ships modified
to carry three or four aircraft each on anti-submarine duties
with convoys. Three of these vessels were Dutch-manned, and
several Swordfish of 860 (Dutch) Naval Air Squadron were
typically deployed on board. The others were manned by pilots
and aircrew from 836 Naval Air Squadron, at one time the largest
squadron operating the type, being equipped with a total of 91
aircraft.
By 1945, there was a total of nine front line squadrons
equipped with the Swordfish. Overall, Swordfish-equipped units
accounted for 14 U-boats destroyed. The Swordfish was intended
to be replaced by the Fairey Albacore, also a biplane, but it
outlived its intended successor, and was succeeded by the Fairey
Barracuda monoplane torpedo bomber. Operational sorties of the
Swordfish continued into January 1945; the last active missions
are believed to have been anti-shipping operations conducted off
the coast of Norway by FAA Squadrons 835 and 813, where the
Swordfish's maneuverability was essential. On 21 May 1945, the
last operational squadron, 836 Naval Air Squadron, which had
last been engaged in providing resources for the MAC ships, was
disbanded shortly following the fall of Germany and the end of
the Second World War in Europe. In the summer of 1946, the last
training squadron equipped with the type was disbanded, after
which only a few examples remained in service to perform sundry
duties at a few naval air stations.
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In game…
I don’t fly torpedo bombing missions much because I am really
bad at them. Especially with the new realistic torpedo features
I can never seem to be flying at the right altitude or speed.
However, this is the plane to use when learning to perform
torpedo attacks. It has an extremely slow stall speed, which
helps immeasurably. The biplane design and low speeds make it a
good plane to learn carrier landings also.
It also taught me some things about mission building. When
the Swordfish first came out in game (it was a mod plane first I
think) I decided to do a Sink the Bismarck mission. I made it
realistic as possible, with long flight time and dangerous
landings on the Ark Royal with little daylight remaining. An
experienced user at the time, Fabian Fred, downloaded my mission
from M4T and wrote me a private message about it. He was
generally complimentary but said that it just took too long to
complete. I was dismissive at first, but for those of you who
remember Fabian Fred, he was an off-again on-again Buddhist
monk. As I thought about it, I began to realize that maybe if I
had tried the patience of a Buddhist monk, then maybe my mission
was in fact too long!
#Post#: 9717--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: JG51_Ruski Date: February 10, 2020, 4:54 pm
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Another great write up Von,,It sure is on fine looking plane and
the type I like open cockpit bi-plane
#Post#: 9726--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: DHumphrey Date: February 10, 2020, 8:13 pm
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Excellent plane of the week Von ... very nice read. :)
For those interested:
HTML http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=2751
#Post#: 9727--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: cafs Date: February 11, 2020, 4:13 am
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The old war horse and a great plane for learning carrier ops,
the "stringbag" is one of my favorites.
Thanks, Von.
😀👍🏆
#Post#: 9736--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: Beowolff Date: February 11, 2020, 9:11 am
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Yes sir...love this old plane! Great write-up and wonderful
history! Thanks partner! :D
Beo
#Post#: 9739--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: ben_wh Date: February 11, 2020, 11:39 am
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Thank you for the article.
The Swordfish belongs to this group of biplanes that provided
useful services in their function and achieved some successes in
WW2 despite their performance compared against monoplanes.
Others come to mind like the Po-2 (your article last week), Hs
123, CR.42, Gloster Gladiator ...
Cheers,
#Post#: 9740--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: Beowolff Date: February 11, 2020, 12:04 pm
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[quote author=ben_wh link=topic=1437.msg9739#msg9739
date=1581442788]
Thank you for the article.
The Swordfish belongs to this group of biplanes that provided
useful services in their function and achieved some successes in
WW2 despite their performance compared against monoplanes.
Others come to mind like the Po-2 (your article last week), Hs
123, CR.42, Gloster Gladiator ...
Cheers,
[/quote]
Spot on, friend! ;D
Beo
#Post#: 9747--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the Fairey Swordfish
By: vonofterdingen Date: February 11, 2020, 3:25 pm
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It seems like some classic designs/implementations defy
obsolescence. Maybe there is hope for me yet!
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