the fairy swordfish an aircraft which was outdated even before its first combat mission was ironically one of the most iconic aircraft to be operated by the British during the second world war initially designed as a torpedo bomber for the Fleet air arm of the royal Navy the the swordfish which affectionately became nicknam to the string bag in the later years of the war was a product of the mid inter War period conceived when bip planes still held some level of relevance yet by the time it entered service in 1936 it was already fast becoming obsolete the aircraft's basic design characterized by its open cockpit fabric covered fuselage and fixed landing gear was a sharp contrast to the all metal monoplanes that were entering service at the same time and its maximum top speed of just over 140 mph was slow even by the standards of the early 1930s but despite these apparent limitations the swordfish would go on to prove itself in the most demanding of conditions its service during World War II was marked by a series of audacious and highly successful operations that demonstrated its Effectiveness as a torpedo bom and by War's end it had sunk more enemy shipping than any other Allied aircraft the swordfish also proved its versatility in a variety of other roles as well from anti-submarine Warfare in the Atlantic to M laying Naval reconnaissance and numerous numerous Convoy escort missions beloved by its Pilots for its vicelessgames other aircraft of its era were being rapidly rendered obsolete at the same time by technological advances and were replaced the swordfish would continue to serve throughout the war outlasting even its intended replacement the fairy albore this longevity can be attributed to several factors including its Simplicity ease of Maintenance and importantly its suitability for operations from small escort carriers where its low landing speed and excellent handling characteristics s made it ideal for The Limited deck space and also more importantly still these missions kept it far far far away from enemy fighter aircraft who would otherwise have wiped the floor with it the fairy swordfish was a testament to the idea that Effectiveness in war is not always determined by Cutting Edge technology its success was due not to speed or overwhelming Firepower but instead due to its reliability adaptability the skill of its Air Cruise and a healthy dose of luck it was basically an underdog part of a class of inter War designs that had no right to be as successful as it was which is why I have something of a huge soft spot for it and it's why we are looking at its history in today's video but hang on a minute Rex didn't you already do a video on the fairy swordfish well yes I did several years ago but that was only a short 17 minute overview video and if I'm being honest it did not do the Swordfish the Justice it deserves so today I'm giving you a documentary length glorified lecture on the development and history of the fairy swordfish and if I've done my math right you'll be stuck with me for about the next hour so I hope you brought snacks now speaking of documentary length content today's video has been very kindly sponsored by mellan TV now for those unaware mellan TV hosts a wide variety of curated documentaries covering a huge range of topics it's completely adree and includes a growing collection of new 4k content which is added every week it may come as a surprise to some of you that I'm a bit of a fan of Aviation themed documentaries shocking I know and one that I thought a lot of you would be interested in was this documentary series called that's or brother saving a D-Day Legend This is a three episode series that covers the history and restoration of a Douglas c47 named named that's all brother this was the very aircraft that led over 800 other c47s that dropped over 13,000 paratroopers over the French Coast at the commencement of D-Day the series details the history of the aircraft its rediscovery in a scrapyard and eventual acquisition by the commemorative Air Force and their Herculean efforts to restore the plane and get it flying for the 75th anniversary of D-Day itself so if you want to check out this series or other documentaries that mellan has on offer as there are a lot click on the link in the description below or scan the QR code that's been floating around on the screen here to get a 33 days trial to watch that's all brother saving a D-Day Legend and all the rest of mellan TV's extensive collection of over 3,000 documentaries so once again thank you very much to mellan TV for sponsoring today's video and now let's take a closer look at the fairy swordfish the origins of the swordfish or rather the events and decisions that led to its development can be traced back to the time period of about 1928 to 1930 now in 1930 Marcel label Fair's chief designer began working on two related aircraft designs the first was the faery s930 which was a spotting and reconnaissance aircraft for the Royal Navy which had been drawn up to a specification of the same title the second aircraft became known as the fairy TSR which stood for torpedo spotting reconnaissance but at the time it was simply known as the Greek machine because it was being built in response to interest from the Greek navy whereas the s930 was an official design being built for the British admiralty the TSR was developed as a private Venture this was not only because it was being developed for an overseas customer but also because fairy had thus far had poor success when it came to the development of torpedo bombers and to give full context for this we need to go back a few years before 1930 Now by 1930 the Fleet air arm had most of its aircraft supplied to it by just two manufacturers Blackburn aircraft and fairy Aviation the latter had supplied Fighters bombers and reconnaissance aircraft to the Fleet air arm since the end of the first world war but Blackburn had developed something of a monopoly when it came to the production of torpedo bombers indeed they had enjoyed great success with the Blackburn Dart which proved that even an aircraft that looked vaguely like a snubnosed and overweight pigeon could still be an effective weapon delivery platform form and then the Blackburn Rippon which in a departure for Blackburn actually looked quite good now even though fairy had technically built more aircraft for the Navy during the 1920s Blackburn was the company that held the real Prestige the torpedo was the primary weapon for the Fleet air arm crucial for damaging disabling or ideally sinking enemy ships and thus the torpedo bomber was the most important aircraft in the fleet's inventory as an aside this was also because the use of high explosive bombs had not been as enthusiastically followed by the Royal Navy when compared to their American counterparts though that situation would eventually change in the latter part of the 1930s at least to some degree but getting back to torpedo bombers in the eyes of many the other aircraft types operated by the fleet Fighters reconnaissance planes spotting aircraft were essentially there either to support the torpedo planes or the fleet's larger Capital ships in March of 1928 the air Ministry and admiralty issued a new specification to the aircraft industry for a torpedo bomber although the Blackburn Rippon Mark I had only just been ordered it was seen only as a temporary solution the Rippon was originally designed to meet a requirement from way back in 1923 but with the arrival of new Arrow engines and the 18-in Mark 10 torpedo a more advanced aircraft design was required Blackburn faery and Handley pagee would each submit a design proposal however the specification was cancelled before any serious considerations could be made this was mostly due to production of the Mark 10 torpedo being cancelled as the Royal Navy wanted to move onto larger and heavier weapons a new specification was then dra up around said larger heavier weapon but this too was then cancelled as the air Ministry disagreed with the Navy a not uncommon event during the inter War years on their use of larger Torpedoes when it came to attack aircraft the air Ministry insisted that a smaller torpedo was more suitable as it would require a lighter aircraft and thus a smaller aircraft which meant more aircraft per aircraft carrier and ignoring the protestation of several naval officers as prototypes had already been ordered for the previous specification a new specification was then drawn up in 1930 and this was known as m130 Ferry had not submitted any further design proposals beyond the original submission to the 1928 specification this was partly due to a lack of enthusiasm as Blackburn's design already appeared to be a fan favorite with Naval officials thus further cementing the company's torpedo bomber Monopoly and partly because Ferry held a near equal Monopoly when it came to the production of spotting and reconnaissance aircraft at around the same time that the air Ministry imposed changes on the torpedo bomber requirements the admiralty had issued specification s930 which called for a new Fleet spotting and reconnaissance plane to replace the popular but old fairy 3 which had been in service in one form or another since 1918 and this is where we come to the fairy s930 now as mentioned before this aircraft was designed by Fair's chief designer Marcel label and it was technically the progenitor of the swordfish in that its design was used as the basis of the TSR which was designed only a couple of months later the S9 30 represented a significant departure from previous aircraft produced by fairy for the Fleet air arm the aircraft featured a more modern design with a single Bay staggered Wing configuration which was a contrast to the long unswept and unstaggered tubay wings of the fairy 3 Series it featured a steel structure covered in fabric as opposed to Wood it came equipped with two machine guns and it was eventually powered by a steam cooled r Rolls-Royce krol V12 which produced 525 horsepower but how does a lightly armed reconnaissance plane evolve into the Plucky venerable swordfish that we all know and love today well two things happened firstly fairy got wind of the fact that the Greek navy was looking at replacing their existing inventory of fairy 3 FS they wanted a multi-purpose aircraft that could be capable of both torpedo attacks as well as reconnaissance missions in response to this Marcel label began work on a private Venture based on the lines of the s930 reconnaissance plane and this was informly known as the Greek machine secondly Charles Richard Ferry the company founder and Marcel label had been approached by several officers of the royal Navy about a similar concept A Fleet aircraft that combined the roles of torpedo attack reconnaissance and perhaps some light bombing as well thus far the Fleet air arm itself was against such a concept believing that having more specialized types of aircraft would yield better results but many individuals felt that the worsening economic climate courtesy of the Great Depression would soon Force the fleet aarm to combine some of its aircraft roles owing to reductions in its budget as it turned out these predictions became a reality far sooner than expected as by the end of 1930 the air Ministry was already putting a lot of pressure on the Navy to reduce the number of aircraft types it operated this began a worrying Trend that saw the Fleet air arm being forced to compromise on aircraft requirements at almost every level while in comparison the Royal Air Force was given significantly more freedom and this would lead to the development of two especially compromised aircraft the Blackburn skewer and the fairy former neither earned themselves a particularly Sterling record and both contributed to the poor albeit unfairly given reputation of the Fleet air arm in the late inter War early World War II period but from this chaotic time of bungled specifications air Ministry meddling and a general neglect of the true requirements of British Naval Aviation there was one unlikely success story upon learning that the Fleet air arm would be needing aircraft that combined multiple roles Richard Ferry spoke with the admiralty about the private Adventure that lebel was developing for the Greek navy the Admiral te was immediately interested as they were literally in the process of developing a new specification that combined the roles of torpedo bombing and reconnaissance and work on the Prototype Greek machine was accelerated so that even though construction had begun after the fery s930 reconnaissance plane it would be completed almost a year beforehand as it was designed for the Greek navy first the Prototype was powered by their preferred engine the 625 horsepower Armstrong sidy Panther 6 this was a 14 cylinder twin row radial that drove a watts two blade wooden propeller this powered the aircraft serial number F1 1875 on its first flight on the 2st of March 1933 with Fair's Chief test pilot Chris stanland at the controls Now by this point Greek interest in the Prototype had actually more or less completely faded and following the initial test flights when it appeared that the Royal Navy would be the only serious customer moving forward lebel agreed to a request to re-engine the prototype in July of 1933 it was re-equipped with a 635 horsepower Bristol Pegasus a 9 cylinder radial and it received the official designation of fairy torpedo spotting reconnaissance aircraft better known as the fairy TSR this was not the only aircraft to receive the TSR designation though faery had competition Gloucester aircraft were working on their model 38 TSR and far more worrying for Ferry was the offering from Blackburn the reigning torpedo bomber Champion had produced a formidable competitor in the Blackburn TSR which made use of a 700 horsepower Armstrong Sidle tiger engine faced with such competition Ferry really couldn't afford any mistakes if it was to finally secure a contract to produce a torpedo bomber for the Royal Navy which meant that naturally after many Flawless test flights where nothing went wrong in which the fairy TSR showed excellent handling qualities it then decided to try and kill Fair's Chief test pilot and destroy itself in the process because why not it all went wrong on September the 11th 1933 Chris stanaland took the TSR up for a test flight to assess its spin performance with a Leading Edge slat system the TSR was extremely stable and it proved particularly difficult to actually induce it into a spin this was not unusual in aircraft of this configuration and the competing Blackburn design was also very difficult to put into a spin but unfortunately when stanaland finally managed to encourage the TSR to enter a spin it was then impossible to recover from it quickly and without warning the attitude of the spin became came very flat with the nose almost on the horizon the controls became ineffective and any attempt to regain control via opening the throttle merely caused the aircraft to shake about as violently as it was now spinning plummeting in a sickening series of spins from 14,000 ft stanland tried everything he could to regain control but after the 12th rotation he decided it was time to bail out it was then that he would become one of the few people in existence to ever have to bail out of the same aircraft twice in the same incident as having leapt from the Pilot's cockpit the relative motion and force of the spin threw him back into the rear cockpit of the aircraft from which he then successfully bailed out the TSR of course was a complete write-off and for Fairy this was a disaster there had only been the one prototype built and there was no second machine under construction to carry on the testing program meanwhile Blackburn's TSR prototype was nearing completion and gloucester's model 38 had already been flying for about 2 months Marcel leel and the rest of his team at fairy were faced with a serious challenge they not only had to modify the design of the fairy TSR to address the spinning problem but they also had to produce a new prototype in record time despite the enormity of the challenge lebel and his team would redesign rebuild and have the TSR flying again in just 7 months the project was given top priority by Richard Ferry and normal working procedures were thrown completely out the window as soon as design drawings for a certain part or section of the aircraft were complete that section was immediately assembled in whatever part of the factory floor was most convenient other aircraft projects be damned the result was that the fairy TSR 2 serial number k41 190 flew for the first time on April the 17th 1934 with plenty of time to spare for it to attend official air Ministry evaluations though visually similar the tsr2 featured a few design changes when compared to its unlucky predecessor and most of them were made to address the dangerous flat spinning problem an extra Bay was added to the fuselage structure anti- spin Stakes were installed on the rear fuselage and the tail was redesigned with a larger vertical stabilizer and Rudder this increased the total length of the aircraft by just under 3 ft and the shift in the center of gravity because of this necessitated the addition of 4° of sweep back to the upper Wing aside from some minor tweaks to the internal layout of the aircraft's structure the construct ction of the tsr2 was more or less the same and to save me repeating myself I'll leave the details of the airframe aside until we get to the production model of the swordfish itself a little bit later after successfully completing manufactur trials in June the TSR 2 went to martal Sham Heath for early service trials it then paid a quick visit to re fbra for catapult tests then Grace the deck of HMS courageous for deck handling Tri and was then sent back to Mel sham Heath for a more thorough assessment against its competitors in comparison to its competitors the tsr2 fared better than expected though admittedly all of the competing designs missed the mark in StraightLine performance as none of them could go beyond 150 mph the tsr2 was found to be on par if not better than the Blackburn TSR now known as the Blackburn shark which had already received a production order from the fleet aarm and the Gloucester TSR 38 was outperformed by both the faery and Blackburn designs and did not proceed beyond the prototyping stage the TSR 2's success in the trials led to the m Ministry placing an order for three more prototypes essentially pre-production models and then a production batch of 86 aircraft in the spring of 1935 which was quickly followed by another order for for aircraft following early service trials the type was officially given the name of swordfish in keeping with the new tradition of naming torpedo bombers after predatory fish and the three pre-production aircraft would serve as the immediate precursors to the swordfish Mark 1 these three aircraft designated K 5660 661 and 662 were completed between December 35 and January 1936 now there aren't a lot of photos of these particular airframes so whilst I may be talking about them for the next few minutes the images on the screen may not be of the particular airframe in question so apologies for that K 5660 was the first of the three pre-production sord ofish aircraft that were completed this one made its made and flight on the 31st of December 1935 as the first pre-production model it was primarily used for manufacturer trials which were conducted at Fair's Great West Aerodrome these trials aided in identifying and addressing any remaining issues in the design that could affect the aircraft's performance in service during the testing phase particular attention was given to the ailerons which while effective at all speeds had a tendency to snatch during stalls this was an important issue to resolve as the swordfish needed to be reliable and easy easy to handle under a variety of lows speeed operational conditions particularly during takeoff and landing on aircraft carriers the tests also included evaluations of lateral and longitudinal stability with various modifications being tried to improve overall control this included the addition of flatness strips on the aerons K5 661 the second pre-production aircraft was completed on the 19th of February 1936 unlike 660 which was primarily used for manufacturers trials 661 was the first of the three pre-production aircraft to be delivered to the Fleet air arm itself for service trials flight leftenant Duncan menz who had been heavily involved in the testing of the earlier TSR prototypes was one of the main Pilots involved with conducting these tests the tests carried out with 661 focused on General handling stability and performance the tests also confirmed that the early modifications made following the Prototype spin problems had successfully resolved these issues K 5662 the third and final pre-production swordfish was completed in March 1936 and was unique among the three as it was fitted with floats this was essential for evaluating the swordfish's potential for operations from battleships and cruisers equipped with catapult launch systems testing of 662 in its float plane configuration took place at Southampton water where it underwent a series of water-based trials these tests revealed several challenges associated with operating the swordfish as a float plane the aircraft displayed inadequate maneuverability at slow speeds on the water and the water Rudders failed to meet the Turning Circle requirements additionally the floats created a significant amount of spray when the aircraft was getting up to speed which could lead to various unwanted consequences during takeoff including the complete inundation of the crew despite these issues 662 provided valuable data and it allowed for the design of the float plane swordfish to be modified before entering service though it should be said as an aside that the swordfish as a float plane was ultimately less popular than its wheel counterpart in all these tests with the three pre-production aircraft confirmed the overall soundness of the swordfish design with only a few minor changes being requested and because of this full scale production of the type was allowed to proceed without further delay now with that in mind we'll pause the historical discussion of the aircraft for a little bit and we'll briefly take a look at the design of the production swordfish Mark 1 as I believe now would be a good point to do so and then we'll go on to explore for IT service history and the other variants that were later developed under normal conditions the fairy swordfish was typically operated by a crew of three consisting of a pilot an observer and a telegraphist slair gunner the swordfish Mark 1 was constructed with a primarily metal airframe which was built using a combination of Steel and Jamin the forward fuselage and cockpit areas were covered with sheet metal panels offering additional protection for the crew and critical systems the rest of the airframe including the wings and tail surfaces was covered in doped fabric the fuselage was built up of four main sections which facilitated ease of Maintenance and Repair which was a crucial feature for an aircraft which would often be deployed far from major repair facilities the fuselage was also designed to be especially robust at least compared to landbased equivalents and this was due to to the demanding operational environments that it would encounter particularly the forces subjected to the airframe either via carrier operations and even more so by catapult launching from Capital ships now moving on to the aircraft's wings the upper Wing was slightly staggered in relation to the lower which was a design Choice which improved the aircraft's lift and maneuverability both the upper and lower wings were constructed using builtup steel strip spars steel drag struts and Jamin ribs which together provided a strong but flexible and lightweight Wing structure per standard requirements for most carry aircraft by this time the swordfish did feature a wing folding mechanism the wings could be folded backward along the fuselage which reduced the aircraft's wingspan from 45 F 6 in to just 17' 3 in the folding process was very straightforward involving a simple hinge mechanism on the rear Spar and it could be performed by the ground crew aboard the carrier without the need for additional support equipment when it came to the control surfaces of These Wings the fairy swordfish included ailerons on both the upper and lower Wings another significant feature of the swordfish Wing design was the incorporation of Hanley page slots in the leading edges of the upper Wings these slots were designed to improve the aircraft's low speed handling characteristics by allowing air flow to remain attached to the wing surface at higher angles of attack this Innovation helped to reduce the risk of stalling during takeoff and Landing making the swordfish far more forgiving to fly especially for rookie Pilots moving on to the power plant the Mark 1 swordfish was powered by a Bristol Pegasus 3M which was a 9 cylinder air cord radial engine which produced approximately 690 horsepower for takeoff the engine was how in a wide cord townend ring which was designed to smooth the air flow over the engine and thus reduce drag this cowling also helped to protect the engine from the corrosive effects of saltwater which was unsurprisingly a constant Hazard for Naval based aircraft the engine drove a three blade Metal fairy Reed propeller which allowed the swordfish to achieve a maximum speed of 139 mph at 4,700 ft whilst carrying a full combat load although this was not fast by the standards of the time by any metric the aircraft's low speed capabilities would actually prove to be useful in a number of scenarios not just torpedo attacks but also mine laying Convoy escort as it could loiter around enemy ships easily and anti-submarine warfare so long as no enemy fighter aircraft in any way shape or form were within 30 miles of it now speaking of encountering the enemy the Armament and payload capacity of the swordfish was fairly simple the aircraft was capable of carrying a single 18in 1610 lb Mar 12 torpedo slung beneath the fuselage in place of the torpedo the swordfish could also carry a variety of other ordinance including bombs depth charges and mines in total it could carry approximately 1500 pounds of ordinance instead of the torpedo for regular missions now it has been said that some Mark 1 swordfish later on during World War II carried a little bit more than this at the expense of the telegraphist Gunner station being empty to save a little bit of weight but I've not been able to fully confirm this as it seems that some of these sources seem to be getting mixed up with the fairy swordfish Mark 1 and some of the details of the fairy swordfish Mark I so I don't want to fully commit to that being a thing so for the sake of argument with this video we're going to say that the maximum payload capacity for slung ordinance would be £1,500 the swordfish was also equipped with a defensive Armament including a forward firing Vicor 303 caliber machine gun mounted in the fuselage and a rear-facing Lewis gun on a flexible mount for the Observer these guns provided the crew with a means of defending the aircraft against enemy Fighters although as we will discuss later the performance disparity between the swordfish and enemy Fighters often meant that if there was any air-to-air combat it was very much one-sided and very brief now speaking of which and with that cursory look at the technical details of the swordfish done uh if you want to learn more about that please see the sources I'm going to recommend at the end of this video let's take a look at the swordfish's service history the first unit to receive the fairy swordfish Mark 1 was 825 Naval Air Squadron stationed aboard the carrier HMS glorious which began operations with the swordfish in July of 1936 825 NES originally a fairy seal Squadron was the oldest Squadron in need of re-equipment making it The Logical choice for the introduction of the swordfish after receiving their full compliment the Squadron reembarked on HMS glorious for service in the Mediterranean the squadron's deployment involved a series of exercises and operations that tested the new aircraft in its roles of torpedo bombing reconnaissance and Gunnery spotting the Mediterranean deployment also served as a crucial period for the Fleet air arm to refine its tactics and strategies for using the swordfish and feedback from the ground and air Crews of hm glorious would help to standardize the practice for using the aircraft across the fleet following 825 Naval Air Squadron the next units to receive the swordfish were 811 and 8112 both of which had previously operated the Blackburn Baffin these squadrons began their transition to the swordfish in October and December of 1936 respectively like 825 Nas these squadrons were also soon deployed aboard aircraft carriers and by the end of 1936 the swordfish had effectively replaced the Blackburn Baffin in the fleet's airarms carrier-based inventory now in comparison to this promising start to the swordfish's early career the Blackburn shark the swordfish's main rival had not been having a particularly good time though it had entered service almost 18 months before the fairy swordfish it had been plagued by reliability problems with both it engine and oil systems and further orders for the type would eventually be cancelled in favor of the fairy swordfish instead Blackburn's Monopoly on the torpedo bomber had been officially broken and indeed the shark was the last torpedo bomber that the company would ever produce for the fleet aarm in addition to these early operational deployments in the Mediterranean and in the English Channel the swordfish would also play a prominent role in the coronation review of the fleet in 1937 which was held in spithead and marked the Ascension of King George VII to the throne the event was the last major public display of the pre-war Fleet era showcasing the swordfish alongside numerous other aircraft in the Royal Navy's Arsenal however by this time despite the swordfish being advertised as a Frontline torpedo bomber it already appeared to many Within within the Navy that the time of the swordfish would be shortlived or so they would think faery had already begun development of the swordfish's successor the albacore in response to specification m736 the albacore was expected to enter service in 1939 partially replacing the swordfish though some squadrons would retain it and then both types would be replaced by a new monoplane torpedo bomber in 1941 this was part of a methodical but gradual peacetime procurement process where it was usual for a new aircraft specification to be issued just as the current type was entering service but due to a combination of strategic misjudgments Financial constraints and production bottleneck the fairy swordfish would remain in active service long past this 194 1 deadline oh and there was also the small baby complication of the second world war speaking of which at the outbreak of war with Germany in 1939 the fairy swordfish was the main torpedo bomb of the fleet aarm but despite being the fleet's main torpedo bomber this was not the role that it found itself in during the earliest months of hostilities with German OTS running rampant in the Atlantic the role Navy formed anti-submarine hunting groups to patrol the shipping lanes in the western approaches at the core of these groups was an aircraft carrier and it was hoped that carrier born aircraft would cooperate with destroyers spotting enemy OTS and directing the hunting ships to their location while they also carried out their own air attacks themselves the aircraft carriers HMS courageous and HMS Arc Royal played significant roles in these early operations with with swordfish squadrons conducting extensive patrols over the Western approaches unfortunately it was a plan that had several flaws the biggest of which being that an escorting Fleet carrier was very easy to spot at a distance being somewhat huge whereas a tiny ubo was not the weather in the North Atlantic was also often very poor with low visibility and rough Seas which complicated both the search for the uots and the execution of attacks against them Additionally the open cockpit of the fairy swordfish exposed the crews to the elements and this made longer patrols particularly grueling in the northern regions of the Atlantic Flight Crews returning from Arctic anti-submarine patrols usually had to be lifted out from their aircraft by the deck Crews of the carriers because they were suffering from various stages of hypothermia not exactly ideal despite these challenges the swordfish quickly demonstrated its potential value in the anti-submarine role on several occasions in the Autumn of 1939 swordfish aircraft successfully located and attacked uots disrupting their operations and forcing them to dive or flee this was however the limit of their success as no OTS were directly sunk by swordfish aircraft in these early operations and and the untested strategy of using Fleet carriers for escort operations would soon yield tragic consequences on the 14th of September 1939 just 2 weeks into the war HMS Arc Royal Britain's most capable aircraft carrier had a brush with u39 off the northwest coast of Scotland and narrowly avoided being torpedoed which on its own should have been a wakeup call that using such valuable Fleet assets to hunt down on notoriously Elusive and small and dangerous submarines was the epitome of the term F around and find out then just 3 days later on the 17th of September the Navy did find out HMS courageous was responding to merchant ship distress calls off the coast of Ireland and four swordfish aircraft from 811 and 822 Squadron engaged u53 forcing it into a crash dive but OTS seldom traveled alone and while the swordfish were busy with u53 u29 hither to undetected had her Periscope trained directly on HMS courageous at 1950 in the evening she fired three Torpedoes two of them struck courageous and she sank in just 17 minutes courageous went down with the loss of 519 hands including her captain and among the equipment lost were two full squadrons of fairy swordfish this sent alarm bells ringing through the admiralty as they looked at the projected numbers for aircraft lost compared to aircraft that were to be built for the next 12 months and the figure they got at the end was quite concerning the swordfish had been ordered into production in the mid 1930s and by the time war broke out in 1939 it was the most numerous torpedo bomb in the fleet airarms Arsenal but that wasn't saying much production rates remained small and they were not scaled up until early 1939 despite the political warning Bells being clearly heard for at least 2 years prior to this one of the most severe consequences of this was a production Gap that occurred in late 1939 according to an assessment made by the admiralty in August of 39 the expected drop in deliveries of torpedo bombers would leave the Fleet air arm dangerously underere equipped just as the war was starting the last order for swordfish aircraft was scheduled to be completed in November of 1939 with the Alba cor expected to take over in production in December however the albu course production ramp up was slower than anticipated resulting in a sharp decline in the number of aircraft that were going to be delivered to the fleet's air arm in November of 1939 only 26 swordfish were delivered and this number fell to just two albors in December this was somewhat catastrophic to put it mly as the admiralty had estimated that the Fleet air arm would need at least 50 torpedo bombers per month to keep Pace simply with wartime attrition rates recognizing the severity of the situation at last the admiralty took steps to increase production immediately one of the key decisions was to keep the swordfish in production alongside the albore despite the latter being intended as its replacement the admiralty also sought to expand production by enlisting other manufacturers such as Blackburn Fair's old arrival was initially tasked with a production order for 400 albors but owing to expected production issues both Blackburn and fairy pressured the government to change the order to for 400 swordfish instead and the government agreed this allowed ferry to transfer all swordfish production over to Blackburn allowing them to focus on the albore however the first of the Blackburn swordfish would not be delivered well into 1940 and until then the Navy had to rely solely on its reserves and pray that it didn't lose too many aircraft it was with this Gloomy Prospect lurking in the background that the sword fish would be thrust into its first major operations with the beginning of the Norwegian campaign during the campaign the swordfish would score a number of Firsts for the Royal Navy on April the 11th 1940 swordfish from HMS Furious were launched in one of their earliest combat missions their target was a group of German vessels anchored at tonim including the Destroyers Z 17 daa Von Roda and z21 vilhelm hide camp and I apologize if I pronounce those wrong despite the challenging conditions of poor weather and heavy anti-aircraft fire the swordfish managed to score a hit on z21 marking the first successful torpedo strike by the Fleet air arm during the war the swordfish would then go on to earn further success and distinction in an action just before the Second Battle of narik on April the 13th 1940 a swordfish float plane launched from the Battleship HMS War spite was tasked with locating German ships hidden in the fjords the aircraft's crew successfully spotted several German destroyers and then also noticed the submarine u64 anchored close to the shore the swordfish then conducted a lowlevel attack dropping two 100b anti-submarine bombs on u64 and sinking it making it the first uboat to be sunk by the Fleet air arm during the war of course other operations involving the swordfish weren't always as successful later that same day a group of 10 swordfish were deployed from HMS Furious to attack German destroyers with 250 lound high explosive bombs despite heavy anti-aircraft fire the swordfish pressed home their attack but they failed to score any direct hits during the course of the attack two swordfish were shot down with one crew being rescued after making a forced Landing following the Second Battle of navik swordfish aircraft continued to operate in the region conducting a series of bombing raids anti-submarine patrols and reconnaissance missions these operations were often carried out in extremely challenging conditions including poor weather mountainous terrain and the everpresent threat of enemy Fighters the open cockpit of the swordfish made these missions particularly unpleasant for the crews who had to endure freezing temperatures and harsh winds now while some swordfish Crews were being gradually Frozen in the skies above Norway others soon found themselves in action in the slightly more temperate climate of Western Europe in response to the German invasions of the Netherlands Belgium and France the swordfish once again found itself performing some roles outside of its original design criteria owing to a shortage of support aircraft the RAF was loaned five swordfish squadrons from the Fleet air arm these were 812 815 818 825 and 829 Squadron operating from HMS glorious at first 825 Squadron saw some of the first sorties in the French theater tasked with reconnaissance missions over the French coast and parts of northern France as the situation in France rapidly deteriorated the Squadron shifted to more direct combat roles and alongside the other swordfish units it would conduct daylight bombing raids against German armored columns and by night it would lay mines off the French Coast or attack Port installations now surprisingly and considering the Aged appearance design and speed of the swordfish during the Battle of France the losses suffered by fairy swordfish squadrons were relatively light when when compared to other British aircraft particularly those of the royal Air Force admittedly a lot of their missions were conducted against targets where the presence of German fighter aircraft was deemed to be very unlikely but even so many of these targets were still defended by numerous anti-aircraft weapons and although many swordfish returned home with battle damage few were in fact lost a lot of This was later attributed to its Antiquated design of having an airframe that was covered in Fabric in essence the swordfish had a lot of empty space which allowed bullets and small cannon shells to Simply pass clean through something that also benefited the partially fabric clad Hawker hurricane this was particularly demonstrated when the swordfish aircraft from 825 and 826 Naval Air squadrons were deployed to assist in the evacuation of Dunkirk in operation Dynamo these aircraft flew from bases in the UK and provided cover for the retreating British forces their tasks included bombing on advancing German columns Supply dumps and laying mines north of Dunkirk all of these missions subjected the swordfish to a hail of anti-aircraft fire but so long as it didn't receive a direct hit to either the engine the fuel tank or the pilot it simply carried on as if it hadn't been hit at all following the fall of France and the entry of Italy into the war on the 10th of June 1940 the Strategic focus of the royal Navy shifted to the Mediterranean and this is where the swordfish would put in some extensive service and earn much of its wartime Fame one of the first significant operations was conducted on the 14th of June 1940 when swordfish from 767 Naval Air Squadron stationed in southern France carried out the first Allied bombing raid on Italian soil following this raid the operational elements of 767 Squadron were redesignated as 830 Squadron and they were relocated to Malta now this might ring a bell for some people who are aware of the history of the fairy swordfish particularly in the Mediterranean as 830 Squadron based in Malta would do a lot of work it began with a series of raids against Italian Naval and Industrial targets the first of these was a night raid on the 30th of June 1940 which targeted the oil tanks at Augusta in Sicily this operation marked the start part of a sustained effort to disrupt the logistics and Supply chains of the axis forces in the Mediterranean and the multi swordfish biggest target soon became enemy shipping over the next 9 months 830 Squadron which never operated more than 27 swordfish from malter at any given point would sink on average 50,000 tons of enemy shipping per month and it would continue this mission for many months after this by the end of the war the swordfish had sunk a greater tonnage of axis shipping than any other Allied aircraft to give an example of just how valuable the swordfish was in this role in normal operations the collective Airborne weight of 830 Squadron was approximately 940 is tons now in one record month they sank just over 98,000 tons of shipping which meant that each aircraft sank approximately 100 times its own weight in enemy Supply and Equipment now aside from becoming the bane of logistics officers in Italian Naval command the swordfish earned Fame and sometimes notoriety in several other major events that took place in the Mediterranean theater one of the swordfish's other early operations in the Mediterranean theater was the controversial attack on M El Kabir which began on the 3rd of July 1940 this operation aimed to neutralize the French Fleet stationed in Iran in Algeria to prevent it from falling into German hands after the Armistice between France and Germany on the evening of the thir swordfish from HMS Arc Royal were launched to attack the fleet but none scored any direct hits but 3 days later they tried again this time launching a concentrated attack against the French Battleship dun Kirk now despite some accounts claim claiming that the swordfish did indeed [ __ ] the French capital ship they only did so indirectly even though Dunkirk was a stationary Target she proved remarkably difficult to hit the shallow water of the harbor made torpedo dropping difficult as the swordfish had to fly very low and very slow lest the weapon simply spear into the shallow seabed and be useless and the approach to Dunkirk was blocked by several smaller vessels the first wave in the swordfish attack scored no hits at all but one torpedo from the second wave hit a patrol boat which was mored alongside Dunkirk said Patrol booat was loaded with 14 depth charges and it was the collective detonation of these which is what actually crippled the battleship now from a purely points scoring perspective M El cabia was something of an anticlimax for the fairy swordfish as although it did damage Naval vessels including a capital ship indirectly it had not directly crippled or sank anything major by itself however it had proven that fleets could be vulnerable to enemy Air Attack in Harbor and this was further confirmed a few months later by an event that could be considered the swordfish's crowning achievement and that was the Battle of Toronto situated on Italy's Southeastern Coast the port of Toronto was home to the bulk of the regia marinas battle Fleet including six battleships seven heavy Cruisers two light Cruisers and numerous destroyers and other support vessels the base's location made it a critical hub for Italian Naval operations in the Mediterranean providing a stronghold from which the fleet could exert control over the surrounding seas and threaten British shipping routes the concept of a surprise aerial attack on Toronto had actually been considered as early as the mid 19 30s and with the fall of France in 1940 the importance of such an operation became even more critical now the Battle of Toronto is going to get its own in-depth video in the future so I'm going to keep it relatively brief for now but in short the operation codenamed Operation judgment went as follows before the raid the British conducted several reconnaissance missions using Martin marylands and short Sunderland to gather intelligence on the Italian fleet's positions and the Harbor's defenses these missions were crucial in refining the attack plan particularly in identifying the presence of anti-aircraft batteries and the extent of anti-torpedo netting around the ships which was the biggest point the torpedo Nets were deep but they did not reach all the way to the bottom of the harbor by setting the Torpedoes to run at a very specific depth and by modifying the torpedo release system so that the weapon belly flopped into the sea rather than spearing down into the seabed naval officers were confident that these defenses could be overcome the aircraft carrier HMS illustrious under rear Admiral lumni ler was chosen to carry out this attack and she would be escorted by a powerful force of heavy Cruisers light Cruisers and destroyers the key to the operation would be the use of the fairy swordfish and the squadrons involved in the attack were 8113 8 85 8/19 and 824 Naval Air Squadron totaling 21 aircraft half of these aircraft would be equipped with Torpedoes while the others carried bombs and flares to create diversions and disrupt Italian defenses the attack on Toronto began on the evening of November the 11th 1940 when the first wave of 12 aircraft led by leftenant Commander Kenneth Williamson took off from HMS illustrious at 2100 hours as the swordfish approached Toranto they encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire from both the ships and the shore batteries despite this the first wave managed to launch their Torpedoes and drop their bombs with remarkable accuracy the battleship con de cavora was hit by a torpedo that caused a significant breach in its Hull eventually leading to the ship sinking in the shallow Waters of the harbor another Battleship Lorio was struck by multiple torpedo causing severe damage that left it partially submerged one torpedo was also launched at the flagship Victoria venito but unfortunately it missed its Mark along with these the bomb carrying swordfish from the first wave attacked and successfully struck two Cruisers and four destroyers the second wave of nine swordfish led by leftenant Commander JD hail arrived approximately 90 minutes later to a slightly more awake and ready for defense Toranto but nonetheless they still pulled off a successful attack as well five of them carried Torpedoes and one of these struck the battleship Julio on her starboard side the torpedo blasted a 11 by7 M Hull in the hull and the Italians had to scramble several smaller vessels to forcibly Beach the battleship before she could sink another torpedo was once again also aimed at the FL Flagship Victoria venito but once again it missed and the Italian Flagship was spared despite the heavy anti-aircraft fire and despite having a top speed of less than 150 mph only two of the 21 swordfish were lost during the attack which could only be described as a resounding victory for the Royal Navy in a single n the British had inflicted severe damage on the Italian Fleet effectively neutralizing half of Italy's capital ship strength for several months the success of the Toronto raid would also have far-reaching implications for Naval Warfare it demonstrated the effectiveness of aircraft carriers and Naval Aviation in conducting offensive operations against enemy fleets particularly when said fleet was in a supposedly Safe Harbor most importantly it signaled the ascendance of Naval Strike aircraft over the big gun Battleship as the most effective tool for destroying enemy Naval assets it's also been said that Toronto was the inspiration for the Japanese attack on PE Harbor in December 1941 however the Japanese had already been working on shallow running Torpedoes since the late 1930s with this exact idea in mind but Toronto certainly confirmed them in their line of thinking and the Japanese carefully studied the attack which helped them refine their own strategies for their attack in December of 41 following Toranto the Fleet air arm continued to operate the swordfish in strikes against axis shipping throughout late 1940 and into early 1941 on the night of the 11th of March 1941 six swordfish from number 815 Squadron flying out of Parthia in Greece launched an attack on enemy shipping in the harbors of jzo and vona in Italian occupied Albania despite the challenges posed by both the shallow Waters and the presence of enemy night Fighters the swordfish managed to score two critical torpedo hits on enemy vessels then a few weeks later on March the 28th the swordfish played a role in the Battle of Cape matapan contributing to the sinking of three Italian Cruisers however one of the most famous operations involving the swordfish during 1941 was the pursuit and eventual sinking of the German battleship bismar after the action in which bismar sunk the HMS hood on May 24th 1941 nine swordfish from HMS Victorious would conduct the first aerial attack the swordfish located the German battleship using air to surfice vessel radar which allowed them to conduct their attack despite incredibly poor visibility unfortunately for them in spite of this useful piece of equipment only one torpedo would hit its Mark during the sorty causing only minor damage to bismar although the damage was not enough to significantly hinder bismar operational capabilities it did Force the battleship to perform evasive maneuvers that slowed her down and this made it easier for the Royal Navy to continue its Pursuit the decisive moment involving swordfish came on the 26th of May 1941 when swordfish launched from Ark Royal carried out another attack on bismar earlier in the day a first wave of swordfish failed to locate her due to poor weather but the second wave managed to find Bismark in the late afternoon despite the conditions worsening again this attack proved to be the turning point in the pursuit the swordfish pilots flying low and close to the waves to avoid bismar anti-aircraft fire launched their Torpedoes at the German battleship two Torpedoes struck her with one hit being particularly crucial as it jammed the Mark Rudder locking it in a 12° turn to Port this damage rendered the battleship unmanufactured not directly sync the bismar their role in the operation could not be overstated in a single moment a tiny 3 and 1/2 ton aircraft had been able to successfully [ __ ] a 50,000 ton battleship in the middle of an engagement like the attack at Toronto the hunt for the bismar further reinforced the potential impact that carrier born strike aircraft could have in Naval Warfare now taking a broader look at the career of the swordfish outside these famous engagements 1941 to early 1942 was a period that saw both highs and lows it was a time that saw the swordfish used to the fullest of its capabilities sometimes with startling results as with bismar but it also saw events that painfully highlighted its obsolescence the experiences of swordfish operated by the carrier HMS Hermes in particular serve as a good example of these shifting Fortunes in February 1941 they saw action against 16 axis Merchant ships that had been blockaded in the harbor at Mogadishu in Italian Somali land when the ships attempted to break out of the harbor they ignored British demands to return and continued on their Journey the swordfish responded with a series of attacks sinking at least three vessels and forcing two others to run a ground later in May of 1941 the the same swordfish squadron from HMS Hermes was also involved in quelling a Proaxis rebellion in Iraq the aircraft conducted bombing raids and close support operations against Rebel held barracks and forts until the Insurgent surrendered later on in June but following this campaign HMS homes then sailed into the Indian Ocean where her swordfish were disembarked at Salon during a refit some of these aircraft were also stationed in Singapore when Japan launched their attack in December of 1941 unfortunately but also completely unsurprisingly these swordfish only survived for a few days under the intense Japanese assaults the situation then became even worse in 1942 when six more swordfish were Airborne over Salon during a Japanese carrier based air strike against the port facilities all six of the sword were shot down by the Japanese who suffered no losses in return and in fact it was a complete aerial blood barath both the I d3a dive bomber and the A6 m0 significantly outclassed the swordfish in performance in fact the speed disparity between the zero over the swordfish was greater than the actual top speed of the swordfish itself it was clear that the poor perform performance of the swordfish made it a Sitting Duck when facing off against even remotely contemporary fighter aircraft and indeed by the time that HMS Hermes was sunk by the Japanese in April of 1942 it was already being withdrawn as a Frontline torpedo bomber the last major attempt to use the swordfish for torpedo attacks against enemy warships had actually occurred 2 months earlier in the cold Waters of the English Channel in February of of 1942 one of the most daring and tragic events involving the fairy swordfish would take place during operation Cerberus also known as the channel Dash this operation involved the breakout of the German battleships shanor and gisen now and the Heavy Cruiser Prince Zen from the port of breast in occupied France the goal was a daring run using poor weather as a cloak to get from this port back to Germany through the English Channel remarkably the German ships avoided detection for more than 12 hours and they weren't spotted by the British until they were basically in the straight of DOA by which point belatedly the Brits threw everything that they could at them this included the fairy swordfish six swordfish led by leftenant Commander Eugene Esmond from number 825 Naval Air Squadron were involved in the this event despite the obvious dangers posed by both the German ships formidable anti-aircraft defenses and the presence of LF dwarfer fight escorts Esmond and his Squadron were prepared to launch their Torpedoes in an attempt to Halt the German warships from the outset of this attack their chances were slim the weather was poor with low visibility and heavy cloud cover which not only made it difficult to locate the German ships but it made it even harder to spot incoming enemy aircraft as the swordfish approached their targets they were met by a fierce defensive screen approximately 15 meas Smith BF 109 Fighters which had been escorting the ships intercepted esmond's formation the outdated Swordfish with their slow speed and minimal defensive armorment were no match in any way shape or form for the fast modern and Cannon armed German Fighters the result of the attack was tragic but unsurprising all six swordfish were shot down by the German Fighters before they could release their Torpedoes of the 18 Airmen who took part in the attack only five survived 13 were killed including liutenant Commander Esmond himself The Bravery and determination displayed by the swordfish Crews did not go unnoticed Esmond was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership and courage in the face of overwhelming odds the other crew members sacrifices were also recognized vice admiral Bertram Ramsey described their attack as one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and Devotion to Duty the war had ever witnessed even German vice admiral Otto tiac who commanded the German Fleet during the channel Dash expressed his admiration for the courage displayed by the swordfish Crews despite the hopelessness of their mission the disaster of the channel Dash was the last time that the swordfish would be used for a large scale torpedo attack against an enemy warship but this did not Mark the end of the type's wartime career on the contrary the most numerous iteration of the fairy swordfish had yet to even enter service by late 1942 early 43 it was clear that the swordfish was totally obsolete as a Frontline torpedo aircraft but in other roles it still had use based on reports from the early Convoy patrols of 1939 and 1940 and with sorties assisting the Russian convoys in 1942 the swordfish had the potential to be an excellent submarine Hunter its ability to maintain stable flight at low speeds and its good handling in poor weather meant that it could stalk the German new boats in the Atlantic with relative ease so long as it had the right equipment to do the job with this in mind Blackburn and fairy cooperate to increase both the performance and the Firepower of the swordfish and this led to the mark 2 variant the first production swordfish Mark 2s initially kept the same 690 horsepower Bristol Pegasus from The Mark 1 but most of the mark 2s were eventually fitted with the more powerful 750 horsepower Pegasus 30 they also received an enlarged oil cooler on the starboard side of the forward fuselage but despite the engine the overall performance increase was minimal and this was because of the added weight of the aircraft's strengthened airframe and the additional equipment that was installed one of the key improvements of the mark 2 was its Firepower four rocket rails were mounted beneath each lower wing and the wing structures were strengthened with the undersides skinned with metal instead of fabric the metal skinning was necessary as it protected the wings from the blast effect of The Rock Rockets as they were fired each underwing rack could carry four 3in 60 lb high explosive Rockets or four 3-in 25lb armor piercing Rockets developed by the woit Arsenal in England these Rockets were first tested in October of 1941 they measured 4 ft long and used cordite as a propellant this allowed them to reach a speed of 15520 ft per second at a distance of 1,000 ft and this increased to 1,700 ft per second after 3,000 ft swordfish Pilots would launch these rockets in pairs with one from each Wing or they could fire all eight in a single Salvo when launched together the eight Rockets fired delivered the equivalent Firepower to the broadside of an average Cruiser however the swordfish would not have the luxury of engaging things at the same battle ranges as a cruiser in fact they had to get much much much closer the ideal distance for launching these rockets at surfaced submarines was around 60 ft from the target this gave the pilot little room for error and little time to pull away from any resulting explosion should the Rockets managed to do catastrophic damage the swordfish Mark I enjoyed a very active career when it began to operate from escort carriers and Merchant aircraft carriers in the anti-submarine role a role in which its Rockets proved to be highly effective the first successful use of the new rockets occurred on May the 13th 1943 when a swordfish from 819 Squadron flying from the escort carrier HMS Archer attacked the German submarine U 752 in the North Atlantic in this attack the swordfish made use of the armor piercing rocket which was often known simply as a spear which made sense because it basically allowed the aircraft to spear the ubber much like a fisherman would spear a fish the weapon pierced the submarine's pressurized hole and passed clean through to the other side which of course prevented it from diving then seeing Allied warships approaching and with no hope to escape the surviving crew of u75 2 scuttled the ubot and Abandoned Ship though the sinking of U 752 demonstrated the effectiveness of the rocket armed swordfish more often than not they barely saw the U boats at all most Atlantic patrols by swordfish saw little and in most cases when a submarine was located it was very rare that it was critically damaged or sunk without outside assistance that did not mean that the swordfish wasn't useful it served as an excellent flying deterrent and they did become even more effective when the mark 2s began to be equipped with ASV radar it was also around this time as it was performing these escorting and anti-submarine missions that the swordfish finally got given its unofficial nickname of string bag as the Navy started bolting bombs Rockets Radars and sometimes even search lights onto its old Banes somebody remarked that no housewife on a shopping spre could cram a wider variety of Articles into her string bag which was the name of a carrying bag that a lot of people used back then the name caught on and soon enough the air Crews aboard escort carriers and Merchant aircraft carriers or even those based at Coastal air stations whose job it was to patrol for enemy submarines soon referred to their old school warhorse as the string bag this was further helped by the fact that it could also be used as an adequate description of the swordfish's appearance and in later years it has been incorrectly stated that that is why the swordfish was called string bag rather than the remarks about shopping bags for the crews that operated the swordfish in this later role their lot was often a thankless task but it was still of vital importance to the Allied war effort and the mark 2 would become the most numerous swordfish variant to be produced with 1080 being built by Blackburn before production shifted onto the penultimate version The Mark III it should also be noted that there was also a swordfish Mark 4 but this was not actually a new iteration of the type but it instead represented about 100ish Mark 2 aircraft which were converted for training use in Canada based at the Naval Air Gunnery School in Yarmouth in Nova Scotia they were given an enclosed cockpit to protect their Crews from the harsh climate of the Canadian winter why this modification wasn't director actively made to other swordfish that were used on Arctic convoys where the crews were quite literally hauled from the cockpits half Frozen is mystery that has yet to be solved even today but anyway let's get back to the Mark III like the mark 2 this version was also intended for the anti-submarine role but it carried the more advanced and considerably heavier Mark 11 ASV radar this was mounted between the undercarriage legs in a streamlined housing and it could detect surface vessels at a range of 60 km for detecting surfaced uots it had an effective range of 20 km and in ideal conditions and with a bit of preying to the machine Spirit it could also detect a uboat at Periscope depth so long as the Periscope was above the water at a range of 8 km this radar greatly increased the effectiveness of the swordfish in the anti-submarine role and it enabled it to effectively hunt even in the most challenging of weather conditions now as the Mark III carried a heavier radar system but was still powered by the same engine as the Mark I its performance did suffer accordingly initially this meant that the defensive Gunner was dispensed with but in 1944 the type began to make use of Rocket assisted takeoff as hilarious as the idea might be of strapping a couple of Rocket pods onto a flimsy bip plane it actually worked rather effectively and it allowed the swordfish to either carry its third crew member again again or as was more commonly done it allowed for a larger fuel load to extend the aircraft's range on anti-submarine patrols on these patrols the Mark III and the mark 2 were often operated together to form hunter killer teams in nighttime operations against the uots with some of the aircraft also carrying a large search light under the stubbo wing this proved to be an especially terrifying combination for the German submarine crews as the advanced radar of the mark iiiii allowed the swordfish group to home in with remarkable Precision in almost zero visibility before blinding them with the search light and attacking them at near Point Blank Range with high explosive or armor piercing Rockets this was the role in which the swordfish would spend the rest of the War years either operating from escort carriers or the merchant aircraft carriers many of these operated on the Supply Convoy route that ran from the United States to jalar but others also operated in the English Channel the North Sea and along the Arctic Convoy routes that led to the Soviet Union by War's end the swordfish had flown thousands of sorties in the support of these convoys and they were credited with the direct destruction of 12 and a half submarines the half being shared with another aircraft type on the same Mission along with assisting the sinking of eight more in cooperation with escort ships despite it age and despite the fact that it was more or less hopelessly obsolete by the beginning of the war the swordfish continued to prove its worth until the very end of the war by 1945 nine Frontline squadrons were still equipped with the Swordfish the last operational missions took place in the spring of 45 with anti-shipping operations off the coast of Norway and these were conducted by 835 and 813 Squadron of the Fleet air arm the last operational Squadron was not disbanded until the 21st of May 1945 shortly after the end of war in Europe and the final training Squadron was still operational well into 1946 it was finally disbanded in the summer of that year which officially marked the end of the swordfish's active career production of the fairy swordfish had ended back in August of 1944 with the last aircraft delivered being a Mark III which rolled off the Blackburn production line on the 18th by that point almost 2,400 swordfish had been built and the typen remained in service far longer than anyone had originally planned indeed many swordfish aircraft remained in active service for longer than the type designed to replace it the fairy albor the albore was replaced by the fairy Barracuda in the torpedo bombing roll and its own production was terminated a full year before the fairy swordfish ironically the swordfish owed its longevity to the same thing that often earned it criticism its simple and dated Design By the time war broke out in 1939 the design of the swordfish was well and truly obsolete in an age where the skies were now filled with Sleek or metal monoplanes the swordfish was an anachronism but it was easy to build it was easy to maintain and performance-wise it was more or less completely V less the simple and unspecialized design of the swordfish meant that it was easily modified to suit a number of auxilary roles and in many use cases its slow speed was actually considered an advantage rather than a detriment was it perfect absolutely not should it still have been a Frontline torpedo bomber in 1939 1940 1941 absolutely not and it was only by a combination of careful mission planning and luck that more weren't lost in a giant blood bath like what we saw with the channel Dash but despite the challenges in spite of being technologically outclassed the fairy swordfish and the brave air Crews who flew it proved without a shadow of a doubt that obsolete did not always mean ineffective today several surviving examples of the swordfish can still be found because it was a very popular and B built in quite large numbers most of them are in museums several examples of the mark 2 Mark III and markv exist in a restored condition and a sole airworthy example of a Mark 1 is operated by Navy Wings based in Somerset in England now if you want to learn a bit more about the history and the development of the fairy swordfish I can recommend the following books naturally we have from the putam collection of aeronautical books fairy aircraft since 1915 by ha Taylor like anything from this collection it is considered a musthave for Aviation enthusiasts though it is also the oldest book out of my recommendations so the way that it's formatted and the text is a little bit dated but it covers all the necessary information you would need it covers the history of fairy Aviation its aircraft and other Ventures undertaken by the company NeXT we have a book titled fairy swordfish in action by Squadron signals this book provides a really good General overview of the types development history and its service history compared to other books it doesn't go into as much Mega deep detail but it serves as an excellent starting point now if you do want to look into the history of the swordfish in a bit more detail I can recommend the following two books first we have fairy swordfish and albor by wa Harrison published in in 2002 this is an excellent deep dive read on the origins the development and the history of both types 10 out of 10 can definitely recommend and second we have fairy swordfish by Matthew Willis which is part of the Fleet air arm Legends Series this is the newest book published on the swordfish only published in 2022 it doesn't cover the technical information of the swordfish in as much detail but it provides a wonderful wonderful and comprehensive account of the type's service history and includes some gorgeous illustrations so again definitely a must have as always thank you all so much for watching and a big thank you of course to the patreon supporters I hope you enjoyed a return to the long deep dive content I'm going to be doing my best to make it a bit more regular though it may mean a slightly slow upload schedule at times but in my opinion quality is better than quantity at least as far as these videos are concerned a big thank you of course to our wing Commander tier patrons our highest tier members uh recently I attended the Pacific Air Show on the Gold Coast down here in Australia and took some amazing photos so I will probably post a video about that soon um also feel free to check out my Instagram as I'm going to be starting to post things on there regularly like every couple of days a new photo will be going up now some folks have also asked asked about buying prints so I'm currently making inquiries with a few different companies to see what my options are and hopefully I'll be able to launch a shop for my photos in the not too distant future but that is all for today as always thank you all so much for your continued support it means the absolute well to me and I'll catch you all next time goodbye