General info for Swordfish Mk I

• Country Britain
• Vehicle role Biplane / Torpedo-Bomber
• Rank 1

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Wiki info about Swordfish Mk I

Official War Thunder wiki

A single-engine biplane of mixed construction, the Fairey Swordfish was developed initially as a Torpedo Bomber/Spotter/Reconnaissance aircraft. The origins of the Swordfish lay in the TSR I prototype of 1933 which, after being lost in an accident, was replaced by the TSR II which first flew on April 17th 1934. The first order for 86 aircraft was placed in April 1935 and in July 1936 the first Swordfish entered service with 825 Naval Air Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm. The Swordfish Mk I was powered by a radial air-cooled Bristol Pegasus Mk IIIM engine and was equipped with one synchronised, fuselage-mounted 0.303 inch Vickers Mk.II machine gun and one 0.303 inch Lewis or Vickers ‘K’ machine gun in the Telegraphist Air Gunner’s cockpit. The Swordfish Mk I could carry one 18 inch torpedo (731 kg), one sea mine (680 kg), three Mk VII depth charges or up to 1500 lbs (680 kg) of bombs underneath the fuselage and wings. Later variants could carry 60 lb rockets. The Swordfish was normally crewed by three; the pilot, the observer and in the rearmost cockpit, the Telegraphist Air Gunner, or TAG. On some occasions the observer would be seated in the TAG’s cockpit whilst an extra fuel tank was fitted in the observer’s cockpit. As an open cockpit biplane with a fixed undercarriage and areas of fabric skin, the Swordfish was viewed by most as an anachronism and obsolete by the beginning of the Second World War. Nothing could be further from the truth; the Swordfish possessed stable, forgiving handling characteristics which made it ideally suited for naval operations from the unforgiving decks of aircraft carriers in rough seas or at night. With a low stall speed and an incredible agility for an aircraft of its size, the Swordfish could out turn most enemy fighters at slow speeds. It was a tough, robust aircraft capable of withstanding battle damage which would have destroyed many more ‘modern’ aircraft. It even outlasted its intended replacement, the Fairey Albacore. The Swordfish became immortalised in the annals of naval aviation history when, on the night of 11th-12th November 1940, when 21 Swordfish of 813 NAS, 815 NAS, 819 NAS and 824 NAS carried out a daring attack on the Italian port of Taranto, crippling three Italian battleships and causing significant damage to smaller warships and coastal installations. The attack would become the model for the Japanese Navy’s strike on Pearl Harbour. Swordfish of 818 NAS also succeeded in crippling the steering gear of the German battleship ‘Bismarck’ allowing Royal Navy warships to destroy her. Perhaps the most tragic moment in the illustrious career of the Swordfish was when six aircraft of 825 NAS attacked the German warships ‘Scharnhorst’, ‘Gneisenau’ and ‘Prinz Eugen’ through a screen of anti aircraft fire and squadrons of German fighters. All six Swordfish were lost and their CO, Lt Cdr Eugene Esmonde, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, one of only four ever to be awarded to naval aviators. After a career matched by no other naval strike aircraft in history, production of the Swordfish ceased in August 1944. A Swordfish carried out the last operational flight by a biplane in the Fleet Air Arm in June 1945, leaving only a few of Swordfish to carry out ancillary duties until the last disappeared from the Royal Navy’s books in the 1950s. A total of 2,391 Swordfish were produced, 992 of which were from the Mk I series.