The Stringbags

By Garth Ennis and P. J. Holden

If you do the incredible often enough, they'll want you to do the impossible.
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Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy began World War II with aircraft that could devastate enemy warships and merchantmen at will. Britain's Royal Navy squadrons went to war equipped with the Fairey Swordfish. A biplane torpedo bomber in an age of monoplanes, the Swordfish was underpowered and undergunned; an obsolete museum piece, an embarrassment. Its crews fully expected to be shot from the skies. Instead, they flew the ancient Stringbag into legend.
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Writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys, War Stories) and artist PJ Holden (Battlefields, World of Tanks: Citadel) present the story of the men who crewed the Swordfish: from their triumphs against the Italian Fleet at Taranto and the mighty German battleship Bismarck in the Atlantic, to the deadly challenge of the Channel Dash in the bleak winter waters of their homeland. They lived as they flew, without a second to lose--and the greatest tributes to their courage would come from the enemy who strove to kill them. Based on the true story of the Royal Navy's Swordfish crews, The Stringbags is an epic tale of young men facing death in an aircraft almost out of time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Release date: May 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781682475232

Book preview

Reviews for The Stringbags

[gothamajp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Books read in 2021 #53- “The Stringbags” by Garth Ennius & PJ Holden. In the early days of WW2 the newly commissioned Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm’s main torpedo bomber was the Fairy Swordfish, an aircraft out of time. Already obsolete by the time it went into combat it was a on open cockpit biplane in an age of sleek fighters, Yet it flew into legend as “The Stringbag.” But legends are not made by machines, but by men. Garth Ennis, probably the best current writer of war comics, and artist PJ Holden pay homage to both men and machine by following the (mis)adventures of a single Stringbag crew across three of its most famous operations, the raid on the Italian fleet at Taranto, the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, and a suicidal attempt to stop the “channel dash” of three German battleships heading for their home port. Ennis & Holden deliver a well-researched and detailed military history delivered with heart, and above all respect. #books #review #2021reads #comics

[villemezbrown · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Garth Ennis solidifies his claim on being his generation's premier writer of World War II graphic novels with this historical fiction about a World War II British naval aircrew. The plane they fly is the Fairey Swordfish -- nicknamed the "Stringbag" -- a biplane torpedo bomber that was considered obsolete at the start of the war due to its single torpedo capacity, fabric covering, open cockpit, and slow speed but by war's end may have sunk more Axis ships and submarines by tonnage than any aircraft in the Allies' arsenal.Archie, Ollie and Pops bounce from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic to the English Channel as they take part in the Battle of Taranto, the hunt for the Bismarck, and the Channel Dash. They bicker and joke and occasionally find themselves in a spot of trouble, but their focus stays on doing the job beating the Nazis and protecting Great Britain.I especially appreciated Ennis reverential afterword explaining the choices he made in his fiction and the historical basis for the events portrayed.