Torpedo Bombers

By Peter C. Smith

This is a highly illustrated history one of the most deadly types of atta aircraft. The torpedo bomber first appeared during the later years of World War One but served their most useful role in the Second World War. The most famous attas include Taranto, where Fairey Swordfish destroyed the Italian Battle fleet and the infamous surprise atta on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. In both these cases the attas were against ships laying in harbor and therefore stationary. Heavy defensive anti-aircraft fire was the greatest danger to the torpedo bombers in those circumstances but ships under way in the open sea had far more room to take evasive action. The lengthy time it took a torpedo to reach its target allowed many ships to escape destruction. However notable exceptions were the sinking HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse by the Japanese during the early stages of the war in the Far East. During the hunt for the Bismar it was an air-launched torpedo from a Swordfish that severely damaged the ships steering gear and enabled the Royal Navy to close in for the final kill. Some of the types included are the Fairey Swordfish, Bristol Beaufort, Fairey Albacore, Bristol Beaufighter, Heinkell He 115, Marchetti SM.79, Fokker T.VIII, Grumman Avenger and the Nakajima B5N.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 27, 2008
• ISBN: 9781783038725

Book preview

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First published in Great Britain in 2007 by

Pen & Sword Aviation

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright © Peter C. Smith, 2007

ISBN 978 1 84415 607 8

eISBN 978 1 78303 873 2

The right of Peter C. Smith to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England

By CPI UK

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local history, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper.

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PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

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See all previous books by Peter C. Smith at the Author’s Website: www.dive-bombers.co.uk

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Chapter One

Early Developments

Chapter Two

The Inter-War Years

Chapter Three

The Early War Years

Chapter Four

Triumph in Battle

Chapter Five

Decline and Abandonment

Select Bibliography

Dedication

Franz Selinger and Hanfried Schliephake

With thanks and appreciation over many decades.

Foreword

The story of the torpedo bomber has long needed recording. This book may be looked upon as a pictorial outline of an involved story but one that presents the basic facts and details of many of the great actions, supplemented by a comprehensive series of photographs.

The torpedo bomber had a long and slow development from before the Great War and reached maturity from 1940 to 1942, when spectacular achievements brought it to the forefront of naval warfare. The development of effective antiaircraft defence and the declining number of suitable targets eventually caused its eclipse during the latter war years. Its final development took place in the early 1950s.

It is now only the anti-submarine torpedo that is taken to sea in aircraft, a development outside the scope of this book but one that has assured the use of the aerial torpedo in a new form at sea for many decades.

For this new edition of the book, Pen & Sword has adopted a format designed for modern readers. I am delighted; for too long our naval heritage has been ignored and neglected, indeed, almost treated as shameful. What was achieved by brave men fighting for their nation and families should be honoured and the men who flew the torpedo bombers at Taranto and against the Bismarck should never be forgotten.

Acknowledgements

The author and publishers wish to thank the following organisations and individuals for their kindness in allowing them to reproduce the photographs featured in this book: Ufficio Storico, Roma; Archiv Schliephake; Crown Copyright Office; French Navy; Imperial War Museum, London; JMSDF Historical Office, Tokyo; Real Photos, Southport; Franz Selinger, United States Navy Historical Center, Navy Yard, Washington DC; Aeronautical Italia, Roma: and the personal collections of friends and enthusiasts.

Peter C. Smith,

Riseley, Bedfordshire

August 2007

Chapter One

Early Developments

The Origins

At the beginning of the twentieth-century seapower was supreme, being epitomised by the Royal Navy in particular, which possessed an overwhelming superiority over all the other nations of the world in size, expertise and tradition. The strength and kingpin of any national battle-fleet lay in the numbers, size and power of the ultimate arbiter of sea-warfare, the battleship. And yet toward the second half of the nineteenth century that ultimate power had seemed threatened by the introduction of underwater weapons, which could strike unseen at the vulnerable underbelly of the battleship, below her armoured protective belt and untroubled by her mighty guns; the mine, which posed a static threat, and the torpedo, which could be deployed against moving ships in battle. Delivery of the torpedo had been by special lightly built and speedy ships, named torpedo-boats, and the weaker powers like France and Russia built huge numbers in the hope they would mitigate their inferiority in the larger ships category. But Britain had countered that threat, seemingly, by the introduction of the quick-firing gun that could destroy the torpedo-boats at long range by smothering them with shells, or at least make their approach so hazardous as to be suicidal. The Royal Navy also invented the direct counter to the torpedo-boat, in effect a larger, more powerful armed and faster ship, known initially as the torpedo-boat destroyer, but soon, universally known simply as the destroyer.

It seemed that the balance had been re-established. But the Wright brothers introduced a new factor into the age-old scheme of things when they made their first flight. The new aeroplanes were an exciting but fragile novelty when they first appeared, seemingly fireflies against the armoured hides of the battleships. But it was not very long before man’s ingenuity coupled the destructive power of the torpedo with the new versatility and manoeuvrability of the aeroplane, and a whole new weapon system was born, one which, within fewer than forty years, was to consign the battle fleet to the history books – the torpedo bomber. This is its story.

Italy

The Italians were among the first pioneers in the field of torpedoes in the late nineteenth century and later were also prominent in the art of torpedo-dropping from aircraft. In 1912, a lawyer named Pateras Pescara approached the