Swordfish: The Fleet Air Arm’s Versatile, Long Serving, Legendary «Stringbag»

132 Pages·2013·73.24 MB·English

by  Martyn Chorlton

SWORDFISH
THE FLEET AIR ARM’S VERSATILE, LONG SERVING,
LEGENDARY ‘STRINGBAG’
£7.95
ICONS
Fairey Swordfish I of 811 Squadron climbs away from
HMS Courageous during deck landing training in early
1939. While the Swordfish would remain in operational
service throughout the Second World War, HMS
Courageous war was very short as she was sunk by a
U-boat on September 17, 1939. Aeroplane
2
SWORDFISH
THE RUGGED AND RELIABLE ‘STRINGBAG’
T he Fairey Swordfi sh story is one of an aircraft initially frowned bravery displayed by the aircrew during the attacks on the
upon when it entered service in 1936, respected by the Bismarck is legendary, while equal, but fruitless courage was
beginning of the Second World War and deemed legendary exhibited during the ill-fated Channel Dash. The latter incident, in
by the time peace was declared. The world must have looked particular, not only says a lot about the aircraft, but also about the
on in awe at our powerful Royal Navy and its large carriers and with crews. They were under no illusion, being aware that the Swordfi sh
equal bemusement at the seemingly fragile biplanes, with their was not the best aircraft they could have gone to war in but they
single torpedo and light armament upon their decks. would fi ght in to the death nevertheless. Regardless, it outlived its
However, the Swordfi sh was the only torpedo bomber we had in operational replacement, the Albacore by some years, mainly
signifi cant numbers at the beginning of the war and it would prove because the Swordfi sh was more suited to escort carrier and
to be so much more. Designed with one role in mind, the Swordfi sh Mac-ship operations, a duty it carried out to the bitter end,
evolved into one of the most versatile of Naval aircraft. Its slow protecting convoys far and wide.
speed, which was criticised from the outset, proved to be one of its While the big Swordfi sh subjects are covered in this ICON title, I
strengths, especially when it came to anti-submarine work, in which have attempted to include the action from the TAG’s point of view,
it claimed 21 U-boats sunk between April 1940 and December 1944. which was not just along for the ride. Contributions from two
The later combination of RPs and ASV radar made the Swordfi sh ex-TAGs are included; sadly neither of them is with us today so I will
particularly eff ective against U-boats and shipping, of which it be donating their royalties to the RNHF to help keep its wonderful
claimed over 300,000 tons sunk. Swordfi sh fl ying. Also, Ray Sturtivant, who we also lost a few years
Aff ectionately nicknamed the ‘Stringbag’, the aircraft achieved an ago, was always keen to help me when he was alive and like so many
outstanding war record beginning with operations in Norway, where researchers and aviation historians his work continues to aid us all,
events could have been much diff erent if the Royal Navy was not even though he has passed on. I will also be donating his royalty to
forced to divert its attention elsewhere. The attack on the Italian the RNHF.
harbour at Taranto that crippled the Italian Navy displayed what the On the subject of raising money for the RNHF, if you would like to
aircraft was capable of and that it was clearly not be under estimated. help, the Fly Heritage Trust Supporters Group is the route to take. The
The Swordfi sh also played an important role in the invasion of trust can be easily found online or see website: www.fnht.co.uk/
Madagascar which kept the Japanese at bay early on in the war. The join_supporters_club.html
Several members of 813 Squadron at Blida Acknowledgements
are told by the photographer, ‘walk towards Don Bunce (Contributor), Darrell Burge (Airfi x),
the camera, and look happy doing it’! From Katie Campbell (RNHF), Owen Cooper (Contributor),
left to right our jolly subjects are: Sub Lt P C Rebecca Gibbs (Sub Editor),
Heath, Sub Lt G A Donaghue, Sub Lt D R Mudd, Bill Harrison (Contributor), Andy Hay (Artwork),
Sub Lt R S Hankey (Senior Pilot), Sub Lt H Sue Keily (Ad Sales Manager),
O’Donnell, Lt Cdr C Hutchinson (CO), Sub Lt R David H Smith (Contributor),
D Pears, Sub Lt D Walker and ‘unknown’. Les Sayer (Contributor), Paul Silk (Design),
(Aeroplane) Ray Sturtivant (Contributor),
Rob Terry (Design)
SWORDFISH
THE FLEET AIR ARM’S VERSATILE, LONG SERVING, … Cover Photo Dramatic view (one not often seen of a Stringbag) of the RNHF’s LS326 over Lyme Bay en-route from Yeovilton to Culdrose on July 19, 2011.
LEGENDARY ‘STRINGBAG’
The aircraft is being fl own by Lt Simon Wilson, with AET Mark Connell and the ex-CO of RNAS Yeovilton, Cdre Paul Chivers OBE in the back. Lee Howard
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ICONS
001 Swordfish Cover.indd 1 10/04/2013 15:07
Published by Kelsey Publishing Ltd. Printed at William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Kelsey Publishing Ltd,
Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry's Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG. Tel: [phone]. Fax: [phone].
Email: [email protected]. Website: www.kelsey.co.uk. ©2013 ISBN: 978-1-907426-48-3
Contents
6-15 The SwordfiSh STory 30-35 Training Carrier 52-57 running STraighT
Obsolete by the beginning of the – A day or two in the life of and True
Second World War, the Swordfish HMS Courageous – Torpedo and delivery tactics
defied all the odds and remained in by W A Harrison
service for the entire conflict to 38-41 bloody foolS
retire as the world’s last biplane to or bloody heroeS! 60-65 a jaCkdaw on my Sleeve
see active service. Les Sayer presents his story as TAG – The Swordfish years at Crail
during the first attack on the by Martyn Chorlton
18-25 The ‘STringbag’ joinS Bismarck
The fleeT 68-73 Channel operaTionS
– Swordfish service from July 1939 44-49 againST all oddS The late Ray Sturtivant ISO
to September 1939 by Owen – The Channel Dash described presents this period of the
Cooper by one of the five survivors, Swordfishes career, from 1942 to
Ron Bunce 1945, sampled from his book ‘The
Swordfish Story’.
Early production Swordfish I, K5933 (one of
the first to be delivered) pictured during a
pre-delivery air test in February 1936. The
aircraft was delivered to Gosport on
February 27 and then to 825 Squadron on
July 9, 1936. Aeroplane
7889 FIGHTING THE UBOATS! 106111 THE ROYAL NAVY HISTORIC Abbre viations
Comprehensive details of every FLIGHT AND THE SWORDFISH
AACU Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation
successful attack on a U-boat Martyn Chorlton details the fl ight’s Unit
by a Stringbag by Martyn Chorlton two airworthy aircraft and a ADDL Aerodrome Dummy Deck
potential third. Landing
9297 HMS ARGUS ADGB Air Defence of Great Britain
– a tour of duty on 114115 THE SURVIVORS AFU Advanced Flying Unit
the old Hat Box by Michael Hill – A brief summary of Swordfi sh ALT Attack Light Torpedo
AOC Air Offi cer Commanding
extant by David H Smith
ASU Aircraft Storage Unit
100103 ‘LILY’
ASV Air to Surface Vessel radar
– W A Harrison details the 118125 THE SWORDFISH IN SERVICE
B&GS Bombing & Gunnery School
remarkable concept of the by Owen Cooper
BO Burnt Out
‘fl oating aerodrome’ – Detailed listing of all front-line Capt Captain
FAA Swordfi sh units plus second-line Cdr Commander
and other air force service CGM Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
CPO Chief Petty Offi cer
PD Packing Depot
DFC Distinguished Flying Cross
DSC Distinguished Service Cross
DSM Distinguished Service Medal
Dt Detachment
EF Engine Failure
FAA Fleet Air Arm
FL Force Landed
Flt Flight
Flt Lt Flight Lieutenant
FRU Fleet Requirements Unit
GI Ground Instructional
IFF Identifi cation Friend or Foe
LA Leading Airmen
Lt Cdr Lieutenant Commander
MAEE Marine & Aeroplane
Experimental Establishment
Mid Midshipman
Mjr Major
ML Mine Layer
MTB Motor Torpedo Boat
MU Maintenance Unit
NAGS Naval Air Gunners School
PAFU (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit
PD Packing Depot
PO Petty Offi cer
PRU Photographic
Reconnaissance Unit
RAE Royal Aircraft Establishment
RATOG Rocket Assisted Take-off Gear
RCN Royal Canadian Navy
RDU Receipt & Despatch Unit
RNEC Royal Navy Engineering
College
RP Rocket Projectile
Satt Satellite
SOC Struck Off Charge
Sqn Squadron
Sub Lt Sub Lieutenant
TAG Telegraphist Air Gunner
TAT Torpedo Attack Trainer
TBR Torpedo Bomber
Reconnaissance
TOS Taken On Strength
TTS Torpedo Training Squadron
TTU Torpedo Training Unit
VGO Vickers Gas Operated
WS Wireless School
The Fairey SwordFiSh STory
Obsolete by the beginning of the
Second World War, the Swordfish
defied all the odds and remained
in service for the entire conflict,
retiring as the world’s last biplane
to see active service.
The Fairey T.S.r.ii Torpedo Spotter reconnaissance prototype, K4190, being put through
its paces by Fairey test pilot Chris Staniland in the summer of 1934. Aeroplane
6
SWORDFISH
Fairey grows in strength
1929 was a big year for Fairey, especially with
regard to its value, which was strong enough
to begin approaching outside shareholders.
With assets valued at £615,486, the Fairey
Aviation Company Limited was registered as
a public company on March 5, 1929. The
same year, Fairey was asked not only to
vacate their original factory at Clayton Road
but also Northolt Aerodrome, from which it
had been flight testing aircraft since 1917. It
was a blessing in disguise for the latter, as
Fairey was rapidly outgrowing the hangar
space allocated for its use. Northolt’s
replacement was a 150-acre site at
Harmondsworth in Middlesex, which was
bought for £15,000. From the summer of
1930, Harmondsworth became Fairey’s main
flight test centre. It would remain so until
1944, when the site was requisitioned by the
Air Ministry, despite plans to turn the airfield
into another large extension of the Hayes
factory. While concrete runways and massed
expansion was carried out, the military never
One of Fairey’s greatest and possibly, most surprising success stories, the Fairey Swordfish. (Via Aeroplane)
fully took over, instead the airfield evolved
into Heathrow Airport.
Fairey were offered Heston as an flight from here was the Hendon on procedure, the components were
alternative in early 1945 but this proved November 25, 1930. manufactured wherever space could be
unsuitable because of air traffic control issues found within the Hayes factory walls. In seven
Enter the Swordfish, just!
and instead the company opted for White short months, the TSR.II prototype, later to be
Waltham, which was taken over in November Only those people who actually worked for named Swordfish was completed but Fairey
1947. Heston continued to serve as the point Fairey and the many civil servants involved in was left to wait until April 1935 when the first
of departure for newly built aircraft, which the specification for the Fairey Swordfish ever production order was placed.
were fully flight tested at White Waltham. knew how close the type came to being When another large order for the Battle
Remarkably, the compensation that Fairey scrubbed. The loss of the TSR.I in September was received it was time to expand again
was owed for the Air Ministry’s requisition of 1933, luckily for Fairey, took place eight and, in late 1935, Fairey took over the
Harmondsworth was not fully settled until months before the company’s main ex-Willys-Overland Crossley car factory at
1964, by which time the company had competitor for the specification, the Heaton Chapel in Stockport. Hayes was
already moved on from aircraft Blackburn Shark, first flew. The aircraft’s expanded again on October 1938 when a
manufacturing. Harmondsworth’s ‘billiard replacement, the TSR.II was designed and brand new research department was opened
table’ surface made it ideal for flight testing manufactured in an incredibly short period of by Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood. It was the
and the first prototype to make its maiden time. Cutting every conceivable works country’s first private venture research centre †
The sprawl of the main Fairey factory at Hayes, looking west as it appeared in June 1946. Fairey Surveys (Via Martyn Chorlton)
SWORDFISH | 7
The imposing main headquarters building
of the Fairey Aircraft Company Limited at
Hayes, during the late 1940s.
Via Martyn Chorlton
and the well-equipped facility included a spread across the north-west. Aircraft were was that Charles had not left anyone behind
large wind-tunnel, which had a test chamber assembled and flight tested at Heathrow with complete control over the company and
22ft long and a working section 12ft high and (ex-Harmondsworth) in the south and from even up to this point he had devoted much
10ft wide. Ringway in the north. The Swordfish, of his time working for the Ministry of
Albacore and Firefly were all built at Hayes, Aircraft Production (MAP) under the control
The vast Fairey ‘empire’
until Blackburn took over in 1940. At Heaton of Lord Beaverbrook.
By the beginning of the Second World War, Chapel, the Battle, Fulmar and Barracuda With Charles away, Fairey’s aircraft
Fairey were responsible for 25 factories and poured out by the hundred while a shadow production at Hayes inevitably did not run as
workshops of their own and many more that factory at Errwood Park carried out the smoothly as hoped. For example, pending
were operated by a host of sub-contractors sub-contract production of the Beaufighter the taking over of Swordfish production by
of varying sizes. By now the Fairey Group was and Halifax. Blackburn and frustratingly slow progress
not only producing aircraft but also During the war years Charles Fairey was with Albacore production (in 1942 Hayes was
providing spares, aircraft repair, production ordered to work for the British Air brimming with Albacores when it should
and repair of propellers, production of Commission in the USA, an appointment he have been producing Fireflies), the Firefly
standardised components for the aviation was criticised for accepting, despite having was delayed by more than a year. It was a
industry as a whole, production of special no choice at the time. However, in hindsight, similar story at Heaton Chapel, where
machinery and experimental work across the Charles’ work in the USA was far more Barracuda production was delayed until
board. important than the future of his own 1942, although this was more due to the
New aircraft were built at Hayes and company at the time. The problem with his demand for the Rolls-Royce engine during
Heaton Chapel, which had satellite factories departure across the pond in August 1940 the early part of the war.
The Fairey S.9/30, S1706 at Felixstowe in May 1936,
during trials alongside Hawker Osprey III, S1700.
Via Martyn Chorlton
8
SWORDFISH
The Marcel Lobelle designed S.9/30, was first
flown as a landplane with a divided
undercarriage and low-pressure tyres.
Via Martyn Chorlton
The S.9/30 & TSR.I; the
the Greek Navy. The TSR.I was then put
S.9/30 land and floatplane and TSR.I Swordfish begins
forward as a contender for S.15/33, but
It seems remarkable to think that an despite being destroyed in a crash, the
ENGINE: (S.9/30) one 525hp Rolls-Royce Kestrel aircraft that was designed to one design was carried on with the TSR.II and
IIMS; (TSR.I) one 625hp Armstrong Siddeley Panther specification, led to another that was the FAA went on to receive its greatest ever
VI and later one 635hp Bristol Pegasus IIM designed two specifications later; both torpedo-bomber.
WING SPAN: (S.9/30 Land) 46ft; (folded) 17ft machines making their maiden flights a A two-bay biplane on the surface, the
10in mere eight weeks apart. That is what Fairey S.9/30 was actually a single: the
occurred with the S.9/30, which in turn inboard inter-plane struts were only there to
LENGTH: (land) 34ft 1in; (float) 39ft 3in
evolved into the TSR.I and then the TSR.II; provide rigidity for when the wings were
HEIGHT: (land) 14ft; (float) 16ft 6in the latter also becoming known as the folded. A de-rated Kestrel IIMS engine
WING AREA: 442 sq ft Swordfish. powered the S.9/30, an engine that used
LOADED WEIGHT: (land) 5,740lb; (float) What actually occurred was that the evaporative cooling via surface-type steam
6,500lb Fairey designers were looking way beyond condensers attached to the lower side of
the original Specification S.9/30, which was the upper wing. The fuselage was made of
MAX SPEED: (land) 147mph at 2,000ft; (float)
issued in June 1930. By the time the aircraft stainless-steel strip and tube and was
136mph at 2,000ft
flew in 1934, the requirement had constructed in four sections.
CLIMB: (land) 5,000ft in 5 min 30 sec; (float) predictably passed in favour of S.15/33 but The TSR.I was a privately financed
5,000ft in 6.3 min Fairey had already been working on their project powered by a 625hp Panther radial
TSR.I, which was intended for service with engine and, despite being designed †
The privately funded TSR.I fitted with a Bristol Pegasus
engine inside a Townend ring, driving a Watts propeller.
Photo via Aeroplane
SWORDFISH | 9
The TSR.I, also referred to by its
construction number, F.1875, powered by
an Armstrong Siddeley Panther engine.
Via Martyn Chorlton
The sole Fairey S.9/20 Spotter
Reconnaissance Seaplane S1706, which was
first flown on February 22, 1934.
Andy Hay/www.flyingart.co.uk
specifically for the Greek Navy, no orders converted into a seaplane. Fitted with a large abandon the aircraft after twelve rotations.
were forthcoming. Prior to its bland central float and smaller floats mounted on Regardless, flight reports showed that the
designation name, the aircraft was referred struts under the outer wings, S1706 was aircraft was more than capable to meet the
to within the company walls as the ‘Greek trialled at the MAEE, Felixstowe alongside the specification and all the knowledge and
Machine’. Once the order fell through, the Hawker Osprey. The S.9/30 performed well, experienced gained was ploughed into the
aircraft was re-engined with a 635hp but the derivate of the all-conquering Hart TSR.II
Pegasus IIM engine cowled off with a family won the day and Osprey was chosen
TSR.II & Swordfish I
Townend ring. The fixed undercarriage was instead. S1706 was struck off charge on
trialled with and without spats; the rear November 30, 1936 and ended its days being As mentioned earlier, the roots of the TSR.II,
fuselage was strengthened for deck used for crash barrier trials. which would be renamed in the Swordfish are
operations and an arrestor hook was fitted. The TSR.1, which remained un-serialled, firmly planted in the story of the S.9/30 and
The Fairey S.9/30 was first flown from was first flown by Staniland on March 21, the TSR.I. Following the loss of the latter in
Harmondsworth by Chris Staniland on 1933 in its original Greek Navy form. September 1933, Marcel Lobelle immediately
February 22, 1934. Following its initial visit to Accepted as a contender for Specification set to work re-designing the TSR.I to a new
the A&AEE, which was academic as the S.15/33, trials were progressing well until more advanced specification.
specification criteria had already been September 11, 1933, when Staniland failed Air Ministry Specification S.15/33 was for
passed, the aircraft, serially S1706 was to recover from a flat spin and was forced to a Naval carrier-borne torpedo/spotter/
10