DUE124 Royal Navy Tor-Bombers vs Axis Warships 1939-1945 (e).pdf

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ROYAL NAVY TORPEDO-BOMBERS
AXIS WARSHIPS
1939–45
MATTHEW WILLIS
ROYAL NAVY
TORPEDO‑BOMBERS
AXIS WARSHIPS
1939–45
MATTHEW WILLIS
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specifications
The Strategic Situation
The Combatants
Combat
Statistics and Analysis
Aftermath
Further Reading
Index
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7
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18
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71
77
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80
INTRODUCTION
In 1914 the Royal Navy regarded the aeroplane as a useful but peripheral part of its
armoury. Soon after the end of World War I, it was a vital aspect of the main battle
fleet. From 1918 until the 1950s, the aircraft carrier was central to the Royal Navy’s
main force, and its chief weapon was the torpedo‑bomber.
The dramatic success of the Whitehead self‑propelled torpedo in the 1877–78
Russo‑Turkish War meant this new ‘ship‑killing’ weapon could not be ignored by any
major navy. Methods of delivery soon encompassed small boats, battleships, shore
installations and submarines. After the evolution of a practical, controllable,
heavier‑than‑air aeroplane, consideration was given to aircraft delivering torpedo
strikes, and in July 1914 Sqn Ldr A. M. Longmore proved the possibility by dropping
an 810lb 14in. torpedo from a Short ‘Folder’ S.64 seaplane. Following this, the Royal
Naval Air Service (the predecessor to the Fleet Air Arm) charged Short Brothers with
developing a floatplane fully capable of a practical torpedo strike, resulting in the
Short Admiralty Type 184. Two early examples were brought to the Aegean in 1916,
where they carried out the first successful torpedo attacks on ships by aircraft.
Around the same time, flying‑off decks were introduced on seaplane carriers,
allowing aircraft with wheeled undercarriages to take off at sea, evolving into the
aircraft carrier by 1918. HMS
Furious,
a modified battlecruiser, launched the first
successful carrier strike in history with an attack on Zeppelin sheds at Tondern, in
Denmark, on 19 July 1918. Before the end of the war, a specialist carrier aircraft for
torpedo attack, the Sopwith Cuckoo, had been developed and a squadron formed to
target the German High Seas Fleet. The armistice ended this plan, but the carrier‑based
torpedo‑bomber was by then a fixture in the British armoury.
Between the wars, the Fleet Air Arm developed the technology, tactics and
strategy that cemented the torpedo‑bomber’s place in the service. Fleet exercises
4
Swordfish L7650 of the Torpedo
Training Unit, based at Gosport, in
Hampshire, demonstrating a
perfect torpedo drop in 1938–39.
The torpedo is beginning its run
just beneath the surface in the
direction intended, and it will
assume the set depth after a
short distance. A torpedo dropped
at the wrong height, attitude or
while the aircraft was yawing
could run incorrectly or break up.
(Author’s Collection)
proved the vulnerability of a battle fleet to a well‑coordinated torpedo attack
from aircraft.
In the mid‑1930s, the Fleet Air Arm was constrained by small numbers of airframes.
As a result, the service began to consolidate its roles across a smaller number of
less‑specialised types. Dedicated torpedo‑bomber, gunnery spotter and reconnaissance
machines were therefore replaced with a single Torpedo Spotter Reconnaissance (TSR)
aircraft, of which the first in service was the Blackburn Shark in 1934, followed shortly
after by the Fairey Swordfish in 1936.
AXIS WARSHIPS
During World War I, Germany and Italy had powerful, modern navies with fleets built
around up‑to‑date dreadnought battleships. In the years before World War II, both
nations needed to rebuild and update. In Italy’s case, economics and naval treaties
prevented new battleship construction. Germany had lost the vast majority of its fleet
after World War I and was forced to start from scratch, initially impeded by the Versailles
Treaty restrictions. The country had no existing battleships that could be modernised to
supplement new builds, unlike Japan, Britain and Italy. Germany was only allowed to
build a handful of modern vessels in the 1920s and early 1930s.
The introduction of the Deutschland‑class
panzerschiffe
(literally ‘armoured ships’,
known in Britain as ‘pocket battleships’ due to their heavy‑calibre main armament)
triggered a naval arms‑race among European navies. First, France introduced the
Dunkerque‑class battlecruisers, which spurred Italy to initiate the Littorio‑class
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