Comments on: Gin and Bully Beef

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:23:30 +0000

Woot! Swordfish! Slower than Devastators, and more deadly!

(to be fair, the Nips were tougher opponents than anybody from Yurrop)

By: Pixelkiller

Pixelkiller — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:09:39 +0000

Re: Stringbags:
There is a wonderful piece of history in a book named “Red Duster, White Ensign”, 1959/60 by a Ian Cameron. It’s about three naval Sea Gladiators that defended Malta against the Italian airforce at the beginning of the war. The pilots named their planes, “Faith”, “Hope”, and “Charity”. (There were only 3, the 4th being held in reserve for parts). By some miracle they lasted a long time in this uneven fight. It’s the chapter titled “Malta”. I recomend it highly.

By: SpazSinbad

SpazSinbad — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:01:48 +0000

Amazing tale about the Stringbag RADAR: http://www.uboat.net/allies/aircraft/swordfish.htm

http://www.uboat.net/allies/aircraft/photos/swordfish.jpg

“A Fairey Swordfish Mk.III with ASV Mk.XI radar between its wheel legs, dipole arrays on its wings struts, and rocket launching rails under the wings.”
&
“The Swordfish was extremely easy to fly and easy to land on a carrier deck, a quality that would become very important for night operations on the small decks of escort carriers. Although the Swordfish was stable around all axes, it could make remarkably short turns. It could also be dived vertically to very close to the sea surface, and then make an abrupt pull-out. Very little speed built up in the dive. Therefore the Swordfish was not necessarily an easy prey for a fighter, but it was during the long, slow and straight run that was required to launch a torpedo.”
&
“The Swordfish was now equipped with ASV radar and rocket projectiles for anti-submarine operations. The Swordfish Mk.II had wings with metal-skinned undersides and launching rails for eight 60lb rockets. The provision for a float undercarriage was deleted, and the more powerful Pegasus 30 engine installed. The Mk.III had ASV Mk.XI radar in a big radome between the landing gear legs. This radar had a range of about 40km against ships, and in good conditions also against U-boats; but it would detect a Schnorkel only in very calm seas and at distances below 8km. Some Mk.IIs and many Mk.IIIs became Mk.IVs when a cockpit canopy was installed.”
____________________________

http://www.vectorsite.net/avsword.html

“The Swordfish had been equipped with ASV radar as early as October 1940, to help it hunt down German U-boats cruising on the surface. Two months later, on 21 December 1941, a Swordfish operating from Gibraltar was the first aircraft to sink a submarine at night. A year and a half later, on 23 May 1943, a Swordfish was the first aircraft to prove the effectiveness of rockets in antisubmarine warfare when one Stringbag sunk the U-752 off the coast of Ireland, even though the U-boat put up a strong defense with its quadruple 20 millimeter flak guns.”

By: virgil xenophon

virgil xenophon — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:48:02 +0000

The “Swiss Army Knife” equivalent of ours
to which you refer must be the old Douglass Skyraider series, n’cest pas?
Another Navy bird the AF appropriated
like my F-4. Lots of memories working
with AF Spads, Sandys and Hobos over Laos. Except for the guys who flew ‘em, half the young guys my age at the time didn’t even know they were originally a Navy bird!

By: badbob

badbob — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:11:49 +0000

Virgil,

I think the author covers that in the book linked above: “To War in a Stringbag”. The radar was used for ASW as I remember!

This aircraft was the “Swiss Army Knife” of British Naval Aviation during WWII. We used to have one but we don’t now.

By: virgil xenophon

virgil xenophon — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:40:40 +0000

I could be very wrong but I think I read somewhere that toward the end of the war
they even managed to shoe-horn in a radar for the damn thing–anybody know
if this is true?