"New book about the Fairey Swordfish" Topic

The Stringbags by Garth Ennis. ISBN 9781682475034

Annotation:
"Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy began World War II with torpedo bombers 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"--

Review:

Library Journal (04/17/2020):
Although considered obsolete by 1940, the Fairey Swordfish--biplane torpedo bombers nicknamed Stringbags--still played a role in the Royal Navy's battle against the Axis powers. Crewmates Archie, Pops, and Ollie are considered lazy, incompetent cowards by their commanding officers until distinguishing themselves in an operation targeting the Italian Fleet in the Mediterranean. Their triumphant return to England after the battle is marred by the Blitz and cut short when they're ordered to join an attack against the Bismarck, an enormous floating fortress bristling with cannons. Ennis (Sara) clearly admires these pilots, but resists romanticizing them; they bicker and banter, fly off course and get lost, and at one point accidentally attack a Royal Navy ship. By highlighting their flaws, Ennis makes their bravery seem even more incredible and offers a reminder that the war was won by normal people willing to make enormous sacrifices in the name of freedom, especially as the crew's quarreling is supplanted by somber reflection in the final chapter, which finds them preparing to battle German ships in the English Channel. VERDICT An epic tribute to little-known heroes, featuring frenzied depictions of midair combat by Holden (Judge Dredd: Every Empire Falls).--Tom Batten, Grafton, VA

Sweet! These Ennis WWII books are all fantastic.

Worked, in my earliest days, with a then very senior chap who had served in Swordfish in the North Atlantic, off tiny little escort carriers. Went on to a lifetime in Oncology and I have never forgotten him.

Above all, I remember why the Swordfish was to be respected. You needed complete air superiority (do not attack the Channel Dash alone). But, out in the North Atlantic Gales, when the Avengers were "grounded", the biplane Swordfish could fly. Indeed the challenge was to hold it down on the deck! It would lift off vertically into the wind, indeed drift backwards…..but now the U boats were in trouble as the convoy had air cover. It was like a helicopter in a gale, something I never appreciated. It was NOT an obsolete Stringbag, until vertical take off became a routine

And of course a Swordfish torpedo was responsible for the critical damage to the Bismarck when she'd almost made it to safety (one hit the stern and jammed the rudders, whilst she was hard over).

Thanks Deadhead, many a thing I never knew before.

One of my fondest books as a young teen was Charles lamb in "TO War In A Stringbag". Prewar pilot that flew the Swordfish with his history from the Norway campaign, the Taranto Raid and then all kinds of operations from Malta. He was later a landing officer on Implacable during the Pacific operations with the British Pacific Fleet.

I don't think people fully comprehend that the Pearl Harbour attack was modellled on how twenty Swordfish took out the Italian fleet in an attack on their harbour AT NIGHT.

Anyone read his two volumes on the Mosquito, "Out of the Blue"?