Inside The Cockpit - Fairey Swordfish
This is one aircraft that I just had to cover. On my bucket list for years, it finally happened: The Fairey Swordfish!
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- Sources -
AP 1517B/PN, Swordfish Mk II Aircrew Manual 1993 Edition, MoD, July 1993,
Fairey Swordfish 1934-1945 Owners' Workshop Manual, Haynes, 2014,
Francis K. Mason, The British Bomber since 1914, Putnam, 1994,
Twitter Convo: / 1443608597636784132
W.A. Harrison, Fairey Swordfish and Albacore, The Crowood Press Ltd, 2002.
- Timecodes -
00:00 - Intro
00:47 - Fairey Swordfish
04:27 - Operational Success (and Luck)
05:56 - Walkaround
20:31 - Navigator
22:08 - Telegraphist Air Gunner
24:52 - Photo-recon
25:07 - Aldis Signal lamp
25:44 - Cockpit
29:35 - Start-up to landing
35:36 - Awesomeness
- Audio -
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, of an American Navy officer in WWII on exchange seeing a Swordfish for the first time. He said, "Where did you get THAT?!" To which was said, "Fairey's." "Figures," he said.
thank you for an interesting share!
Poor old fleet air Arm had a strange collection of planes which in context of this story , well yes the yanks could laugh their planes were fast modern, sleek band new.. which I'm sure the British flyers found far better for their health
Great story. Thanks 👍
Roy this was all down to the RAF who weren’t interested in the Fleet Air Arm which they had control over until 1938. The FAA entered the war with the rubbish the crabs left them with.
Rather surprised you didn't mention the Swordfish's "secret feature" when it came to launching her torpedoes. Dr Alexander Clarke covered this at some length on his channel. The British rigged up a tension wire system, that attached to the nose of the torpedo, that helped to keep it level when dropped, until it hit the water. The British managed to keep this secret for quite some time. Dr Clarke even pointed out in period photographs, showing a Swordfish dropping a torpedo, how the photograph had been "edited" to hide the tension wire. It wasn't just wooden fins attached to the rear of the torpedo, but the tension wire as well, that enabled the successful attack on Taranto.
Very interesting, thanks.
Is that the first example of 'fly by wire'? 🙄
@@stewartfordyce No. That incident happened when the Pilot took a final 'Lucky Leak' on the wheel prior to take off to minimise discomfort later but inadvertently and unnoticed caught the wire whilst rebuttoning up.
@@Farweasel LOL
My best undesrtanding was that the wire ensured that the torpedo would enter the water slightly 'nose up'. Thus reeducing the speed of weapon closer to it's nominal 40kn at the instant of full immersion while also giving the weapon a shallow track.
10:41 the frontal gun is what is called an "emotional support weapon". When you fly a cumbersome, slow bomber towards vessels bristeling with AAA, it subjectively feels better if you can shoot a little, too and it might even take a tiny chunk of folks focus and concentration on killing you, by inducing thoughprocesses on their own well beeing.
If you have tracers it can help with rocketing and sometimes glide bombing.
Fighter aircraft during WWII would sometimes attack their targets head-on rather than from the tail of the targeted aircraft. The frontal gun did at least allow the Swordfish to shoot back, and hopefully keep the attacker a bit further away than he would be otherwise. If there was no frontal gun, then any fighter pilot who wanted to kill a Swordfish could simply keep flying attacks from the front, with no way for the Swordfish to shoot back until after the fighter aircraft had finished shooting at the Swordfish and was then able to maneuver to evade the rear gun's bullets. If a fighter can fly absolutely straight at a defenseless target then the accuracy of its gunfire is improved considerably - it's a 'turkey shoot'. Sometimes an air defense platform is more effective at forcing an enemy to keep its distance than it is at actually killing the attacking aircraft. The US Army put M2 .50 caliber machine guns on top of M4 Sherman tanks for the same reason as the frontal gun on a Swordfish - it forces the enemy's aircraft to have a bit more respect for a target that can actually shoot back, even though both targets were far less maneuverable than a fighter aircraft, and few kills were scored by any of those guns on fighter aircraft.
In the 1930s, they may have considered it provided a useful degree of flexibility by enabling the aircraft to also carry out anti-piracy and imperial policing operations.
@Alfred Wedmore Black, brown, white and yellow. Unfortunately, they never got around to shooting politically correct dimwits though.
Actually the Swordfish had the advantage in being very slow. The Kriegsmarine anti aircraft systems I believe had an automatic system to track fast moving attackers. It meant they spent a lot of ammunition missing the Swordfish which resulted in lower casualties than there could have been.
My grandad was an airframe rigger in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. Before they sent him overseas to work on Corsairs and Wildcats he had to complete his trade training at Garston near Liverpool. Part of the course was for the trainee riggers and fitters to strip a war weary Swordfish down to component parts then reassemble it rigged for flight. He had a soft spot for them despite loving the Corsair and so do I. Thanks.
Didn't know you had Drachinifel as part of your own personal ground crew. You lucky man
I knew that bearded person was familiar !
Cool. I hadn’t seen him, but if I had drawn sketch of how I pictured him from voice and style, it would’ve looked like that man🙂. Although, in mind’s eye, he’d have on a tweed jacket with elbow patches & he would be using a pipe as a pointer. I am grateful for Drachinifel’s channel and, of course the amazing Bismarck!
A must read; "TO WAR IN A STRINGBAG" by Commander C.B. Lamb. He flew Swordfishes throughout the war including the raid on Taranto. An interesting note, he notes that the plane was called a String Bag, not because of all the exposed wires and things, but because it carried everything from bicycles to torpedoes to mines, rather like the string bags that little old ladies carried when they went to the shops.
Well done chaps, been looking forward to this one 👍
Thanks for this! Just 2 months ago I mentioned the Swordfish in my mum's eulogy - because she swapped seats in one in mid air! During WW2 she was a technician in Malvern working on Radar. One dqy she was flying in a swordfish with a scientist who got excited when the set starting working well. So he told her to swap seats so she could see it. So they did. The funny thing about this story is that I only found out a few years ago. When I asked her why she never told me she said "I didn't think it was very interesting"!!!
Your Mum was a gem and I imagine, a real character. My regards to you for your loss.
This was fascinating. One of my neighbours is the son of Lieutenant Commander Stewart-Moore, a Swordfish pilot and commanding officer of 820 Squadron. "The Commander" as he was simply known was a legendary figure in these parts parts and highly respected. During the attack on the Bismark the Swordfish had to fly through a storm of anti-aircraft fire, with typical British understatement The Commander said " the run-in was alarming". Good to see the aircraft he flew.
Wow, small world!
When the ´´Terror of 7 seas can shoot down some *biplane boi* ´´
One cool thing about the wing support wires is that they are solid with a knife edge profile for 'aerodynamics'. 😁 I love that. The Swordfish is an absolute legend for us Brits, it personifies the, admittedly clichéd, wartime spirit. It also embarrassed it's replacements the Albacore and Barracuda. Good old girl.
And notice the stick attached to those support wires. They are to prevent buzzing.
Woah a Stringbag in flying condition. Very cool video Biz! Thanks!
The Swordfish was well suited to operate from the small escort carriers, and being well out in the Atlantic, well away from any modern land based fighters. This is also why the Wildcat was still used on the escort carriers right to the end of the war. The Hellcat was just too large and fast to safely fly off the small escort carriers.
18:24 Isn't it Drach's clone loading a torpedo there?
Lol
I admit nothing :D
@@Drachinifel Come on, I like planes (and model airplanes), ships, esp. wooden ships, and in principle everything that moves - so why shouldn't you? And that is a carrier-based plane, a plane on board a plane that has a boat on board, how can it get better? Hmmm - there were huge lifeboats carried by bombers like the Avro Lancaster, maybe something worth covering?
I was positive it was Drach in the thumbnail, but I guess not!
In 1964 I was chatting with my boss and he revealed that, as a Swordfish navigator on a training flight, he had lost one year's seniority when he dropped his Very pistol through one of the removeable apertures in the cockpit bottom. I think he said there was a removeable bombsight. The pistol went through a Welsh farmer's roof, he complained to the Navy and my boss was traced through the serial number of the pistol. Lots of hazards in the "Stringbag"!!
Biz goes to see a Swordfish. Atlantic moment.
This aircraft participated in the raid on Taranto which senior Japanese officials took inspiration for the torpedo depth since Pearl Harbor was very shallow in depth this was for the upcoming attack on the Pearl Harbor United States naval base in 1941. The Swordfish did had an influence Icon A5 a modern seaplane specially with the wings fold back with main difference being that wings on swordfish fold horizontally and parasol wings of the A5 fold vertically to save space on a specially designed trailer or a garage.
It is a very interesting aircraft, I've read through some stories of them at RAF Bircham Newton In coastal command use, The Fleet Air Arm loaned some squadrons to Bircham Newton, for the active use in mine-laying operations of the coast of Denmark, Around Heligoland, in the Wadden sea area, Later around the Frisian islands, a lot of these took place during the fighting in Norway In 1940. according to reports and diary's that I've read in the museum, The minelaying operations were abysmal, I'm not sure what sort but it was a Magnetic mine they attached to the aircraft in the reports but all I know it was large and very un-aerodynamic, decreasing the aircrafts speed and stability, where the Navigator was suppose to sit they placed a Large Petrol tank which stuck up between the pilot and the aft cockpit The Navigator had to sit with his legs Underneath the massive petrol tank basically pinning him in, so if the plane was attacked and it was hit, he would be drowned in petrol and if it caught fire immediately cooked. A quote from a pilot who flew on such a mine laying mission said the aircraft was "Outrageously overloaded" and that "Carrying a mine which would leave nothing to pick up if it exploded and carrying a truck load of fuel to give it the thousand-mile range, it’s speed such that the worst anti-aircraft gunner or search light operator could hardly miss it. Its only protection against fighters was, the fact that it was too slow for them to stay with it and shoot at it" I think there's a dairy entry somewhere in the museum stating that one aircraft was so dangerously overloaded they had to remove all defensive weaponry and all ammunition from the aircraft to fit the mine and carry the extra fuel. Also being in an open cockpit cramped and extremely noisy they would hardly be able to communicate with each other for 10 hour stretches at a time, very long, very cold, very dangerous mine-laying operations those guys who went on them, Maximum respect it certainly took a lot of courage, and the swordfish carried them through it all!
Sounds so miserable and dangerous. Hope they had some success.
I remember a story that the fuel tank would spray fuel through the breather tube at the top of the tank during take off. The RAF grounded the aircraft until they could work out a fix - the navy solution was to insert a cork into the end of the breather tube which had a string attached so that the navigator could pull it out when the aircraft had leveled out.
@@timwalker5843 I've never heard that one but that is mad haha
The swordfish is like your oldest friend. You wonder why you still keep him around, but then he comes in clutch at all the right moments
Even the low, slow, Stringbags apparently needed some additional help at Taranto to stop their torpedoes from striking the harbour's bottom and destroying themselves after release. The torps were fitted with custom designed wooden "Sabots" to provide additional lift immediately after entering the water. So, really a "triplane" weapons system ?
A modification the Japanese took note of.
You are great. When you and Drach work together it’s the best Anglo-German double-act since Albert and Victoria! 👍👍👍👍👍
The most underrated aircraft in WW2. Thanks for doing this. Impressed this is still a flyer
Actually I think I'd pick the Beaufighter. During the Channel Dash the Swordfish really showed its age and vulnerability. The Swordfish did perform extremely valuable service in the Convoy Escort role flying off of the small carriers. Plus the two brilliant moments being the attack on the Italian Anchorage at Taranto. And crippling Bismarcks steering gear.
I dont think its underrated since many knows about it
@@mpetersen6 The Swordfish was the wrong plane to attack the German ships in the Channel Dash.
@@johnburns4017 the Swordfish had one thing I love, it was so slow German AA could not track it properly...
@@DarrylAdams Thats due to untrained guncrews, not the planes speed. During Operation Cerberus for example, the more experienced AA gunners of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had no problems shooting down allied aircraft, including Swordfishs.
Great video as always. The adaptability of this aircraft has always fascinated me. Outlasting its replacement and being one of only a handful of aircraft flying in frontline service from the first day of the war in Europe to the last. In early 1945, no fewer than nine squadrons operated Swordfish in frontline ASW service.
My grandfather was a CPO on the Ark Royal in WW2 and I remember him talking about how he got to fly a couple of times in a swordfish as an observer. He said they were a brilliant aircraft, slow and robust which made them a good torpedo plane.
I had the Airfix model of this when I was a kid. Then, to my great delight, I later I saw the real thing. Quite a day to remember. During the Battle of Narvik, which included HMS Warspite, a Swordfish was used as a dive bomber.
Yes, Warspites spotter aircraft, sank U-64.
I have that kit in my stash. Also picked up the later model on floats. Really need to break them out and do a build.
@@RMJTOOLS An aircraft that definatelly has its place in history
I've been waiting for this one, yesss.
Check out Navy Wings here: bit.ly/NWBrand_Join For the morse code, click 'read more' Morse code was *supposed* to be: '4 A' - the id of the plane. Sadly I messed up the letter, making a '_.' out of '._' so now it's '4 N' Yaaaay.....
As the result of this mistake, your biscuit ration will be misdirected to another aircraft, leaving you with no biscuits on board the swordfish.
@@toveychurchill6468 and obviously, the Irn Bru rations will be distributed over the both Alexander's.
I think we've all been waiting for this episode.
Currently reading John Moffat's book, so came to view this, thank you for the great insight into this historic machine. Subscribed.
Nice. Been looking forward to this one. Thanks Chris!
Guys flying these must be crazy brave. As somebody whose granddad was Polish paratrooper during WWII, and knew couple guys from that service and era, they were crazy brave, and they were "only" jumping from the airplane on a ground. These pilots flew in every possible weather, over freezing-cold sea, in slow, almost unarmed and unarmoured airplane, to deliver torpedo nice and low when every weapon is shooting at them. As my granddad said "We just never thought about that. We went over because it was necessary. Somebody must to do that". I have no doubt some of them were afraid but they went despite of that. I have nothing but respect for these guys.
Superb video! Thanks for the detail shots as that will always come in handy during a model build.
Not just looking at one, but a flying one ... amazing. Thank you for bringing this look at this renowned aircraft. Edited edit: guess it was a previously hidden video, which explains why it showed up just now.
On the Navy Wings yt channel there's a documentary about the restoration of that bird
Shuttleworth Collection (Old Warden Airfield, Shuttleworth near Bedford, Bedfordshire) have a flying 'String Bag' (I thank my late Dad (exRAF) for knowing that moniker) too. In September it was getting some very thorough maintainence, but It should be back when the displays kick off in Spring '22. A few years back, my wife was chatting to one of its fitters (he was married to her mate, another Nurse who worked with her). She was intrigued and pestering him all about it (she's flown Gliders a few times & has better than half a clue). It kind of killed the conversation when finally she asked 'You're so lucky. Do you get to fly in it too checking things are OK etc'.. 'They don't have enough staff to get me strapped into that old thing if its going to leave the ground', was the somewhat laconic reply. A pause followed by, 'I'm lighter than you 'though. Could you...'. 'NO'.
Glad to see this aircraft show-cased. Great presentation. Thank you!
What a beautiful airframe, thank you for sharing.
"By gut feeling you launch a fish and hopefully scoring a hit on a rudder or something else." Well said Christoph ;-)!
"The gun was the only heated thing in this plane, so it wouldn't freeze on those long arctic convoys" Man, I'm not sure there's any amount of coercion short of shooting me that would get me to stand in the back of an open cockpit biplane flying in the arctic circle
Thank you!! This is the first time I have seen one of these up close and personal. They look so fragile in the old films going up against a carrier.
Thank you, Chris - another excellent video that gives a true flavour of what the crews (air & ground) went through.
Brilliant piece of kit the old Stringbag.......love the work.....keep it up chap.
I was looking forward to this video as well. Thank you.
chris,s head is so full of information..well done mate loved this one and the sea fury was great to.keep up the good work...
Superb video. My great uncle flew one of these. It was fascinating to take a look at his "office" and learn more about the aircraft.
Finally someone having fun with decent banking angles! (measured 45 degrees)
In the early 1970s I lived at Witham Friary, east of Yeovilton. This kite often flew over the village. A great favourite.
So nice to see a thoroughly researched dive into the peculiarities of this aircraft. Your efforts to be accurate and clear are much appreciated!
This is what I love about this channel, it's not only the "hot-rod" fighters that get attention, but everything cool, interesting and facinating with wings! :D
looking forward to the stuka book! great content
Excellent perspective on the “Stringbag”
Excellent stuff bro
Brilliant video. Love the Swordfish. Great looking plane with a great history behind it. I remember seeing my first one fly over head back in the late 1960's/70's when Goodwood airfield used to have a yearly air show. I was so taken by the sight of this vintage aeroplane with it's torpedo under it's belly. Absolutely Awesome!
I am always surprised by how large an aircraft the Swordfish is
I love them. Thank you for this up close and personal look!
Check out the Firefly. It is massive.
If you read "to war in a stringbag" you will see that mining enemy channels at night was the role they performed extraordinarily well.
An excellent and very informative video. Lovely to see RNAS Yeovilton again. An iconic aircraft that was an anachronism even before it went into service. Loved by its crews, a steady, reliable workhorse. Known as the 'string bag' not because of all the wires holding it together, but after the popular shopping bag made like a net, which could adapt itself to carry just about anything. There are a lot of myths about this aircraft, some of them true. But it served well in most theatres of the war and outlived its successor. Thank you for doing this video, I have been waiting for it and it did not disappoint.
Amazing walk around
What a great video! Thank you MAH!
What can you say. Just outstanding ! I didn't know about Navy Wings either, so that was a great intro as well
Greetings from Brazil! I’m a fan of your show. Congratulations for the high quality video and info.
Fascinating - I had no idea there were so many features on the old Stringbag!
Gorgeous plane. I love this old tech, I almost feel like I could make this at home!
Thanks for the video!
Great presentation - really enjoyed it!
Thank you for an excellent presentation.
Fantastic video and really informative and enjoyable. Thanks!
I find the Swordfish a very interesting airplane. Although at first glance it appeared an outmoded aircraft it was very cleverly used . Thanks to the command of the Fleet air arm that valued with sense its potential and of course the bravery of the pilots proved to be a very useful plane. In the history of aviation there are some examples that show how a clever view could give an amazing result for an airplane which isn't specially 'advanced technically'
Well, of course it is known from the major successes it had, like the role in sinking the Bismarck. But this plane was often shot down and many crews died over the oceans. To me it was more used from desperation as from anything else. They didnt had other aircraft available for that sort of task, so they used that assett as best as they could. It makes the crews even more respectable, because they knew they were a sitting duck.
Another excellent one. Thanks!
How much I love that plane!
I Loved every minute of this. Thank you
Wooooo - this is very cool! Thanks so much Chris :)
Great job! Real Swordfish history long overdue.
Great walk around !
Good video. I have been curious about the Swordfish ever since I learned about its role in sinking the Bismark.
Nice bonus flight footage at the end !!!
Thank you, great presentation.
Brilliant video! Thanks
keep up the good work much appreciated
Great video!
I love the Stringbag. Thanks for sharing, appreciate it a LOT! Greets from the Netherlands 🌷, T.
Your channel is by far my favourite documentary videos of historic and military aircraft from many different countries. You always seem to have a lot of research into your subjects - you don’t appear to have recourse to notes while filming. I have visited the Navy air Arm Museum near Yeovil, there is a lot of very interesting display material, and some rather good active experiences such as the aircraft carrier. You would need a full day to explore the entire museum and yes, it is a working airfield.
Thanks for this, this is one of my favorite aircraft of the war, and I'm astonished at how versatile the Swordfish was-- I have read many comments about how obsolete the platform was going in to WW2.. yet it seems like the designers were very creative and put some thought into every configuration the Swordfish could fly with.
You da best ever Chris!!! The greatest historian of airplanes in the history of the earth!!!! The 🐐!!!!
Its such a paradox, the Fairy Swordfish. Its old, yet has some ingenuity its slow, but very deadly it's light, but carries a healthy mass Great video, thanks a lot!
Excellent video . My father flew as a TAG in WW2 . He never really said much about it and to be honest I never really asked , but he was obviously very fond of the 'Stringbag' . He always said he flew backwards into war
This makes History 'come alive'. Have you ever thought about approaching model kit makers to sponsor you. Can you imagine somebody building a kit of this, then having you giving a 'walk around' followed by a short piece about some of it's more significant actions?
Man, how complicated it is to just start the engine. Thanks for this great video.
Great video about a fascinating airplane!
what a lovely stringbag, thanks.
Fantastic vid, thanks.
Superb video Christoph 10*
Excellent. Thank you.
This plane was the first model aeroplane that I really liked building and enjoyed looking at during my contemplative leisure time.
Great work! All your videos are interesting and well done.
Dude. You kick ass. Your channel is great. Keep it up!
Thanks!
JUST AMAZING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!from México city I just bought a scale swordfish model kit and this is the third time I watch your incredible video congratulations
Another great video!
Amazing that an aircraft that has always looked to me that it was constructed from spare parts of a variety of others played such an important role. Antiquated in appearance perhaps a leftover from WW1 it went on to cripple the most fearsome of enemy ships. The bravery of those that flew her is beyond praise...
Well done!
I love the Stringbag!
Excellent, thank you. Mid pond in January, that cannot have been a comfortable place to work.
Underrated KZheadr.
Loving the amount of detail and quality information you pack into these videos, mate. Please keep it up!