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After a brief introduction looking at the history of the torpedo bomber in the Royal Navy and the development of German and Italian warships we move on to a look at the three British designed torpedo bombers of the period – the Swordfish, Albacore and Barracuda – and the three main marks of air dropped torpedo. Next comes a look at the development of the German and Italian warships they would face in battle, tracing the arms race that led from the pocket battleships through the French Dunkerque class to the Bismarck and Littorio class battleships.
The main focus in the British technical section is on the Swordfish and Albacore, the two types of aircraft that carried out most British torpedo attacks on warships. The Barracuda and US build Avenger also get a brief look, although the Avenger didn’t actually carry out any torpedo attacks on warships in British hands. There is also some interesting material on the torpedoes, their controls, how they were aimed, and the methods used to make sure they fell into the water at the correct angle.
For the Axis we get a look at the basic design and in particular the anti-torpedo protection of the Scharnhorst, Bismarck, Conte di Cavour, Littorio and Duilio class battleships and the Admiral Hipper, Tranto and Zara class cruisers. This includes a description of the ‘Pugliese System’ of anti-torpedo protection that was used in the Italian battleships. There is more detail on the anti-aircraft guns used on Axis warships, not least because there were quite a few different models of guns to cover, at heavy, medium and light categories, along with their gunnery control systems.
There is a useful section on the strategic situation, tracing how the Fleet Air Arm went from being seen as something of a luxury in 1939 to becoming recognised as an essential part of the Navy after the fall of France and the Italian entry into the war.
The section on combatants covers British aircraft and Axis anti-aircraft gunners, looking at how both groups were trained. The section on the anti-aircraft gunners contained more new information for me – I didn’t know that German naval ratings could specialise as anti-aircraft gunners, with a range of ranks but this perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise given the specialist skills required, and the size of some of the flak divisions (Bismarck had 360 men in its flak division on her final mission).
One surprise is that the air launched torpedo was a weapon that went out of British use well before the end of the war, at least in European waters. However this was perhaps mainly because of a lack of suitable weapons for the expensive and difficult to use weapon – with the Italian fleet either sunk or on the Allied side and the German capital ships either sunk or largely confined to port by either a lack of fuel or cautious orders from 1944.
As a result of all of this background, we don’t reach the start of the combat section until page 43, just over half way through the book. The first torpedo bomber actions took place during the Norwegian campaign of 1940, but despite some skilful flying the British achieved no successes. The first successful attacks came in the Mediterranean in 1941, and their first Axis victim was the Italian destroyer Zeffiro. This was the start of a series of successful attacks on Italian ships in harbour, leading up to the famous attack on the Italian battle fleet at Taranto. Attacking ships at sea was more difficult, but the Fleet Air Arm did achieve at least two hits at the battle of Cape Matapan, badly damaging one battleship and crippling a cruiser.
We then move onto the operations against the Germans, starting with the famous hunt for the Bismarck. This demonstrates how important luck could be in attacks on well protected battleships. The first torpedo to hit struck the same area as a shell from the Prince of Wales earlier in the hunt, causing flooding. During the second attack a torpedo hit jammed the rudders, dooming the Bismarck.
1941 was the high spot for British torpedo bombers. 1942 saw the Swordfish and Albacore becoming increasingly obsolete, and the failure to stop the ‘Channel Dash’ was a costly setback. In addition the anti-aircraft defences of enemy ships increased, and the odds of running into fighter opposition increased, making daylight torpedo attacks very costly. 1943 saw the Barracuda and Avenger enter service, but the chances to attack major Axis ships at sea almost disappear, and dive bombing largely take over as the Fleet Air Arm’s preferred method of attack.
We finish with an analysis of the overall success rates of the various systems involved – how close to the expected hit rate did torpedo bombers come, how many rounds were needed to shoot down one British aircraft and how effective were the various forms of anti-submarine protection.
Chapters
Introduction
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specifications
The Strategic Situation
The Combatants
Combat
Statistics and Analysis
Aftermath
Author: Matthew Willis
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 80
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2022