Fighters. When war broke out in 1939 in the Atlantic Theater, the RN had only recently reacquired responsibility for their carrier-launched aircraft. For the previous two decades, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had responsibility for all air operations, and development of improved carrier-launched aircraft had been neglected in favor of land-based fighters and bombers. As a result, the RN entered the war with mostly relatively slow, limited range biplane fighters and bombers that were little improved over World War I versions and that were inferior to USN and IJN carrier aircraft. At the time of Britain's evacuation from Norway, her Gloster Sea Gladiator fighters, Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers, and Blackburn Skua fighter-bombers were also inferior compared to German aircraft. Nonetheless, the Sea Gladiators did succeed in shooting down a couple Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters during the Norwegian campaign in early 1940.