Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-03-31
Britain's Swordfsh
By Scott NeiohaH
,WNU Feature-Through special arrangement
with Golfers Weekly.)

with Golfers Weekiy.)
Though most Americans wouldn't
believe their ewes if they saw it, the
plane known as the Fairey Sword
fish is one of the mainstays of Brit
aims Fleet Air Arm.
Every time a Swordfish goes roar
ing down the flight deck of carrier
and claws its way aloft, the pageant
of mans conquest of the air is lived
again for a few tense seconds. For,
to the casual spectator, Swordfish
flying off to battle in this war looks
about as efficient and dangerous as
a crossbowman on his way to tackle
squad of Commands.
A Swordfish is a large, gangling
biplane. 1t would fit comfortably
into any movie sequence of the peri
cd 1917-1918. The wings and fuse
lage are covered with fabric, which
is originally painted in shades rang
ing from gray to blue, but because
every SwOrdfish invariably has a
light rash of patches on its skin, the
general result is sort of mottled
shade.
The patches are the result of a
curious hazard in SWordfish'S life.
After some service, the fabric be-
comes brittle, and curious visitors
find that their fingers inadvertently
punch holes in the wing surface.
Also, in a dive or tight turn, the
fabric covering sometimes flutters
in an unpleasant, nervous fashion.
Fleet Air Arm pilots, both in af-
lection and alarm, call these planes
Stringbags.
| is pretty well filled with struts and
wires and such, and back by the
tail lot of wires come out of the
fuselage and run to the control sur
faces. The fuselage itself is long,
narrow structure. The three open
cockpits start Immediately behind
the following edge of the upper wing,
the pilot in the first, the observer in
the second, the aerial gunner in the
last. So the Swordfish looks and
sometimes acts like something out
of mail-order catalogue.
Aerial Hide and Seek.
Yet, regularly, stories come back
on how these planes can muddle
through. For example, in the Nor
way campaign Stringbag from the
Ark Royal found itself on the bust
ness end of a Heinkel Ill. The
Swordfsh, however, came back to
its carrier with nothing worse than
slight case of dizziness aboard.
The pilot merely dived down on
Norwegian mountain and then flew
in tight circles around it. The Helm
KEEL couldn't cut corners so sharply,
so he finally gave up and flew away.
As a matter of fact, one school of
Swordfish philosophy argues that the
incredibly slow speed of the aircraft
is an asset. The fast-attacking en-
envy aircraft simply cannot slow
down enough to get in an efficient
burst.
The Royal Navy calls its Sword
fish torpedo-spotter-rec
aircraft. Every carrier in the fleet
has flown them off to seek the en-
envy and, if possible, get torpedo
into him. To be a naval success a
plane must have a quick takeoff,
low landing speed, and carry
heavy load. And that is where the
numbering Swordfish eXcels.
There is no sense in trying to
make a silk purse out of Stringbag
1t is painfully slow and awkward
and ugly. Its performance has
guaranteed that as long as the war
| lasts there will always be a Sword
fish. 1t has great record behind
it. On many and curious missions
this strange craft has proved its
| worth. The crews who fly the
Stringbags have developed an odd
| and somewhat contemptuous affec-
ton for their planes.
Italy's Bad Luck
Swordfsh flew into the Italian fleet
at laramie, putting three battleships
out of action and changing the bal
ance of naval power in the Mediter-
ranean. They bombed Genoa early
in the war, covered countless Malta
conveys and put torpedoes into the
French fleet at Oran. Again, Sword
fish were down in the Channel fog
looking for the Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau when the German ships
made their dash from Brest. That
time only few came back
But it was in the wintry North
Atlantic that the Sw0rdfsh did its
greatest job. Stringbag torpedoes dis
abled the Bismarck so that the sur
face fleet could close in for the kill.
Stringbags have also engaged in
eXtracurricular activities. At the
time of Dunkerque, some of them
were sent over the French and Bel
gian coasts. So they flew up and
down the coast in tight formation,
pretending to be fighter coverage
for the troops below. Apparently
they got away with it, too.
In another case a Swordfish was
turned into fighter when, after the
two machine guns were emptied, an
observer drew his revolver and as