Torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a bomber aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedo es , but which could usually also carry out conventional attacks using bombs . Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight of a torpedo , and remained an important type of aircraft until the 1950s when the role devolved to conventional bombers , and later taken over by anti - ship missile s in part due to their vulnerability in making an attack . During World War II they were an important element in many famous battles , notably the British attack at Taranto and the Japan ese attack on Pearl Harbor . Types . Torpedo bombers first appeared immediately prior to World War I . Generally , they carried torpedo es specifically designed for air launch , that were smaller and lighter than those used by submarine s and surface warships . Nonetheless , as an airborne torpedo could weigh as much as 2000 pounds ( or 907 kilograms ) , more than twice the bomb load of contemporary single - engined bombers , the aircraft carrying it usually needed to be specially designed for the purpose . Many early torpedo bombers were floatplanes , such as the Short 184 ( the first aircraft to sink a ship with a torpedo ) , and the undercarriage had to be redesigned so that the torpedo could be dropped from the aircraft ' s centerline . While most torpedo bombers were single engine aircraft , some multi - engined aircraft have also been used as torpedo bombers , with the Mitsubishi G3M " Nell " and Mitsubishi G4M " Betty " being used in the Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse . Some postwar jet aircraft ( such as the Ilyushin Il - 28 T ) were adapted as torpedo bombers in the late 1940s and 1950s . The last known torpedo bomber attack was made by U . S . Navy Skyraiders against the Hwacheon Dam during the Korean War . The North Korean Air Force finally retired the world ' s last operational torpedo bombers in the 1980s . In a parallel development , many maritime strike aircraft and helicopters have been capable of launching guided torpedoes , however , these are not normally used against surface vessels , but primarily against submarines and are not generally referred to as torpedo bombers . History . Many naval staffs began to appreciate the possibility of using aircraft to launch torpedoes against moored ships in the period before the First World War . Experiments in dropping weights by an Italian naval captain Alessandro Guidoni in 1912 from a Farman MF . 7 Longhorn led to the first successful air launch of a torpedo . Admiral Bradley A . Fiske of the US Navy in 1912 took out a patent for a torpedo carrying aircraft entitled “ Method of and apparatus for delivering submarine torpedoes from airship s . ” He suggested that aircraft would attack at night . Winston Churchill , as political head of the Royal Navy , First Lord of the Admiralty , from October 1911 to May 1915 was a strong proponent of naval air power and established the Royal Naval Air Service in April 1912 and took flying lessons , to foster aviation development . Its first task : to design reconnaissance spotters and torpedo bombers for the Fleet . First Torpedo Bombers . The British Admiralty ordered the Short Type 81 biplane floatplane as a reconnaissance aircraft . It first flew in July 1913 and was loaded aboard the cruiser HMS Hermes which had been converted to become the Royal Navy ` s first seaplane tender . When the rival Sopwith Special designed from the outset as a torpedo bomber failed to lift its payload off the water , Short ` s converted the Type 81 to carry torpedoes in July 1914 – just before the outbreak of the First World War . The first plane designed from the outset as a torpedo bomber the five seat floatplane biplane AD Seaplane Type 1000 or AD1 however it proved to be a failure . When the prototype built by J . Samuel White from the Isle of Wight first flew in June 1916 it was found to be too heavy and its float struts too weak for operations . Remaining orders were cancelled . First World War . On August 12 , 1915 a Royal Naval Air Service Short 184 torpedo bomber floatplane sank a Turkish merchantman in the Sea of Marmara . It was operating from HMS Ben - my - Chree a seaplane carrier converted from a ferry . Fitted with an aircraft hangar , it was used to carry up to six biplanes with their wings folded back to reduce carrying space . This was the first ship successfully sunk by air - launched torpedo . Five days later another ship supplying Turkish forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula against British , Australian and New Zealand troops was also sunk . Production of the Short 184 continued until after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 with a total of 936 built by several manufacturers . It served in eight navies , including the Imperial Japanese Navy , which built them under licence . The first torpedo bomber designed for operation from aircraft carriers was the Sopwith Cuckoo . First flown in June 1917 , it was designed to take off from the Royal Navy ` s new aircraft carriers , but had to land on an airfield as arrester wires , needed to stop an aircraft during landing on a ship , had not yet been perfected . The Admiralty planned to use five carriers and 100 - 120 Cuckoos to attack the German High Seas Fleet , which had been sheltering in Kiel since the Battle of Jutland in 1916 . When the war ended only 90 Cuckoos were complete , however . Interwar Years . Of the major maritime nations , only Britain , Japan and the US developed carrier - borne torpedo bombers , after hostilities ceased in Europe . Initially Japan purchased both ships and aircraft from Britain as the Imperial Japanese Navy modelled itself on the Royal Navy . Of the three , only Britain and Japan also perceived a need for land - based torpedo bombers though a number would be developed by other countries . Bordered by oceans against any possible foe , the US ignored landplane torpedo bomber development . The Vickers Vimy twin engine heavy bomber was designed to bomb German cities in retribution for German air attacks on England . It reached squadrons in France too late to play a role in the First World War . Had war continued it would have been deployed as a torpedo bomber . The first landplane specifically designed as a torpedo bomber was the Hawker Horsley . By the mid - Thirties the torpedo bombers that would start the Second War were being deployed . The Fairey Swordfish flew first in 1934 , the Douglas TBD Devastator and Mitsubishi G3M ( Nell ) in 1935 and the Nakajima B5N ( Kate ) and Bristol Beaufort a year after that Second World War . In the early hours of 13 June 1940 two Beauforts found the German cruiser Lützow off Norway . The first was mistaken for a Junkers Ju 88 and was able to torpedo the Lutzow without return fire , putting her out of action for six months . The second was shot down by defending Messerschmitt Bf 109 s . Eight days later nine Beauforts attacked the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst off Norway . As aerial torpedoes were unavailable they dropped bombs . No hits were scored and defending Messerschmitt Bf 109s downed five . Even before the outbreak of World War II , the Royal Navy had studied the threat in the Mediterranean posed by the Italian fleet . This had its advance base in the new port of Taranto in the heel of Italy . Captain Arthur Lyster of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious proposed that its Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers could launch a night attack against Taranto . At that time the Royal Navy was the only force in the world with this capability . The Swordfish , a three seat biplane looked outmoded but its low stall speed made it an ideal platform for launching torpedoes into the shallow waters of Taranto . The torpedoes were adapted with wire cables attached to their nose and wooden fins at their tail to slow their fall and make a shallow impact with the water , which was only deep . On the night of 11 November 1940 , 21 Swordfish left the new aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious . Some carried bombs and flares but the main force carried torpedoes . British decoy maneuvers and a lack of radar allowed the British to surprise the ill - prepared Italian fleet at anchor in Taranto . Three battleships were put out of action , half of the Italian fleet , for the loss of two Swordfish . Two airmen were killed and two others captured . The next day the remaining battleships withdrew to Naples ceding control of the Mediterranean to the British . Pearl Harbor had an average depth of just 42 feet , a little more than Taranto . So the Imperial Japanese Navy took a very keen interest in the British victory at Taranto . The naval attaché in Berlin visited the harbour . The Japanese Government asked their Axis partner , Nazi Germany , to provide intelligence on Pearl Harbor . The German Abwehr asked their Yugoslav agent Dusan Popov to travel to Hawaii to prepare a report . Unbeknownst to the Germans Popov was a double agent working for the British under the code name Tricycle . British Intelligence sent Popov to meet the head of the FBI J . Edgar Hoover in Washington with a long list of questions , and the suggestion that he should travel to Hawaii and provide false data just as he did three years later for the D - Day Normandy landings . Hoover dismissed him from his office . On 6 April 1941 , a single Bristol Beaufort piloted by Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell attacked the German battleship Gneisenau in Brest harbour in Brittany where she and her sister ship , the Scharnhorst were sheltering beneath a massive array of anti - aircraft guns . The other five Beauforts on the mission failed to rendezvous due to bad weather . Campbell received a posthumous Victoria Cross for launching his solo torpedo which put the Gneisenau out of action for six months . On 26 May 1941 three Fairey Swordfish were launched from the Royal Navy ` s carrier HMS Ark Royal . They found the German battleship Bismarck in the Eastern Atlantic battling a fierce gale . With the battleship ` s bow pitching up and down in winds , the Swordfish had to release their torpedoes into the troughs of waves to ensure they would run properly . Two torpedoes hit , the one fired by John Moffat hitting the rudder of the Bismarck and jamming it so severely that the huge ship could only turn helplessly in wide circles . Later that day battleships and destroyers of the Royal Navy cornered her , and Bismark ' s crew scuttled her after sustaining severe damage from heavy gun fire and more torpedoes . Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto ` s fleet of six carriers was carrying 40 Nakajima B5N 2 " Kate " torpedo bombers as well as dive bombers on Sunday December 7 , 1941 , when it arrived at its launching point north of Hawaii . The Japanese struck the US Pacific Fleet . The torpedo bombers , in a coordinated attack with dive bombers , sunk or damaged all eight of the battleships which they found moored in Pearl Harbor . The Japanese had studied the attack on Taranto and had practiced dropping specially modified torpedoes in the shallow waters of Japan ` s Inland Sea . Only five Kates were lost in the attack . In later months torpedo bombers were responsible for the sinking of the US aircraft carriers Lexington , Yorktown and Hornet . Three days later Admiral Sir Tom Phillips was returning to Singapore on board the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales , after an unsuccessful attempt to impede Japanese landings in Malaya . His fleet included the First World War battle - cruiser HMS Repulse and should also have had the new aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable , with a squadron of Sea Hurricane s . But the carrier was delayed for repairs after running aground in the harbour at Kingston , Jamaica . Eight Mitsubishi G3M " Nell " twin engine level bombers and 17 Nell torpedo bombers found the two capital ships without air cover in broad daylight . They scored just a single bomb hit on the Repulse and a single torpedo hit on Prince of Wales . The torpedo struck where the outer port propeller shaft exited the hull and Prince of Wales took on 2 , 400 tons of water through a ruptured stern gland . The battleship listed 12 degrees to port preventing the starboard side 5 . 25 inch anti - aircraft guns from depressing low enough to deter more torpedo bombers . A second squadron , this time of Mitsubishi G4M " Betty " torpedo bombers now attacked both ships . Repulse had dodged 19 torpedoes by skillful steering but now G4Ms attacked the bow from both sides and scored another hit . At about this point Repulse radioed for defensive fighters A squadron of 10 Royal Australian Airforce Brewster Buffalo s arrived an hour later to watch Prince of Wales sink . Repulse had already sunk . Each ship had been hit by four torpedoes out of 49 fired . The Japanese lost four aircraft . Neither G3Ms nor G4Ms carried defensive armament , which had been stripped to extend their range . The presence of modern allied fighters to defend the two capital ships might have led to a different outcome . On 12 February 1942 , Bristol Beaufort s were dispatched to intercept the German cruiser Prinz Eugen off Trondheim , Norway . Prinz Eugen had accompanied the Bismarck into the Atlantic but escaped back to Brest , to fight again . For the first time the Beauforts were accompanied by Bristol Beaufighter s and Bristol Blenheim s . In a new RAF tactic the Blenheims acted as decoys making pretense torpedo runs while the Beaufighters , a development of the Beaufort fitted with four 40mm cannons shot up the anti - aircraft gunners . This was intended to give the Beaufort a clear torpedo run . Despite the use of 28 Beauforts , no torpedoes hit and three aircraft were lost . The US Navy ` s standard torpedo bomber in 1942 was the Douglas TBD Devastator first flown in 1935 and embarked on carriers of the Pacific Fleet in 1937 . On 7 May 7 , 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea , Devastators sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō but failed to sink the Shokaku the next day . At the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942 , 41 Devastators launched from three US carriers failed to score a single torpedo hit and only six aircraft returned . The rest fell to defending Mitsubishi A6M Zero s and anti - aircraft fire . The attacks had been poorly coordinated but the Devastator was immediately withdrawn from front - line service . The successor to the Devastator , the Grumman TBF Avenger arrived too late at Pearl Harbor to be loaded onto carriers for the Battle of Midway . However six were flown from Midway Island airbase . They fared no better with five lost without a single hit . Avengers were more successful as tactics improved and crews became more skilled . On 24 August 1942 , 24 Avengers sank the light carrier Ryujo at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons . At Guadalcanal , Avengers from the Navy and Marine Corps finished off the battleship Hiei which had been damaged the night before . Beauforts also had more success when they moved to Malta to attack Italian warships and transport . Flying Officer Arthur Aldridge discovered a convoy guarded by the Heavy Cruiser Trento early on June 14 , 1942 some 200 miles East of Malta . As with the attack on the Lutzow , his plane was taken for a Junkers Ju 88 and he hit Trento with his torpedo : the ship eventually being finished off by the submarine HMS Umbra , which was close by . Action continued in the Pacific , where the last notable torpedo bomber attack took place on April 7 , 1945 . Avengers from Yorktown were searching between Okinawa and Honshu for the Japanese battleship Yamato , which was escorted by cruisers and destroyers . Her mission was to run aground on Okinawa to provide floating heavy artillery for the defending troops in the expected Allied seaborne invasion . Her 18 . 1 inch guns could have created havoc among frail landing craft . Yamato and her sister Musashi were the largest , most powerful battleships in the world . Planned in great secrecy , they had been designed to take on three US battleships each and win . The squadron led by Lieutenant Tom Stetson found the cruiser , which was the prime target , already sinking so six planes were detached to attack the Yamato , instead . One in which Frederick E . Wicklund was the tail gunner and radar / radio operator became detached from the formation whilst climbing in heavy cloud cover . The pilot Lieutenant Grady Jean asked each crewman in turn if they wished to make a solo attack , which was likely to prove suicidal The crew referred the decision to the skipper , who deftly dodged anti - aircraft fire and 18 inch shell splashes from Yamato ` s big guns to release their torpedo . Wicklund had recalled a briefing that Yamato had torpedo blisters to a depth of 22 feet , so he crawled back in the fuselage to reset the torpedo ` s running depth from the 10 feet preset for the cruiser to 23 feet . He later explained that he heard no command to do this and doubted whether the other five planes had done so . In this case their torpedoes would have exploded harmlessly against the blisters . A crewman snapped the explosion , in which debris rose to their altitude of 300 feet . Possibly a torpedo had hit the fuel storage . Yamato rolled over and sank , with the loss of 90 percent of the crew . The Yorktown lost ten planes and twelve aircrew . All pilots involved in the attack were awarded the Navy Medal and every crewman the Distinguished Flying Cross . Obsolescence and replacement . Torpedoes travel under water at around 40 knots , a speed easily matched by a destroyer . Fast battleships could make 32 knots . So it was possible for a skilful captain to evade a torpedo : HMS Repulse dodged 19 before Japanese torpedo bombers attacked simultaneously from both forward quarters . A rocket travelling at 1 , 000 mph was another matter . The first air - launched rockets were fired by the French and British flying Nieuport 11 s equipped with Le Prieur rockets to shoot down German observation balloons over the Western Front in 1916 . Except in the Soviet airforce the idea was largely forgotten until early 1941 , when the Desert Air Force found its aircraft to be impotent against the Panzer s of Erwin Rommel ` s Afrika Korps . Henry Tizard Chief Scientist to the British Government formed a panel of experts . The British Army had used rockets to fire against low - flying bombers during the Battle of Britain and by enlarging the tube from 2 inches to 3 inches and fitting first a 28 pound and then a 60 pound high explosive warhead , a new weapon was quickly developed . Russian assistance was requested as they were already using rockets against German tanks , but in spite of receiving a gift of Hawker Hurricanes none was given . The British fitted them initially to Hurricanes in June , 1942 in time to deploy them against Rommel ` s tanks . On May 23 , 1943 a Fairey Swordfish destroyed U752 in the Atlantic and five days later a Lockheed Hudson of RAF Coastal Command destroyed another in the Mediterranean . These rockets were fitted with iron spikes and fired at a shallow angle into the sea . Once under water , they curved upwards and punctured the hull below the waterline , making it impossible for a submarine to submerge . A new era in aircraft attacks on ships had been initiated . Caltech developed the 5 inch High Velocity Aircraft Rocket better known as Holy Moses with a 24 pound warhead for the US Navy . It was rushed to Europe for use from D - Day and later used by most Navy planes in the Pacific . Barnes Wallis deputy chief aircraft designer at Vickers spent much time thinking about weapons that might shorten the war . He conceived his “ Spherical Bomb , Surface Torpedo ” after watching his daughter flip pebbles over water . Two versions were developed , The smaller Highball was to be used against ships and attracted essential British Admiralty funding for his project . A 1280 lb flying torpedo , of which half was Torpex torpedo explosive , it was developed specifically to sink the Tirpitz which was moored in Trondheim fjord behind torpedo nets . However development delays meant that another Barnes Wallis invention , the 5 ton Tallboy was used instead . Two dropped by Avro Lancaster s from 25 , 000 ft hit at supersonic speed and capsized the Tirpitz on November 12 , 1944 . The larger version , codenamed " Upkeep " , was used to destroy the Mohne and Eder dams by Lancasters from the specially recruited and trained 617 Squadron of the RAF , often known as the Dambusters , under Wing Commander Guy Gibson . Tactics . One crucial limitation of a torpedo bomber was that it had to fly a long , straight course at a constant altitude of 30 metres ( 100 ft ) toward the target ship before launching its torpedo . The torpedoes were very sophisticated weapons and were prone to damage when landing on water , especially on a wave ; they were ideally aimed at the bottom of a wave but this was difficult in practice . During a torpedo run , the attacking aircraft were easy targets for defending fighters from a combat air patrol . Furthermore , torpedo planes were also highly vulnerable to anti - aircraft fire , particularly the heavy anti - aircraft guns ( such as the 5 inch DP ) which fired into the water , creating water spouts to slap the torpedo planes . In the 1930s , the Japanese Navy developed the best way for torpedo bombers to achieve a hit . They used an " anvil attack " in which two groups of torpedo planes approached the target ship ' s bow at an angle of about 45 degrees , one on each side of the ship . The torpedoes were to be launched at the same distance from the ship ; this would have ensured a hit no matter where the ship tried to maneuver . In practice , this kind of attack was difficult to coordinate and therefore extremely rare . Usually , combat air patrols and anti - aircraft fire quickly broke up approaching plane formations , after which each aircraft was on its own . At Pearl Harbor attack the ships were lined up and basically stationary so the Japanese first attack wave of 40 torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ) armed with Type 91 torpedo es , out of 183 planes , were able to hit the ships broadside with torpedoes as the defenders were caught by surprise . Torpedo bombers were best used as part of a coordinated attack along with other types of aircraft . For instance , during the attack on the battleship " Yamato , " fighter planes strafed the ship with machine gun s to suppress its anti - aircraft gun fire , while dive bomber s tried to cause havoc and cause topside damage , thus leaving the torpedo bombers unmolested so they could make their attack runs . By contrast , if the attackers failed to achieve air superiority or surprise , torpedo bombers would suffer heavy losses regardless of whether the type was obsolete or not . This is best exemplified at the Battles of Midway where the Air Group Eight ' s dive bombers missed the Japanese carriers . So Torpedo Squadron 8 ( VT - 8 , from Hornet ) , led by LCDR John C . Waldron sighted the enemy carriers and began attacking without any coordination with the dive bombers or fighter cover . It was followed by Torpedo Squadron 6 ( VT - 6 , from Enterprise ) . [ 68 ] Without fighter escort , every TBD Devastator of VT - 8 was shot down without being able to inflict any damage , with Ensign George H . Gay , Jr . the only survivor . VT - 6 met nearly the same fate , with no hits to show for its effort . The Japanese combat air patrol , flying the much faster Mitsubishi A6M2 " Zeros " , made short work of the unescorted , slow , under - armed TBDs torpedo bombers . A few TBDs managed get within a few ship - lengths range of their targets before dropping their torpedoes . Also at the Santa Cruz ; the Nakajima B5N " Kate " despite being in service since 1935 played a key role in sinking USS " Hornet " , while the brand - new TBF Avenger torpedo bomber ' s failed to hit a fleet carrier . When the targets were ships able to maneuver at high speed and hence much harder to hit , torpedoes proved less effective , except in cases when the crews launching them were especially well trained . Still , even a single torpedo hit on an enemy warship could cripple it decisively , especially in the case of vessels without an armored belt ( cruisers and aircraft carriers often had torpedo blisters but these were not as extensive as that of battleships ) . Even heavily armored battleships did not have their protective belt extending to the bow , and a hole made there could be wrenched wider from the pressure of the inrushing water which could buckle and crush bulkheads ; this tactic was used against the " Yamato " super - dreadnought . Also , there was nothing to protect the rudder and propellers at the stern , which was demonstrated during the hunt for the " Bismarck " and Force Z .