2013 sees the Fly Navy Heritage Trust, amongst several other organisations, commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. Whilst often overshadowed by more ‘glamorous’ or fast paced campaigns, the Battle of the Atlantic was no less vital to the survival of Great Britain than any other event during the entire war; indeed, Winston Churchill would later claim that “the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.”

Whilst the Allies struggled to pit every weapon at their disposal against the Kreigsmarine’s U-boats and surface warships, it was aircraft that would ultimately prove to be the one of the greatest direct threats and certainly the most effective deterrent. Of these aircraft, only one operated in direct action against U-boats for the entire duration of the war: the Fairey Swordfish.

It is no exaggeration to describe the Swordfish as one of the most iconic naval aircraft in history. However, despite its qualities the Swordfish was often seen as archaic; an anachronism from a bygone era struggling to complete in the age of high performance monoplanes. The truth was that whilst the Swordfish incorporated many older features it was a relatively modern aircraft, having entered service only two years earlier than the Supermarine Spitfire.

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Originally developed from the Fairey TSR1 of 1933, the Swordfish itself was a response to the Air Ministry’s call for a carrier based Torpedo Spotter Reconnaissance aircraft as detailed in Specification S.15/33. In April 1935 the first contract for 86 aircraft was placed by the Air Ministry, and the Swordfish would go on to serve operationally for the entire duration of the Second World War from theatres as varying as the tiny, frozen decks of Merchant Aircraft Carriers in the Atlantic, through to improvised airstrips behind enemy lines in the deserts of North Africa. The Swordfish even replaced its intended successor, the Fairey Albacore..

The reason for this, as described by Swordfish pilot Bruce Vibert, was simple:

“The Swordfish was the most capable aircraft anywhere in its given role.”

Vibert joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve – the standard entry route for naval aircrew for the majority of the war – in 1941.

“My interest in the Fleet Air Arm,” Vibert recalls, “began when, aged 17 and thirteen days after we declared war, I was returning to the UK from the Balkans. I had to change trains in Milan. While waiting I saw on a newsagent’s board the front page of a newspaper and a lurid depiction of an aircraft carrier sinking, biplanes toppling off her flight deck. This was HMS Courageous, torpedoed by a U-boat two days before, off Ireland. There, and then, I determined to join the Fleet Air Arm and to fly those same aircraft. I achieved both aims.”

Initially joining as a Naval Airman 2nd Class, Vibert’s instruction commenced with seven weeks naval general training at HMS St Vincent, Gosport, before being promoted to Leading Airman and moving on to Elementary Flying Training. Flying Training took place at various locations across the world, courtesy of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan; for Vibert, flying training took place in Canada and the UK, initially on Tiger Moths before then proceeding onto Harvards. Having been selected for the Torpedo-Spotter-Reconnaissance role and now commissioned as an officer in the RNVR, Vibert’s first impressions of the Swordfish were positive, to say the least:

“I’d flown the Blackburn Shark which handled like a grand piano with wings. The Swordfish was entirely different. Some history books have remembered the Swordfish as ponderous and that simply was not the case. The Swordfish could turn on a pinhead. It was anything but cumbersome. While the easiest of aircraft to land on a runway, no aircraft is easier to land on a pitching and rolling deck. There, the Swordfish was easier to land than any other aircraft. Its qualities made it uniquely suitable in those conditions which, at their worst, kept more modern aircraft in the hangar. Performance was agile – it had not one single vice. In my mind only the Japanese Zero was capable of out turning a Swordfish.”

Whilst fighter evasion was a part of Vibert’s training in Scotland, he fortunately would never have to practice this in anger. However, the perils of Vibert’s war would take a different form entirely; joining 842 Naval Air Squadron on completion of training, Vibert would spend his Swordfish years guarding the vital convoy routes in both the Atlantic and the Arctic.

842 NAS was formed at Lee-On-Solent in March 1943, with Taranto veteran Lieutenant Commander Charles Lamb as CO. After working up, 842 NAS embarked aboard the Anti-Submarine Warfare carrier HMS Fencer in August. “One did a boring job,” Vibert described the monotony of long, often uneventful ASW patrols, “unexciting, unglamorous, but useful. Throughout each run, each lasting several weeks, one never saw land. But we were saving the lives of merchantmen and whilst our aircraft is best known for Taranto, Bismarck and The Channel Dash, I suggest that it was against boats threatening our convoys that it made its greatest contribution to our war effort.”

Whilst the flying may have been mundane for long periods, life onboard the escort carrier was sometimes far from dull. If the constant and very real threat of being torpedoed by U-boats was not enough, the ship’s company also had to survive the elements.