Read more
A fully illustrated account of the World War 2 combat career of the Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bomber, one of the Royal Navy''s most resilient and effective aircraft of the period. During the 1930s, the Royal Navy''s Fleet Air Arm sought an aircraft to combine the functions of torpedo attack, reconnaissance and gunnery spotting, eventually realising this goal with the Swordfish biplane. Despite competition from more modern types like the Blackburn Shark and Barracuda, the Swordfish made a key contribution to some of Britain''s greatest naval successes of World War 2, helping to tip the balance during operations such as the raid on the Italian battle fleet at Taranto in November 1940, and the attacks on the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. Elsewhere, it assumed an anti-submarine role both in the Battle of the Atlantic and when escorting Arctic convoys, and was used by the RAF for anti-shipping work during the D-Day landings and the final stages of the European war. With this fascinating study, historian Matthew Willis draws on Admiralty files, operational records and interviews with Fleet Air Arm aircrew to assemble a wide-ranging history of one of the Royal Navy''s most important aircraft. Archival photographs and 22 newly commissioned colour profiles help to chart the development of the Swordfish, detailing the aircraft''s resilience and adaptability through both its many victories and its equally eventful defeats.>
About the author
Matthew Willis is a writer and editor, specialising in naval and aviation history. His first full-length non-fiction work was on the Blackburn Skua and Roc. Since then, he has explored lesser-known areas of aviation history, particularly with regard to naval history. He focuses on original research and bringing out the voices of those who were there at the time. He is a frequent contributor to the historic aviation media, with features published in journals such as Aeroplane, Flight Path, The Aviation Historian and Flypast. He runs the website Naval Air History.Janusz Swiatlon lives in Krakow, Poland. A veteran of service with the Polish Army's 6th Pomorska Dywizja Powietrzno-Desantowa (an airborne unit) in the 1980s, he is both an enthusiast of aviation historian and a military modeller. As an illustrator, he has created numerous colour aircraft profiles published in magazines and books by AF Editores, Kagero, Chevron, Stratus and other publishing houses, including Osprey.Gareth Hector is a digital artist of international standing and has also enjoyed a successful career in computer animation. He is an aviation history enthusiast and has contributed to numerous Osprey titles such as B-52 Stratofortress Units in Combat 1992–2025
and RAF Lightning Units of the Cold War. He lives in Perthshire, Scotland.
