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Should be an easy one ...

Fairy Swordfish, or the String Bag, over the white cliffs of Dover!

Stringbag for sure.

Told ya it was an easy one ... how about the aircraft by my name? [:D]

Little hard to tell, but looks like the night fighter variant of the P38 Lightning known as a Black Widow.

Its a Black Widow alright.... but the black widow was not at all a varient of the P-38, it was a stand alone plane.... Interesting plane and BEAUTIFUL!... they have one in the Wright-Patterson Mueseme in Dayton Ohio. The only Allied plane in WWII never shot down!

Right on Rendova ... also known as the Northrop P-61, 4x 20mm and 4x .50 cal + radar!

It replaced the P-70 which in itself was a hasty conversion of the A-20.

ORIGINAL: Rendova
Its a Balck Widow alright.... but the black widow was not at all a varient of the P-38 it was a standalone plane.... Interesting plane and BEAUTIFUL!... they have one in the Wright- Patterson Mueseme in Dayton Ohio. The only Allied plane in WWII never shot down!

Egad, a brain fart. I forgot that Northrop built the P-61 and Lockheed built the P-38. Don't know what I was thinking...

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

Should be an easy one ...

Amazing how such obsolete aircraft (slow and cloth covered) played so vital role in the early years of WWII... Germans and Italians must have hated it very much...


Leo "Apollo11"

Amazing how such obsolete aircraft (slow and cloth covered) played so vital role in the early years of WWII... Germans and Italians must have hated it very much...

Thats why I picked her, she certainly has to be the most successful TB in history, actually giving the idea for Japan's attack on PH.

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag
Thats why I picked her, she certainly has to be the most successful TB in history, actually giving the idea for Japan's attack on PH.

Taranto was brilliant strike that effectively killed any hope for Italian navy in Mediterranean.


BTW in Yamamoto's memoirs I am reading now (The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy, ISBN: 4770025394) that raid is not mentioned as main idea behind Pearl Harbor attack...


Leo "Apollo11"

Anyone have the tonage sunk figures for the Kate,TBM, and the Swordfish handy?

Nice pick BTW:) Goasts had this plane I beleave in it like last year I think.

Interesting hypothesis - Taranto happened at night......what might have happened if the Japanese hit PH on the evening of the 6th? I'm sure there was enough light coming from the harbor to get a good bead on targets......any thoughts?

Also, I'd count the TBM as the best torpedo bomber of the war, since it was also an effective dive bomber & could be fitted with radar. Was the only bomber the carriers needed by 1945....the first multi-purpose bomber in the fleet.

The Swordfish certainly did more given its size & obsolescence (more with less), but against true opposition (like a strike at the Kido Butai in the Bay of Bengal) in a fleet action, they would have been eaten alive.

It is hard to say what was the Best Torpedo bomber of the war (refering hear to Carier launched planes), it realy depends on what your criteria for that is, if your looking for what was the best plane in the type class, and define it by simply the preformance,offensive load,gun package/defensive aramament, then the Grace is likely one of the best if not the best type fielded in the war. If the criteria is which type sunk the most tonage over all then I think off hand that the Kate or the TBM is the leader, howeaver I am bit gray on the tonage totlas for the types listed above, it would be interesting to see a list of the tonage sunk by type. On a side note many CV launched planes in WW2 could cary radar, British types , US types and Japanese types, Kates, Jills,TBM's,ect...

I don't know about it being the inspiration for Pearl Harbor, but Taranto proved that carrier aircraft could indeed destroy ships at anchor during war time. Before that attack, it was merely theoretical.

ORIGINAL: Capt Cliff

Fairy Swordfish, or the String Bag, over the white cliffs of Dover!

Close! It's actually a Swordfish over the Needles (Western tip of the Isle of Wight)

Judging from the Photo, it's the RN Historic Flight Stringbag. I had to do some thinking about the engine last year (mis-fired and startled the crew - no real issue though)