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Stanley T Brand | Sub Lieut (A) Stanley T Brand RNVR Although in a reserved occupation volunteered on his 18th birthday to train as pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. He flew open cockpit biplane Swordfish aircraft from Merchant Aircraft Carriers called 'Macships'. These were 8000 ton grain ships or oil tankers fitted with a flight deck, carrying their usual cargo and manned by a Merchant Navy Master and crew. They sailed in convoy back and forth across the North Atlantic in all the extreme weather conditions experiened on that ocean. The oil tankers lacked a hangar, so maintenance was carried out on open deck exposing the aircraft, ground crew and aircrew to the fury of the sea, ice and gales. By keeping U-boats submerged instead of allowing them free range on the surface, in 24 months only two merchant ships were sunk by the enemy in convoys protected by Macships. This was in spite of there being greater numbers and more efficient U-boats at sea in this period than at the time of our greatest losses in the Battle of the Atlantic. |
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Operation Judgement by Philip West. The attack on Taranto was the first major victory for naval air power in the world and blueprint for the strike on Pearl Harbor. The Fleet Air Arm played an active part in the fight against the Axis forces in the Mediterranean. Their greatest achievement was the strike against the Italian Fleet at Taranto, 11 November 1940 by four Fleet Air Arm squadrons and 40 or so men who carried out this daring raid. In this picture we see the Swordfish flown by Lt. FMA Torrense-Spence and Lt. AWF Sutton, having just released its torpedo. |
Operation Cerberus - The Channel Dash by Philip West. The Channel Dash (officially known as Operation Cerberus) was one of three operations during the Second World War for which the Swordfish was to become the most famous. Heavily outgunned in the Straits of Dover on this day in February 1942 by the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen, with their accompanying flotilla of destroyers and motor torpedo boats, and with top cover provided by deadly fighter aircraft of the Luftwaffe, all six Fleet Air Arm Swordfish were shot down. Only five of the eighteen aircrew survived. Here we see the Swordfish flown by Sub. Lt. Kingsmill and Sub. Lt. Samples with PO Bunce in the rear, fighting for their lives with his machine gun. |
Flight Against the Bismarck by Philip West. The Royal Navys week long chase of the formidable German battleship Bismarck culminated in the foul evening weather of 26th May 1941. Despite the deck of HMS Ark Royal pitching through 55 feet, S/Lt John Moffat was one of fifteen Swordfish pilots who took off to attack Bismarck. After 90 minutes of arduous and turbulent flying the Swordfish found their quarry and dived through the intense anti-aircraft fire to drop their torpedoes. One of these hit and jammed Bismarcks rudder and condemned the battleship to sail in slow circles. The Royal Navys own capital ships then closed in and pounded Bismarck into a burning wreck. |
On a Wing and a Prayer by Philip West. The venerable Fairy Swordfish was the Fleet Air Arms premier torpedo-bomber at the outbreak of World War II. It may have looked archaic in appearance, but its courageous crews proved time and time again that it was a potent fighting machine. Stringbags as they were affectionately known, served in several important roles and theatres including Coastal Command, the Mediterranean and flying from MAC-ships protecting North Atlantic and Arctic convoys |
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