[GreenLanternCorps]

Hey, the Stringbag was an awesome plane. The Bismark’s gunners had problems shooting at it because it was too slow...

[QualityMan]

...and it did some damage to bismarck, too.

damaged the rudder with a well-placed torpedo, IIRC

[Alas Babylon!]

Oh, I’m not saying the Fairey Swordfish was a bad plane, just the name is worse than Buffalo, imho.

[Covenantor]

The 21 Fairy Swordfish torpedo bombers took out the Italian battleship fleet in the first aircraft carrier only attack in Nov. 1940 at Taranto. The entire battle ship and cruiser fleet was harbored together, much like the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor a year later. Italian losses included their most modern battleship. The remainder of the Italian fleet was never again a factor in the Med after the Taranto attack.

Those supposedly obsolete biplanes with a top speed of 139 mph achieved this in two sorties, crippling the Italian naval presence in the Med for the duration of the war giving the British critical Med theater superiority. Control which assured Rommel's resupply chain destruction directly contributing to his defeat in North Africa....not bad for a bunch of slow grampa type planes.