Canadian Warplanes 1: Fairey Swordfish

Fairey Swordfish

(Jack McNulty Photo)

Fairey Swordfish (Serial No. NE927) was serving on HMS Seaborn when it left the Fleet Air Arm. After being taken on strength with the RCAF, the aircraft was Free Issue to the Royal Canadian Navy T.O. MC 12429, dated 16 June 1946. It was later flown toHMCS. Hunter in Windsor, Ontario to be used as a maintenance trainer.

The Fairey Swordfish was a biplane torpedo bomber originating in the early 1930s.  The Swordfish was nicknamed the "Stringbag", and was operated by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, the RCAF and the Royal Netherlands Navy.  It initially served as a fleet attack aircraft, and then during its later years, the Swordfish became increasingly used as an anti-submarine and training aircraft.  The Swordfish was in frontline service throughout the Second World War, even though it was considered obsolete at the outbreak of the conflict in 1939. (Wikipedia)

(Library and Archives Canada Photo,  MIKAN No. 3306095)

Fairey Swordfish,  No. 1 Naval Air Gunnery School, Royal Navy, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 29 Sep 1944.

The Swordfish achieved some spectacular successes during the war; notable events included sinking one battleship and damaging two others of the Regia Marina (Italian Navy) during the Battle of Taranto, as well as the famous attack on the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) battleship Bismark, which contributed to her eventual demise.  By the end of the war, the Swordfish held the distinction of having caused the destruction of a greater tonnage of Axis shipping than any other Allied aircraft.  The Swordfish remained in front-line service until VE-Day, having outlived multiple aircraft that had been intended to replace it in service.  (Wikipedia)

When HMS Seaborn, a Royal Naval Air Section tenant unit at RCAF Station Dartmouth Nova Scotia, was decommissioned on 28 January 1946, the Royal Navy donated the 22 Swordfish then serving at HMS Seaborn to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The newly acquired Swordfish were used to form Fleet Requirements Unit 743 where they were used for general purpose duties.  With approval to form a RCN air arm reserve, some of the veteran Swordfish were ferried to 11 Naval Reserve Divisions across Canada for ground crew instructional purposes.

Fairey Swordfish Mk. I, Mk. II (99), (Serial Nos. W5856, DK698, DK699, DK752, DK774, HS168, HS171, HS196, HS209, HS220, HS260, HS261, HS263- HS266, HS268, HS275, HS288, HS320, HS322- HS325, HS335- HS337, HS339, HS343, HS381, HS383, HS396-HS405, HS455, HS464- HS471, HS484-HS501, HS503, HS507, HS509- HS515, HS517- HS519, HS533, HS534, HS553- HS555, HS560, HS582, HS663, LS193, LS229, NE926, NE927, NE929, NE937, NE938, NE940, NE952, NE953, NF136, NF161), Mk. III (6), (Serial Nos. NR944, NR948, NR953, NS122, NS129, NS171), for a total of 105 aircraft.  The RCAF and the RCN flew the Swordfish Mk. IV with an enclosed cabin.

RCAF On Strength (106), Canadian Aircraft Losses (2). Detailed records of all known RCAF and Canadian casualties in the RAF during the Second World War may be viewed on line in the Canadian Aircraft Serials Personnel Information Resource (CASPIR). The CASPIR website is researched, coded, maintained entirely by Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWHM) volunteers with only one staff assisting periodically. This work has taken several years and is unlikely to be finished as continuing research leads to “new finds” and rediscovered Canadian aviation heritage and history.  The CWHM volunteer team looks forward to continuing to update and correct the record as additional information and photos are received. Check here.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo,  MIKAN No. 3650802)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. II aircraft of No. 1 Naval Air Gunnery School, Royal Navy, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Sep 1944.

(RCN Photo via Mike Kaehler)

Fairey Fairey Swordfish IV (Serial No. HS553), closeup of enclosed cockpit.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650801)

Fairey Fairey Swordfish IV in flight, Royal Navy.

(IWM Photo, A8581)

Ground crew unfolding the wings of the Fairey Swordfish used for the meteorological flight from HMS Sparrowhawk, Royal Naval Air Station, Hatston, The Orkneys.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650431)

Fairey Swordfish in flight.

(IWM Photo, A3536)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. I on a training flight from Royal Naval Air Station Crail.

(Shearwater Aviation Museum Photo)

Fairey Swordfish in flight ca. 1941.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 365094)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. II (Serial No. HS325), Q, Naval Air Gunnery School, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia c1945.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650797)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. IV (Serial No. HS268), Royal Navy, Yarmouth, NS, 29 Sep 1944.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo,  MIKAN No. 3650796)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. IV, RN (Serial No. HS275), J, No. 1 Naval Air Gunnery School, 1944.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo,  MIKAN No. 3390387)

Fairey Swordfish, (Serial No. HS323), Royal Navy, Yarmouth, NS, 29 Sep 1944.

(IWM Photo, A5694)

Fairey Swordfish floatplane being hoisted aboard HMS Malaya, 1 Oct 1941.

(USN Photo)

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (91) photographed circa 1939.  A Fairey Swordfish aircraft is taking off as another approaches from astern.  Two more are visible in the background.

(Author Photos)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. 4 (Serial No. NS 122), Canada Air and Space Museum.  The exact identity of this Swordfish is unknown, but it was probably manufactured by Blackburn Aircraft Company Limited in Great Britain for the Royal Navy, and shipped to Canada.  It was purchased in the early postwar years by Ernest V. Simmons, a Tillsonburg, Ontario farmer, who bought a considerable amount of surplus war material, including around eight Fairey Swordfish.  Simmons kept the aircraft on his farm and few were sold during his lifetime.  He did, however, sell one Swordfish to the Canadian War Museum on 22 March 1965.  The aircraft was restored in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia by Fairey Aviation of Canada Limited and the Royal Canadian Navy.  It was purchased by the Museum in 1965 and assigned a fictitious serial number corresponding to that of a Swordfish flown in Canada during the Second World War.  (CA&SM)

(Armchair Aviators Photo)

(Author Photo)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. III, RCN (Serial No. HS554), C-GEVS, Vintage Wings of Canada, Gatineau, Quebec.

(Author Photos)

Fairey Swordfish Mk. II (Serial No. HS469), FB 3S 126A, C-GRCN, 1943, Shearwater Aviation Museum, Nova Scotia.

Operated by RN in Canada, at HMS Seaborn (co-located with RCAF Station Shearwater) by 745 Squadron, on behalf of the No. 1 Naval Telegraphist Air Gunner School. Converted to Mk. IV, with enclosed cockpit, while there. Transferred to RCN on 2 August 1945. May have been operated by 743 Fleet Requirements Unit. Sold as scrap, probably to farm near Tillsonberg. Purchased in early 1980s, under went long restoration. First flight in April 1994, at CFB Shearwater. Registered to Department of National Defense since 19 September 1994 as C-GRCN. On display at Shearwater Aviation Museum, near Halifax, NS in 2006, in RCN markings. Registration cancelled in May 2010. Still on display at this Museum.

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