HOW WE STRUCK ITALY
BRITAIN’S FLEET AIR ARM AT WORK The of the Italian fleet at Taranto is the second important British victory in the war, states Major F. A. de V. Robertson, V.D., the authority on aeronautics. “The first,” he says, “was the defeat of the German air attack on Great Britain. The credit for the latter goes to the Royal Air Force; that for the former to the Fleet Air Arm. Only the Fleet Air Arm could have struck the Italian warships so hard, because only that body could have brought torpedoes within striking range of the enemy fleet, and only torpedoes could have done such overwhelming damage. “The type of aircraft used in the attack was the Fairey Swordfish, which is known in the Navy as a T.S.R. machine. The initials stand for torpedo-spotter-reconnaissance. As hangar space on an aircraft carrier is limited, the Fleet Air Arm cannot indulge in many specialist types of aeroplane. The Swordfish and the Albacore are both of the T.S.R. class; the Skua and the Roc (both products of the Blackburn firm) have jto combine the duties of fighter and'dive-bomber. In addition the wings of ship-borne aircraft (with the exception of the Sea Gladiator) have to fold back to save space in the hangars and on the lifts, and there are other requirements which detract from their performance and make them, class for class, inferior to shore-based machines. For this reason the Italians have never carriers, reckoning that long-range bombers with'* bases on Sardinia, Pantellaria, and the Dodecanese, could cover the whole Mediterranean.
“However,” says Major Robertson, “the Fleet Air Arm has recently acquired a specialist fighter, the Fairey Fulmar, which is faster and altogether .better than any other shipborne fighter. Already the Fulmar has been in action, and has shot down a number of Italian reconnais-
sance machines which were trying to shadow the British fleet. If the Italians can be kept in ignorance of the movements of our warships, their task of getting supply ships across to Libya and .the Dodecanese will become more hazardous even than it was before.”
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Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13241, 17 January 1941, Page 5
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350HOW WE STRUCK ITALY Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13241, 17 January 1941, Page 5
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