Many naval staffs began to appreciate the possibility of using aircraft to launch torpedoes against moored ships in the period before the First World War. Captain
Alessandro Guidoni, an Italian naval captain, experimented with dropping weights from a
Farman MF.7 in 1912. which led to
Raúl Pateras Pescara and Guidoni developing a purpose-built torpedo bomber from which a dummy torpedo was dropped in February 1914 but they abandoned their work shortly afterwards when the aircraft's performance proved inadequate. Admiral
Bradley A. Fiske of the
United States Navy took out a patent in 1912 for a torpedo carrying aircraft entitled "Method of and apparatus for delivering submarine torpedoes from
airships." He suggested that aircraft would attack at night.
Winston Churchill, as
First Lord of the Admiralty from October 1911 to May 1915, was a strong proponent of naval air power. He established the
Royal Naval Air Service in April 1912 and took flying lessons to foster aviation development. Churchill ordered the RNAS to design reconnaissance spotters and torpedo bombers for the Fleet.
First torpedo bombers being hoisted aboard the cruiser
HMS Hermes The
British Admiralty ordered the
Short Admiralty Type 81 biplane floatplane as a reconnaissance aircraft. It first flew in July 1913 and was loaded aboard the cruiser , which had been converted to become the
Royal Navy's first
seaplane tender. When the rival
Sopwith Special, designed from the outset as a torpedo bomber, failed to lift its payload off the water, Shorts converted the Type 81 to carry torpedoes in July 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War. On 28 July 1914,
Arthur Longmore dropped the first aerial torpedo, a , torpedo, from a Type 81 at the Royal Naval Air Station Calshot. The support wires of the floats were moved to allow the torpedo to be carried above the water and a specially designed quick-release mechanism was used.
First World War dropping an
aerial torpedo during World War I|alt=|left On 12 August 1915, a
Royal Naval Air Service Short 184 floatplane torpedo bomber sank a Turkish merchantman in the
Sea of Marmara. It was operating from , a
seaplane carrier converted from a ferry. Fitted with an aircraft hangar,
Ben-my-Chree was used to carry up to six biplanes with their wings folded back to reduce carrying space. This was the first ship sunk by air-launched torpedo. Five days later, another ship supplying Turkish forces in the
Gallipoli campaign against British, Australian and New Zealand troops was also sunk. Production of the Short 184 continued until after the
Armistice of 11 November 1918, with a total of 936 built by several manufacturers. It served in eight navies, including the
Imperial Japanese Navy, which built them under licence. The first torpedo bomber designed for operation from aircraft carriers was the
Sopwith Cuckoo. First flown in June 1917, it was designed to take off from the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, but had to land on an airfield as
arrester wires, needed to stop an aircraft during landing on a ship, had not yet been perfected. The Admiralty planned to use five carriers and 100-120 Cuckoos to attack the German
High Seas Fleet, which had been sheltering in Kiel since the
Battle of Jutland in 1916 but when the war ended only 90 Cuckoos had been completed. The
Vickers Vimy twin-engine heavy bomber was designed to bomb German cities in retribution for German air attacks on England. It reached squadrons in France too late to play a role in the First World War. Had the war continued, it would have been deployed as a torpedo bomber.
Interwar years Of the major maritime nations, only Britain, Japan and the United States developed carrier-borne torpedo bombers after hostilities ceased in Europe. Initially, Japan purchased both ships and aircraft from Britain, as the Imperial Japanese Navy modelled itself on the Royal Navy. Of the three, only Britain and Japan also perceived a need for land-based torpedo bombers, though a number would be developed by other countries. Bordered by oceans against any possible foe, the United States ignored landplane torpedo bomber development. The first landplane specifically designed as a torpedo bomber was the
Hawker Horsley. By the mid 1930s, the torpedo bombers that would start the Second World War were being deployed. The
Fairey Swordfish flew first in 1934, the
Douglas TBD Devastator and
Mitsubishi G3M (Nell) in 1935 and the
Nakajima B5N (Kate) and
Bristol Beaufort a year after that.
Second World War being loaded with torpedo Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Royal Navy had studied the threat in the Mediterranean posed by the
Italian fleet, which had its advance base in the new port of
Taranto in the "heel" of Italy. Captain
Lumley Lyster of the aircraft carrier proposed that his Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers could launch a night attack against Taranto. At that time, the Royal Navy was the only force in the world with this capability. The Swordfish, a three-seat biplane, looked outmoded, but its low stall speed made it an ideal platform for launching torpedoes into the shallow waters of Taranto. The torpedoes were adapted with wire cables attached to their nose and wooden fins at their tail to slow their fall and make a shallow impact with the water, which was only deep. after the
Taranto attack On the night of 11 November 1940, 21 Swordfish left the new aircraft carrier . Some carried bombs and flares, but the main force carried torpedoes. British decoy maneuvers and the Italians' lack of radar allowed the British to surprise the ill-prepared Italian fleet at anchor in Taranto. Three battleships were put out of action, half of the Italian fleet, for the loss of two Swordfish. Two airmen were killed and two others captured. The next day, the remaining Italian battleships withdrew to Naples, ceding control of the Mediterranean to the British. On 6 April 1941, a single
Bristol Beaufort piloted by Flying Officer
Kenneth Campbell attacked the German battleship
Gneisenau in
Brest harbour in Brittany, where she and her sister ship,
Scharnhorst, were sheltering beneath a massive array of anti-aircraft guns. The other five Beauforts on the mission failed to rendezvous due to bad weather. Campbell received a posthumous
Victoria Cross for launching his solo torpedo attack, which put
Gneisenau out of action for six months. At 1900 hours on 26 May 1941, fifteen Fairey Swordfish were launched from the Royal Navy's carrier to attack the German battleship
Bismarck. Their formation was badly disrupted by heavy clouds and driving rain which resulted in a series of piecemeal attacks. However, two torpedoes hit the
Bismarck, one of which jammed the rudder leaving the ship without proper directional control. The next day the
Bismarck was sunk by British battleships and cruisers. In the early hours of 13 June 1941, two Beauforts found the German cruiser
Lützow off Norway. The first was mistaken for a
Junkers Ju 88 and was able to torpedo the
Lützow without return fire, putting her out of action for six months. The second was shot down by defending
Messerschmitt Bf 109s. from the
Kaga attacking Pearl Harbor In the
attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto's fleet of six carriers launched 40
Nakajima B5N2
Kate torpedo bombers on Sunday, 7 December 1941. The Japanese struck the
United States Pacific Fleet when it was moored in harbour. The torpedo bombers coordinated their attacks with dive bombers; the combined effort sank or damaged all eight of the battleships which they found moored in Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had studied the attack on Taranto and had practiced dropping specially modified
Type 91 torpedoes in the shallow waters of
Japan's Inland Sea. The Type 91 torpedo was considerably more capable than any others in the world at that time, being very fast and reliable, as well as allowing a much higher launch speed from a much greater altitude than other types. Only five Kates were lost in the attack. In later months, torpedo bombers were responsible for the sinking of the American aircraft carriers and , and damaging . During the war, Japanese torpedo bombers (mainly the
Nakajima B5N) played a key role in the fatal crippling of the carriers
USS Lexington (scuttled as a result of an internal explosion),
USS Yorktown (sunk by a Japanese submarine while being towed), and
USS Hornet (abandoned and finished off by US and Japanese surface ships). Three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Sir
Tom Phillips was returning to
Singapore on board the new battleship after an unsuccessful attempt to impede Japanese landings in
Malaya. His fleet included the First World War
battlecruiser and should also have had the new aircraft carrier with a squadron of
Sea Hurricanes. But the carrier was delayed for repairs after running aground in the harbour at
Kingston, Jamaica. Eight
Mitsubishi G3M Nell twin-engine level bombers and 17 Nell torpedo bombers found the two capital ships without air cover in broad daylight. They scored just a single bomb hit on
Repulse and a single torpedo hit on
Prince of Wales. The torpedo struck where the outer port propeller shaft exited the hull and
Prince of Wales took on of water through a ruptured stern gland. The battleship listed 12 degrees to port preventing the starboard side 5.25 inch anti-aircraft guns from depressing low enough to deter more torpedo bombers. A second squadron, this time of
Mitsubishi G4M Betty torpedo bombers, now attacked both ships.
Repulse had dodged 19 torpedoes by skillful steering, but now G4Ms attacked the bow from both sides and scored another hit. At about this point,
Repulse radioed for defensive fighters. A squadron of 10
Royal Australian Air Force Brewster Buffalos arrived an hour later to watch
Prince of Wales sink.
Repulse had already sunk. Each ship had been hit by four torpedoes out of 49 fired. The Japanese lost four aircraft. Neither G3Ms nor G4Ms carried defensive armament, which had been stripped to extend their range. The presence of modern Allied fighters to defend the two capital ships might have led to a different outcome. On 12 February 1942, Bristol Beauforts were dispatched to intercept the German cruiser
Prinz Eugen off
Trondheim, Norway.
Prinz Eugen had accompanied
Bismarck into the Atlantic, but returned to Brest. For the first time, the Beauforts were accompanied by
Bristol Beaufighters and
Bristol Blenheims. In a new RAF tactic, the Blenheims acted as decoys, making pretense torpedo runs, while the Beaufighters, a development of the Beaufort fitted with four cannon, shot up the anti-aircraft gunners. This was intended to give the Beauforts a clear torpedo run. However, none of the 28 Beauforts achieved a hit, and three aircraft were lost. At the
Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942, 41 Devastators launched from three American carriers failed to score a single torpedo hit, and only six aircraft returned, as the rest fell to the
Mitsubishi A6M Zero combat air patrols and ships' anti-aircraft fire. The attacks had been poorly coordinated, but the Devastator sorties were credited with pulling the defending A6M Zeros out of position, as well as preventing the Japanese carriers from launching their aircraft, so three of the four carriers were caught with their hangar decks full of fueled and armed planes when the American dive bombers struck by surprise. Nonetheless, the Devastator was immediately withdrawn from front-line service. The successor to the Devastator, the
Grumman TBF Avenger, arrived too late at Pearl Harbor to be loaded onto carriers for the Battle of Midway. However, six were flown from
Midway Island. They fared no better, with five lost without a single hit. Avengers became more successful as tactics improved and crews became more skilled. On 24 August 1942, 24 Avengers sank the light carrier
Ryūjō at the
Battle of the Eastern Solomons. At
Guadalcanal, Avengers from the Navy and
Marine Corps helped to finish off the battleship
Hiei, which had lost steering after being damaged the prior night. Beauforts also had more success when they moved to
Malta to attack Italian warships and transport. Flying Officer Arthur Aldridge discovered a convoy guarded by the heavy cruiser
Trento early on 14 June 1942 some east of Malta. As in the attack on
Lützow, the Beaufort was mistaken for a Junkers Ju 88, and Aldridge hit
Trento with his torpedo; the ship was eventually finished off by the submarine , which was close by.
Replacement and obsolescence The torpedoes in use during the early 20th century travelled under water at about – a speed easily matched by destroyers and even fast battleships which could make . Consequently, a skillful captain could often evade torpedoes. For instance, when came under
attack on 10 December 1941, she avoided 19 torpedoes, before Japanese aircraft attacked simultaneously from both forward quarters.
Caltech developed the "Holy Moses" High Velocity Aircraft Rocket, with a warhead for the US Navy. It was rushed to Europe for use on
D-Day and later used by Navy aircraft in the Pacific.
Multi-role attack/strike aircraft (Comet) torpedo dive bomber.By the beginning of the Second World War, aircraft technology had increased to the extent that specialised torpedo bombers were no longer necessary. Multi-role designs were often adapted from either: single-engined, carrier-based dive-bombers like the
Aichi B7A Ryusei,
Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and
Fairey Barracuda, or; land-based twin-engined
light bombers/
attack aircraft, such as the
Bristol Beaufighter,
Douglas A-20C (Boston IIIA),
Junkers Ju 88, and
Tupolev Tu-2. dropping an
anti-submarine torpedo As the war progressed, single-seat designs also emerged – omitting the roles of gunner,
bombardier/bomb-aimer or observer. This configuration was favoured by the US Navy, in particular, and included the
Martin AM Mauler and
Douglas A-1 Skyraider, both of which could carry up to three torpedoes. Another concept, the
torpedo fighter, also known as the strike fighter, was intended to also have
air superiority capabilities – when it was not carrying or had dropped its torpedo. However, the radically differing requirements of these two roles created design constraints that made it difficult for a single design to excel at both. While some torpedo fighters were put into production, such as the
Fiat G.55S and
Blackburn Firebrand, they seldom launched torpedoes at enemy ships. From 1946, the US Navy officially discarded its
separate designations for dive and torpedo bombers, and introduced a single "Attack" designation, similar to that already used by the USAAF. Conversely, the naval air services of the UK and other Commonwealth countries, persisted with specialised torpedo bombers such as the
Grumman Avenger until the early 1960s. While the importance of air-launched torpedoes declined, relative to
anti-ship missiles, during the
Cold War and subsequently, they were retained by many air services and are now generally delivered by
anti-submarine warfare and
maritime patrol aircraft. ==Tactics==