Correct re TSR2 for the dear old Fairey Swordfish!
I knew Winkle Brown, a splendid chap. He was a smart cookie and very close to Naval Intelligence. He did not drop into Cranwell by accident the night before the first British jet flight. I once asked him he if ever test-flew the Bachem Natter, a very silly German kite, to which the answer was a firm no!
We'd get a Swordfish off the deck of a Lizzie alright, with any sort of wind over the deck. They rarely used catapults in World War II and were flown off the tiny Empire Mac escort carriers, as well as the dear old HMS Hermes (the one sunk in 1942!).
Provided you could get an 18" torpedo past a CIWS then yes, it would sink or disable most modern ships. They had a lot more punch than an Exocet.
Not sure what the radar signature of a Stringbag was, but there wasn't a lot of metal for radar to bounce off! They were regarded, unfairly, as old-fashioned in 1939. It was actually a fairly modern design, roughly contemporary with the Spitfire, and a better aircraft than the Blackburn Shark it replaced. They were a huge success because of their ruggedness, payload-carrying capability and ability to get off and back onto very short decks, and pitching decks when a sea was running.
They weren't just torpedo bombers - they could fire rockets, and drop bombs or depth charges.
What they couldn't do was survive against modern fighter opposition, hence the tragedy of Eugene Esmonde and the Channel Dash, when they were asked to do too much with too little fighter cover.
They did wonderful work, however, and in the hands of courageous crews sank lots of community partners.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
