Re: And for non-aviators
Slight correction (and IT content)
The 105mm anti-aircraft guns on Bismarck were aimed by a very sophisticated fire-control computer, the best in existence at the time. Someone set as the lower limit an airspeed of 150 knots. As the maximum speed of a Swordfish was 120 knots, guns aimed by the fire-control system could not hit a Swordfish except by accident. As the fire-control computer was a mechanical system, the defaults could not be reset in the field. This problem was fixed on the version fitted to Tirpitz, which was never attacked by Swordfish.
The 37mm and 20mm guns were aimed by eye. They could, and did, hit Swordfish.
The Swordfish was not antiquated. It was a mid-1930s aircraft, built to specifications issued by the Admiralty. (It is possible that the Admiralty was antiquated. And still is.) Numerous other biplanes flew combat operations in the Second World War, including Gloster Gladiator and Sea Gladiator (British) and Polikarpov I-15 (Russian) and assorted Fiat fighters (the CR42 was still in service until 1948, in Spain) and some Japanese machines. The Italian biplanes were flown by madmen. On one occasion, a CR42 intercepted a British bomber over Turin, had its guns jam during the attack, and then rammed the bomber.
And waxed moustaches was an RAF thing. Swordfish were Royal Navy. They had cutlasses instead.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
