Torpedo Bomber I.

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Torpedo bombers!

Attacking naval aviation, land-based or carrier-based, dropping aerial torpedoes against capital ships, torpedo bombers doing from the air what a submarine does from below the surface.

Those instances from the Second World War [WW2] of successful torpedo bomber attacks upon capital ships occurring under ONLY certain specific circumstances.

Instances of successful attack to include:

1. Taranto. Attack against moored warships in harbor.

2. Bismarck. Attack against capital ship not having friendly air cover.

3. Pearl Harbor. Attack against moored warships in harbor.

4. Repulse and Prince of Wales. Attack against capital ships not having friendly air cover.

5. Yamato. Attack against capital ship not having friendly air cover.

The torpedo bomber of the era [WW2] generally successful only when the "conditions were just right".

The torpedo bomber against much more robust, agile, and prepared opponents, NOT so successful.

WW2 instances of unsuccessful torpedo bomber attack against capital ships to include:

1. Battle of Rabaul.

2. Battle of Midway.

Torpedo bombers, heavy and somewhat ungainly aircraft when loaded with an aerial torpedo, not able to maneuver with alacrity when attacking, in particular too susceptible to shoot-down by combat air patrol [CAP].

* That group of Japanese torpedo planes so successful when attacking and sinking the Repulse and Prince of Wales uniformly UNSUCCESSFUL in combat against the American Lexington aircraft carrier battle group during the Battle of Rabaul.

"The Genzan Air Groups would attempt a torpedo attack on USS Lexington on 20 February 1942, losing seventeen aircraft to the carrier's combat air patrol and anti-aircraft guns"

* American torpedo bombers successfully attacking the Japanese battleship Yamato doing so as part of a coordinated attack in concert with dive bombers and strafing fighter escorts. Overwhelming numbers alone able to defeat the organic air defense of the Yamato!

[the concept WAS for a coordinated attack by all air elements simultaneously! Dive bombers, torpedo bombers, horizontal bombers, escort fighters acting in concert, as a team, again, coordinated, synergistic!!]

* To what extent torpedo bombers were successfully employed by the Japanese during the Indian Ocean Raid of 1942 is unclear.

Torpedo bombers when used in combat under the right circumstnaces were effective - - otherwise NOT so effective!

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