Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde, was a distinguished Irish pilot in the Fleet Air Arm who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy awarded to members of Commonwealth forces. Esmonde earned this award while in command of a torpedo bomber squadron in the Second World War - in an action known as Operation Fuller, the 'Channel Dash’.
Officers and ratings who were decorated for the part they played in the sinking of the Bismarck, pictured in front of a Fairey Swordfish aboard HMS Ark Royal. Esmonde is second from left.
A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight of a torpedo, and remained an important aircraft type until they were rendered obsolete by anti-ship missiles. They were an important element in many famous Second World War battles, notably the British attack at Taranto, the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, the sinking of the British battleship HMS Prince Of Wales and the British battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
A Fairey Swordfish carrying a dummy torpedo
A formation of Fairey Barracudas during World War II
Short Folder 81 being hoisted aboard the cruiser HMS Hermes
A Sopwith Cuckoo dropping an aerial torpedo during World War I