Fairey Firefly

[Hagar]

Doug. I'm wondering if you're thinking of the Blackburn Firebrand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_Firebrand

[C]

Doug. I'm wondering if you're thinking of the Blackburn Firebrand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_Firebrand

That had also crossed my mind. Thank heavens Blackburn redeemed themselves with the Buccaneer!

[logjam]

My Brownie files don't contain pictures of a Firefly. But here's some more info. Fireflies were used as dive bombers in the 1944 attack on the German pocket battleship "Tirpitz." Which was actually sunk by Barracudas carrying Torpedo's. Big difference with the two aircraft were the Barracuda was designed as a shoulder wing torpedo Bomber. The Firefly was designed as a low wing anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft equipped with a more powerful version of the Merlin. It normally carried 4 20mm cannon but had underwing hard points for rockets and a 1000lb bomb under belly. Curiously though, some were shipped to Australia and were described as Torpedo Bombers. Canada used them equipped with radar in the anti-submarine role up to 1954.
Hope this helps.

[Hagar]

Fireflies were used as dive bombers in the 1944 attack on the German pocket battleship "Tirpitz." Which was actually sunk by Barracudas carrying Torpedo's.

Sorry logjam. Tirpitz was sunk by Lancasters of 9 & 617 Squadrons using 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs. http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/tirpitz.html

[logjam]

You are right, Hagar, the Tirpitz was eventually sunk by Lancasters of 617 Sqdn RAF. Here is a snippet from the Fleet Air Arm archives :

"On 30 March 1944, HMS Furious and HMS Victorious of the Home Fleet sailed from Scapa Flow in company with a powerful force of battleships and escort carriers, in Operation Tungsten. Their objective was to attack the German battleship Tirpitz, Germany's last surviving heavy surface unit, moored in the supposedly impregnable anchorage of Altenfjord in northern Norway.

In the early hours of 3 April, having approached to within 120 miles of the Norwegian coast, the carriers launched 42 dive-bombers and 80 fighters in the largest air strike yet undertaken by the Fleet Air Arm.

Tirpitz lay in Kaafjord and was hit by 15 bombs and badly crippled, and although not sunk, was incapable of putting to sea for several months during the crucial Normandy D-Day invasion period of the Allies."

[C]

You are right, Hagar, the Tirpitz was eventually sunk by Lancasters of 617 Sqdn RAF.

Don't say that near anyone from 9(B) Sqn...

There's now a piece of one of Tirpitz's bulkheads at the RAF Museum. Until it was "donated" (under a sort of peace treaty) a few years ago, it spent much of the previous 60 years or so being "stolen/reclaimed" and moved between the various bases of both 9(B) and 617 Sqn.

In the end the bombing was rather to prove a point. By the autumn of 1944 I don't think anyone on the Tirpitz was ready to read out of the fjords to suffer the same fate as most of the rest of the German capital ships.

[Flying Trucker]

Thanks for all the comments folks, still waiting for that lot at the Canadian Warplane Heritage to send me some information...

[logjam]

A lot of these "Museums" in Canada are staffed by volunteers. Don't forget it's still winter, can't expect a full crew to be there to answer and respond to queries for the whole 12 months.

[Flying Trucker]

Hi logjam...

The Canadian Warplane Heritage is open 362 days a year with many Links for information...

http://www.warplane.com/

[logjam]

Yeah, I guess if there's always someone there to take your money, there should be someone there to answer questions.