Swordfish torpedoes and the problem of shallow water

Carrying a heavy torpedo with one engine made lift an important design constraint, helping explain the continued use of biplanes. The Swordfish's intended tasks included long flights at night and attacks on ships in shallow harbours. A nose-heavy torpedo could plunge into the seabed, pass below its target, or break on entering the water. Extended fins improved its path through the air, but a reel and tension wire are credited with keeping it flatter during a low, slow release. Taranto supplies the example of the claimed shallow-water advantage. In the subsequent counterfactual, an equivalent Royal Navy attack at Pearl Harbor would have inflicted greater damage, while Japanese aircraft attempting Taranto would have depended more on bombs. That comparison remains a judgment about hypothetical attacks.