The US Navy adopts the Fairey Swordfish

What if the US Navy adopted the Fairey Swordfish as its torpedo scout bomber?

It could expand torpedo striking capacity, but without suitable night doctrine the slow aircraft would suffer badly in Pacific daylight combat.

The Swordfish could give the US Navy numerous torpedo bombers, but adopting it late would leave little time to develop night-flying and night-strike doctrine. Without those methods, the slow aircraft would face severe losses in daylight. Its low speed sometimes caused faster fighters to overshoot, creating an opportunity for its machine guns. Some Swordfish crews gained fighter kills under those circumstances, including pilots who later became aces. Such occasional successes did not remove the need to train for the conditions in which the torpedo bomber worked best.