Can anyone help me with the following questions ?

1. Can anyone tell me more about the role of the Swordfish floatplane during WW2 ?
2. Where there any floatplanes landbased ?
3. Are there good books (with a lot of pictures) on the Swordfish (floatplane) ?

Thanx,
Marc

Here is the section regarding the Swordfish from the book WW2 Combat Aircraft:
...the wings could be folded backwards to make storage on-board easier, while its landing gear could be replaced by a pair of floats, for use on major warships.

The book goes on to describe the carrier uses, but aside from the catapult launching ability, does not talk about the floatplane in any depth.

The role of the swordfish was anti-ship and anti-submarine. There is a good book out, written by a former pilot of a swordfish, it's called "To War In A Stringbag".

Also noteable is that the Sword fish played a MAJOR roll in the sinking of the GERMAN B/C BISMARK. A rather great feat for such a minor roled A/C in the time of Fw-190's, Spitfires and Bf-109's.

DAGGER : A weapon with a short pointed Blade : "THE CUTTING EDGE"

when the Fairy Swordfish(stringbag)thumped the Italian fleet at Taranto,it gave the Japanese a great idea about pearl harbour
cheers
Arthur

The Swordfish floatplane was used as a spotter aircraft off some of the big RN warships.As for reference books "Swordfish in Action" has some good pics and some info on the floatplane version.

Hope this helps a bit

The Swordfish was designed as a torpedo bomber/reconnissance aircraft, however ended up doing nearly everything bar being a fighter.

Try the following links for more info:

Stories, pictures, history and just about everything else one would want.

More history and specifics about the ASW role

Detail photos

More history and a couple of photos

Review of the Tamiya kit + links

And finally, the book mentioned before is called War in a Stringbag by Charles Lamb, ISBN 0-304-35841-X. A great read from one pilots views from one end of the war to the other, also from the ETO to the PTO.

Cheers,
Linz