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In an age of sleek monoplanes and screaming engines, the Fairey Swordfish looked like it had wandered in from another era. This fabric-covered biplane, nicknamed the “Stringbag,” lumbered along at barely 140 miles an hour. Yet it struck fear into some of the most powerful navies on earth. Swordfish crews crippled the Italian fleet at Taranto in 1940, launching the first successful carrier-based night attack in history. They harassed Axis convoys in the Mediterranean, and even helped sink the mig