At the outbreak of World War II, the Allied countries lacked aircraft effectively adapted or designed to the ground attack role, such as the German Junkers Ju 87, Stuka, which had already been tested during the Spanish Civil War. As a continuation of the "trench fighter" concept of World War I, most Allied fighter aircraft were adapted to carry weapons with which to support their ground forces, both above the battlefield itself or at the enemy’s immediate rear, but these were temporary improvisations or makeshift as the RAF was slow to convert its fighters into an effective and specialized ground attack force, preferring to employ specialist light bombers in the task. However, when its Fairey Battle aircraft were shown to possess neither the speed nor defensive ability to survive enemy fighters and Flak, the Hawker Hurricane eventually took over as a serious and effective ground attack plane, using guns and bombs in the cross-Channel sweeps that started in 1941.

The Hawker Typhoon, a relative failure in its original role as an interceptor, was shown to be a devastating ground attack fighter, and could now be seen as the prototype of a new generation of strike aircraft, its rudimentary 76.2mm (3in) rockets presaging a new concept of artillery that would dominate the battleground of armor and entrenched or concrete defenses. Indeed, the speed of land advances during the final year of the war in Europe and the Far East was directly proportional to the weight of tactical air support, whether by hordes of Soviet Shturmoviks in the Ukraine or by Hurricanes over Rangoon. However, the most effective Allied ground attack aircraft was the American P-47D Thunderbolt, a fast fighter which had been converted for the ground attack role with the addition of 123mm rockets, four more .50-caliber machine guns to a total of eight, plus additional armor to protect the pilot; and the result was the P-47D-40-RE, a highly effective specialized ground attack aircraft that attacked German convoys, military trains, and armored vehicles formations.

The Hawker Typhoon was a devastating weapon to the advancing Allied forces in Europe and North Africa.

The Bristol Beaufort was a British four-seat torpedo bomber used by the RAF during World War II. It performed its first flight in October 1938 and entered service in December 1939. The Beaufort first saw combat action in 1940, carrying out anti-shipping operations over the North Sea. Beauforts equipped six Coastal Command squadrons in the United Kingdom and four in the Middle East, their most famous operations being carried out against the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on April 6, 1941, in Brest harbor, France. The Beaufort was also very active while based on Malta, attacking Axis shipping on their way to North Africa.

Type: torpedo bomber
country of origin: United Kingdom
Manufacturer: Bristol
Power plant: two 1,130-hp (842,6-kW) Bristol Taurus VI radial piston engines
Maximum speed: 426 km/h (265 mph) at 1829 m (6,000 ft)
Range: 2575 km ( 1,600 miles)
Service ceiling: 5029 m (16,500 ft)
Weapons: two 7.7mm (.303) machine guns in nose and dorsal turret, plus one 728-kg ( 1,605-lb) 457mm ( 18-in) torpedo or 907 kg of bombs
Wing span: 17.62 m (57 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 46.73 m2 (503 sq ft)
Length: 13.49 m (44 ft 3 in)
Crew: 4

In order to keep her supply lines flowing from America, the United Kingdom was perhaps the nation that most needed anti-shipping aircraft in World War II. Her lifelines were critically vulnerable to attack from surface raider, submarine and aircraft alike. Yet all responsibility for defense against this threat was, as it had been for centuries, vested almost exclusively in the British Royal Navy. Lip service had been paid to the RAF with the provision of such aircraft as the Avrò Anson, while the Lockheed Hudson began arriving from America in 1939 to provide relatively long-range reconnaissance and attack muscle for Coastal Command. Attacks against shipping around the war-zone coasts, and the incessant vigil against submarines, kept many aircraft busy throughout the war. These ranged from fighters to heavy bombers, all playing their part in denying the enemy freedom of the seas.

The Americans, however, were caught largely unprepared for anti-shipping tasks and so relied heavily on adaptation of the Boeing B-17 and Consolidated B-24, the latter’s very long range suiting it admirably for ocean patrol and long-distance attack; the B-24 was an ideal weapon against Japanese cargo shipping. Likewise the Japanese, despite embarking on their far-flung Pacific campaign, had assumed that carrier-borne attack bombers would embrace the majority of maritime strike operations. Such was the nature of the organization of the Imperial Japanese Navy, however, that from the first days of the Pacific war considerable dependence was placed on land-based anti-shipping bombers, and it was the Mitsubishi G3M that participated in the successful attack on the British capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, one of the war’s most successful air strikes against major warships at sea.

The Fairey Albacore was a World War II carrier-based biplane used as a torpedo-bomber by the British Royal Navy. Developed to replace the Swordfish, it made its first flight in December 1938 and was delivered to the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm in 1940. Although, it had been designed as a carrier-borne aircraft, most Albacores were land-based throughout their careers; however, the Albacore’s most important and successful operations were carried out from a carrier platform as the type’s moment of glory arrived when the Albacores from the carrier HMS Formidable severely damaged the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941. After this time the Albacore was occasionally used for bombing in the Western Desert, in North Africa, usually at night to prevent the depredations of Axis fighters, and the type played an important part in the operations leading up to the Battle of Alamein in October 1942. The Fairey Albacore was also used with some success as a support aircraft during seaborne invasions, notably those of Sicily, Italy and northern France, the last in the hands of Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons.

Type: torpedo-bomber
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Manufacturer: Fairey
Power plant: one 794.2-kW (1,065-hp) Bristol Taurus II radial piston engine
Maximum speed: 259 km/h (161 mph) at 2134 m (7,000 ft)
Range: 1320 km (820 miles)
Ceiling: 6309 m (20,700 ft)
Weapons: one forward-firing 7.7mm (.303) Vickers machine gun and two 7.7mm (.303) Vickers K1 machine guns in the rear cockpit, plus one 457mm torpedo or up to 907 kg (2,000 lb) of bombs
Wing span: 15.24 m (50 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 57,88 m2 (623 sq ft)
Length: 12,13 m (39 ft 9.5 in)
Crew: 3

The Fairey Swordfish was a carrier-borne torpedo-bomber aircraft deployed by the British Royal Navy during World War II. Developed by Fairey, the Swordfish first flew in 1934, entering service in 1935. By the outbreak of war in 1939 a total of 689 aircraft had been delivered. The Swordfish was a three-seat biplane powered by a 559.3-kW Bristol Pegasus XXX radial piston engine, producing 750 horsepower. It was armed with one fixed forward-firing 7.7mm (.303) machine gun and one tramable 7.7mm (.303) gun in rear cockpit, plus an offensive load of one 457mm ( 18-in) torpedo or eight 27.2-kg (60-lb) rocket projectiles.

type: ship-borne torpedo aircraft
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Power plant: one 750-hp Bristol Pegasus XXX radial piston engine
Maximum speed: 230 km/h (138 mph) at sea level
Range: 880 km (546 miles)
Ceiling: 5867 m ( 19,250 ft)
Wing span: 12.87 m (45 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 56.39 m2 (607 sq ft)
Length: 10.87 m (35 ft 8 in)
Crew: 3