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USS Neosho was a fleet oiler armed with four 5"/38 DP guns and four 20 mm Oerlikon.
This is really basic, if the target is in the dock, one knows where it is when he takes off and when he arrives over it. It the target is a ship in the open sea capable to 30 knots, even if its position is known at the take-off it will be somewhere else when one arrived over it if it is not circling around. Even if one has a shadower to watch it it might turn to whatever direction during inflight and especially in the case of a carrier a CAP might got the shadower at any time and the position given by the shadower might be somewhat off. This latter was a thing that U-boats fairly often complained. So when taking off to attack targets in the open sea it is better to have more fuel reserves than in the case of attacking a fixed target.
Here is a map which may be helpful in the discussion. The choke point was especially at the very end when they were rounding Tunisia.
View attachment 609805
The 1,100 mile range on the SBD translated to about 250 mile effective range for a strike (350 for scouting). To me that suggests the effective strike range for a Swordfish is closer to 100 or maybe 120 miles. That is within fairly easy distance for a ship to move in a few hours. A few Japanese destroyers could wreak havoc on a British fleet like at Pedestal.
See this report:
"Although the three inch fifty caliber anti-aircraft guns fired throughout the attacks it is difficult to evaluate their effectiveness against the enemy. "
Battle of Coral Sea: USS Neosho (AO-23) Action Report
Although she was able to increase speed to 18 knot and did have several 20mm guns, this was still less speed or AA armament than Hermes.
I confess that I got Neosho confused with Neches but it doesn't really change the equation:
USS Neches (AO-5) - Wikipedia
No the shorter range is actual strike range, including the needed extra fuel to find the target, conduct the strike, fly the return trip, find their carrier and recover. It's always much shorter than the listed operational range. It's consistent in US military records across a wide variety of types.
If you know of a more accurate strike range for the Swordfish, post it.
Here is a map which may be helpful in the discussion. The choke point was especially at the very end when they were rounding Tunisia.
View attachment 609805
It's also really basic that the course an RN ship has to take to Malta is very constrained and Axis recon aircraft were plentiful. An aircraft flying ~100nm from base will arrive at the last reported position in ~40min and even a 30 knot ship can only travel 20nm in that time.
Maximum range for the Dauntless SBD-3 (standard model from Coral sea onward) is reported as between 1,115 miles and 1,370 miles, but for a strike that translates to 325 miles with a 500 lb bomb or 250 miles with a 1,000 lb bomb, according to Navy practice. With no bomb load they could fly out to 400 miles, but usually they carried a bomb even on scouting missions so they could hit targets of opportunity. This is with 310 gallons of fuel.
Source: The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia: SBD Dauntless, American Dive Bomber
522 miles is not a strike range.
Also, the maximum range with a bomb for the SBD was ~1100- 1350 miles, as noted above.
So my guess is that the actual strike range of a Swordfish was more in the order of ~ 100 miles or so. Never claimed it was anything other than a guess, for the record.
Again, I'd like to know what the actual ranges were with the actual bomb load(s). I see lots of claims about the range of the SBD but none of them specify the actual weapon load, which makes direct comparisons difficult.
But that's exactly my point. You keep saying the Swordfish had inadequate range for the Pacific Theater and yet its range WITH a torpedo was better than that of the Devastator WITHOUT a torpedo...and that's before we consider putting the long-range tank into the Swordfish.
My frustration is that you keep asserting short range for the Swordfish with no actual source data to prove it, while ignoring the fact that it had longer range than the TBD (which is the whole thrust of this thread, anyway).
According to that same site by the way, the TBF had a maximum range of 1215 miles (1955 km) at 153 mph (246 km/h) with full weapons load, or 1450 miles (2330 km) as a scout, which translated to 259 miles (417 km) nominal combat radius with a 1,600 lb torpedo.
Source: The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia: TBF Avenger, U.S. Carrier Torpedo Bomber
The same site does have an entry for the Swordfish but it is much more limited, showing only the same range number as the others
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia: Swordfish, British Carrier Torpedo Bomber