I don't think there's a better example of a disparity between an aircraft's "paper" performance, and actual accomplichments than you get with the Swordfish. Was it obsolete? Yes. Did it have a fantastic war record? Certainly.
It was the Jamie Moyer of WW2 aircraft - old, slow, and with accomplishments far greater than would seem possible just by looking at it.
The Swordfish had the good fortune of rarely facing modern fighters. But the fact is that any torpedo bomber of WW2, including the much more modern Grumman TBF and Nakajima B5N, had a maximum speed of about 100 mph less than that of contemporary fighters, and a torpedo bomber keeping a steady course on its firing run would be easy prey. While the Swordfish was slow, its handling qualities were second to none, and that was a key factor to its success, especially in its ability to take-off and land from small ships such as the escort carriers and MAC ships that were so crucial in winning the Battle of the Atlantic.
Taranto and the Bismarck attack were the high water marks of the Swordfish's career, obviously, but it was used in a huge variety of roles, and in many places, from the heat of the Middle East to the frigid cold of the Arctic convoys. 830 Squadron, FAA, operating from Malta in 1940/41, destroyed 450,000 tons of Axis shipping in nine months, with the high total being 98,000 tons in one month. That's one squadron - no more than 27 aircraft. The Swordfish, after being equipped with radar, became the first aircraft to sink a submarine at night. Fitted with rockets, it became the first to sink an enemy submarine using that weapon. In May 1944, Swordfish operating from HMS Fencer sunk three U-Boats within 48 hours. In September 1944, Swordfish from HMS Vindex sunk four U-Boats in one voyage. During the war, the Swordfish served with 25 first-line FAA squadrons, 22 second-line squadrons, and 11 catapult flights. In addition, two RAF squadrons used them for mine-laying and even level bombing.
Those are real accomplishments, and made a real contribution to the Allies winning the war.
Here are a few quotes about the aircraft:
"Incredible as it may seem, the ancient Stringbag was ultimately responsible for the destruction of a greater tonnage of hostile shipping than any other type of Allied aircraft."
- The Fairey Swordfish Mks. I-IV, by Ian G. Stott
"Future historians are likely to find it difficult to justify the reputation of the Fairey Swordfish and to explain the reasons for its overall operational success. Here was what would later have been described as a strike aircraft of a design based largely on a specification which had been issued in 1930, and was virtually obsolescent before it went into service – yet was still in successful use nearly ten years later and after more than five years of highly competitive warfare between technologically advanced nations. This relic of the biplane era – an anachronism even before the outbreak of war in September 1939 – continued to operate successfully in a wide variety of roles until May 1945, and outlived, in Fleet Air Arm service, its intended replacement, the Fairey Albacore. The Swordfish was responsible, so the records say, for the destruction of a greater tonnage of hostile shipping than any other aircraft used by the Allied forces."
- Fairey Aircraft Since 1915, by H.A. Taylor
"The Top Torpedo-Bomber of World War II
1. Fairey Swordfish
2. Grumman Avenger
3. Nakajima Kate
4. Nakajima Jill
"The Swordfish was responsible for history's first successful air attack against a capital ship, and it virtually crippled the Italian fleet at Taranto in an epic night attack in late 1940, thus altering the balance of sea power in the Mediterranean. It also hunted and destroyed the German battleship Bismarck. But it was as an antisubmarine hunter-killer in the crucial Battle of Atlantic that the Swordfish excelled, operating from escort carriers and MACs day and night, in foul weather and fair, year after long year...
"...I did a lot of thinking before placing the obsolete Swordfish biplane before the more modern Avenger monoplane. Analysis of the facts shows that the Swordfish, in action well before the Avenger, obtained better torpedo results, and suffered fewer losses."
- Duels in the Sky - World War II Naval Aircraft in Combat, by Capt. Eric Brown