Fairey Swordfish, part four

In early 1936 an initial production contract for 68 Swordfish was put on at Fairey's as the Swordfish Mk.I. They were manufactured at Fairey's factory in Hayes, West London and the first production batch was completed in early 1936. It entered service with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in July 1936.
By early 1940 Fairey was still busy with Swordfish and Albacore's productions so the Admiralty proposed Blackburn Aircraft to build it under license.
In fact, according to production numbers, Fairey manufactured a total of 692 Swordfish Mk.I (the regular first production series with either floats or fixed landing gear) from 1936 until 1940 at Hayes and Blackburn manufactured 300 Mk.I from December 1940 until October 1941. Blackburn was also responsible for manufacturing the subsequent variants like the Mk.II (version with longer wings to fit rockets underneath) which was introduced in 1943 with 1080 machines newly build and/or converted from Mk.I during the period from October 1941 until February 1944 at Blackburn's factory in Sherburn-in-Elmet, in North Yorkshire.
The Mk.III variant (featuring a belly-mounted anti-submarine radar) was introduced also in 1943 but it wasn't produced until February 1944. Three hundred and twenty machines were either converted or built at Sherburn-in-Elmet and production ceased in August 1944 as new more modern types were already rolling out of the factories (namely the Fairey Barracuda and the Grumman Avenger).
During the war, efforts were made to decentralise production and employ the usage of shadow factories to minimise the damage caused by Luftwaffe's bombing raids. Major sub-assemblies were produced by four sub-contractors based in neighbouring Leeds and these were transported by land to Sherburn where they were assembled.
On 18th August 1944, the last Swordfish was manufactured with almost 2400 machines manufactured in every variant.

Sources:
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish
2. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/6593/Fairey-Swordfish-Mk-I
3. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/8642/Fairey-Swordfish-Mk-II
4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/76663/Fairey-Swordfish-Mk-III
5. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 175 - Fairey Swordfish in Action