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The reason for the Swordfish, a biplane, being employed in battle, was its capability to carry and launch an air to surface torpedo, the most effective way in those times to cripple an opposing warship.
Spitfires were fighter planes armed with machine guns and possibly small caliber shot, of no avail against a warship.
The main monoplane bomber in service with the RAF in that period was the Wellington, but this could only drop bombs, which would mean flying directly over a warship.
Being large and heavy, the Wellington, even if equipped with a torpedo, would have had no chance to maneuver out of firing line once the torpedo were launched, and indeed would have had scant flight-maneuvering capabilities throughout the approaching operation.
The Swordfish, however, could do all these things: change direction rapidly so as to avoid incoming fire, fly low to the sea to avoid boffa-style guns, as these could only fire upwards. But the Swordfish was still vulnerable to machine-gun fire.
Another point to reckon with, is that a warship would change course to avoid an approaching torpedo, so the Swordfish had to get in quite close to launch its missile. Once this was accomplished, it would immediately swerve off and fly back.
All this with tracer bullets coming in.
