Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Three-seat torpedo and dive-bomber

Power Plant:

(Barracuda II)

One 1,223 kw (1,640 hp) Rolls Royce Merlin 32 12-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

Armament:

Two 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Vickers machine guns mounted in rear cockpit; provision to carry one 735 kg (1,620lb) torpedo, up to 907 kg (2,000 lb) of bombs or up to 744 kg (1,640 lb) of mines or depth charges

History:

The Fairey Barracuda was one of a number of designs put forward to meet specification S.24/37 in January 1938 for a long-range torpedo bomber. Designed by M J O Lobelle, the Fairey Type 100 was initially to have the Rolls Royce Boreas engine but work on this engine did not proceed and the Rolls Royce Merlin VIII was chosen.

The prototype (P1767) first flew on 7 December 1940 from the Fairey Great West Aerodrome near Hayes in Middlesex. A crew of three was housed under a continuous transparent canopy, being a pilot, observer, telegraphist/air-gunner. The second prototype (P1770) flew on 29 June 1941 and in May that year P1767 was used for carrier trials on the ‘HMS Victorious’.

First production aircraft was a Barracuda I serial P9642 first flown on 18 May 1942 with a 940 kw (1,260 hp) Merlin 30 engine. An initial batch of 24 was built. The prototype was then re-engined with a Merlin 32 engine, this providing 1,223 kw (1,640 hp) and in this configuration was first flown on 17 August 1942.

Production of the Barracuda took place at Fairey’s Stockport facility in Greater Manchester, and orders were placed with Westland, Blackburn and Boulton Paul. By the end of 1943 orders were in place for 2,843 Barracudas but the end of the war led to cancellation of some orders. Barracuda Is and IIs were equipped with air-to-surface vessel radar, the Mk III having a blister-type radome under the rear fuselage.

The Mk III was intended for escort carrier operation in the anti-submarine role, but retained some torpedo-bombing and minelaying capability. The observer was provided with a Vickers machine gun, sometimes two, but many front-line units removed the armament. Primary weapon was the 45.72 cm (18 in) Mk XII B torpedo, which could be delivered in level flight after a steep diving approach at 322 km/h (200 mph).

Last variant built was the Mk V, the prototype of which flew for the first time with a Rolls Royce Griffon VII engine on 16 November 1944. Only 30 production Mk lVs were delivered, being powered by a 1,507 kw (2,020 hp) Rolls Royce Griffon 37 engine. The type had been retired from service by 1950. A total of 2,572 Barracudas of all marks was built.

The Barracuda’s greatest success was between February 1944 and February 1945 in five major attacks made on the Kriegsmarine Battleship ‘Tirpitz’ in Kaafjord in Norway, with strikes on coastal convoys and laying minefields. On the ‘Tirpitz’, whilst flying from the aircraft carriers HMS Furious and ‘HMS Victorious’, fourteen hits were achieved by bombs comprising 726 kg (1,600 lb), 272 kg (600 lb) and 227 kg (500 lb).

In anti-shipping operations Barracudas sank fourteen ships totalling 41,650 tons, drove a 1,064 ton Type VII submarine U-boat (U-1060) aground, and damaged seventeen ships damaged.

Barracudas were sent to the Far East on board British aircraft carriers but their performance deteriorated in tropical conditions on operations and the type was eventually replaced by the Grumman Avenger. Once sufficient Avengers were received Barracudas were placed in storage in India. In the Indian Ocean they were operated from ‘HMS Illustrious’ (Nos 810 and 847 Squadrons), at Sabang in Sumatra, and at Pt Blair in the Andaman Islands in April and June 1944. In May 1944 raids were made on Surabaya in Java, and in August Barracudas attacked targets at Indaroeng and Emmahaven. In September Sigli was bombed. Last operation in the Indian Ocean involved strikes on the Nicobar Islands operating from ‘HMS Indomitable’.

Each aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy 11th Carrier Squadron carried a squadron of Barracudas, and these units were working-up in Australia when the first Atomic Bomb was dropped on Japan, followed soon after by the Japanese surrender. At this time the Royal Navy Barracuda units were also performing patrols during the re-occupation of Rabaul in New Britain by Allied forces. These units were No 837 Squadron on ‘HMS Glory’, No 827 on ‘HMS Colossus”, No 812 on ‘HMS Vengeance’ and No 814 on ‘HMS Venerable’. No 706 Squadron, the Pool and Refresher Squadron, a second line unit, had Barracudas on strength when it was based at ‘HMS Nabthorpe‘ which later became Royal Navy Air Station Schofields, which later became ‘HMAS Nirimba’. Aircraft from this latter unit were often seen visiting aerodromes along Australia’s east coast during training exercises.

No 817 Squadron Royal Australian Navy, which was a Royal Navy Squadron during World War II, was reformed in 1943 with Barracudas in Australia but these aircraft were not transferred with the Squadron when it became an Australian unit. Many Royal Navy Barracudas were stored at Bankstown, NSW after World War II. Some of these are thought to have been scrapped on site but many, along with other types, were transported to the Sydney, NSW wharves in convoys on trucks with police escorts, placed aboard aircraft carriers and other vessels, taken out to sea, pushed over the side or fired off the carrier catapults as no longer required.

No complete Barracudahas survived but the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton has been re-building DP872 for display using parts obtained from a number of crash sites, including that of LS931.  More recently a Barracuda (thought to be BV739) which crashed off the deck of ‘HMS Daedalus’ in August 1944 in the Solent near the Isle of Wight has been recovered to assist in the restoration.