Another Fairey Aviation aircraft, the Barracuda, was designed as a carrier-borne torpedo and dive bomber for the FAA in the early 1940’s. It was the first all metal dive bomber to be used in this way.
The Barracuda is a shoulder cantilever wing torpedo and dive bomber with retractable undercarriage and arrestor hook fitted behind the rear wheel. It had a crew of three in tandem in a large greenhouse canopy cockpit. The navigator had a window either side of the lower fuselage for observation. The observer had access to twin Vickers Machine guns in the rear of the cockpit for rear fire, the types only defence. The wings folded back horizontally for storage and attached to the tail plane by two flanges on the outer underwing. A Mk.II torpedo could be carried under the belly on special racks. It was a large aircraft but easy to fly and land on carrier decks due to its large flap/air brake system on the wings. It had ASV II radar system with yagi-uda antenna on the wings. It entered service with 827 NAS and was eventually supplied to 24 frontline FAA squadrons on most of its carriers. The type also served with four RAF Coastal Command Squadrons, but all the RAF planes were withdrawn in March 1945. Many Barracudas served in the Pacific with the British Pacific Fleet and indeed all the Light Fleet carriers were equipped with one Barracuda squadron and one Corsair squadron for a time.
The Fairey Barracuda went through various development and changes during its prototype trials. For instance, it was hugely underpowered with the Merlin engine due to its size and weight so was fitted with increasingly more powerful versions. The standard tail was changed as it was found to be unstable. The stabilisers were raised almost as a T tail. With various other improvements the first production aircraft, Barracuda Mk.II, with the Mk.32 Merlin were built in 1942 becoming operational in January 1943. A total of 1,688 Mk.II’s were produced by various aircraft manufacturers. The Barracuda Mk.III was an anti-submarine variant with the new ASV 3 radar in a dome under the belly. 852 were produced and served alongside the Mk.II. A Mk.IV was abandoned but a Mk.V was produced with only 37 completed before hostilities ended. It was much more powerful with the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine, larger four bladed propeller, squared off wings and better radar.
After its introduction the Barracuda was used extensively in the European conflict with notable raids on the Tirpitz in April 1944 when 42 aircraft from HMS Victorious and HMS Furious dropped 1,600lb and 500lb bombs on the battleship landing 14 hits and disabling the ship for the run up to the D-Day landings. However, subsequent raids in July1944 and again in August were a failure mainly due to the slow speed of the Barracuda. The FAA Barracudas began operations with the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) in August 1944 with raids on oil refineries and bases on Sumatra and Sabang. Barracudas served with five squadrons in the BPF, but the performance was marred with the tropical heat making it slow and an easy target for the Japanese fighters. It was also required to fly at high altitude over the Indonesian mountain ranges, but the Merlin 32 was tuned to low-level performances. The BPF added 6 Squadrons of Avengers as the primary torpedo/dive bomber to overcome these issues.
The Barracuda was delegated to secondary roles when the conflict ceased being used for target tugs and training roles. It remained in service until 1952 when it was withdrawn in favour of the Avengers. There are no surviving examples despite 2,700 of them being built. Rumour has it that the Fleet Air Arm Museum was considering a replica but it’s still here-say.
