No resemblance to its namesake

When the air arm of the British Royal Navy was folded into the Royal Air Force in 1918, the service feared it would be neglected as part of the independent RAF.

Unfortunately, their fears proved to be correct and when World War II began in 1939 the Royal Navy had aircraft carriers that were among the best in the world, but the antediluvial aircraft they carried were the worst.

Some of the aircraft, like the Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber mentioned in an earlier article, performed admirably, but it quickly became clear they would have to be replaced with a more modern torpedo/spotting/reconnaissance aircraft that could survive against modern German and Japanese fighters.

The British Ministry of Defense had issued a contract for a new TSR monoplane in 1937 to Fairey Aviation, but the first prototype, named the Barracuda, did not fly until December 1940.

There were continuous delays with the program, and the second prototype did not fly until seven months later, in June 1941; the first Barracuda did not arrive in active service until September 1942. Even then, the Barracuda I proved to be seriously underpowered and had to be replaced by the Barracuda II with a more powerful engine and a four bladed propeller, causing further delays.

If the British Fleet Air Arm crews were expecting a conventional aircraft like the U.S. Navy’s superb TBM Avenger, they were disappointed. The Barracuda was, charitably put, unusual looking. It had a shoulder mounted wing with large, non-retractable Fairey Youngman flaps inboard of the ailerons and below and behind the wing trailing edge that doubled as dive brakes.

The braced horizontal stabilizer was mounted very high on the tail to avoid the airflow from these flaps, and it had a long, slender canopy for the three crew members. There were two large windows on each side of the fuselage – one directly under the middle of the wing and one at the trailing edge of the wing for downward visibility.

The main legs of the landing gear were very large “L” shaped appendages that folded up into the fuselage with the wheels retracting into a well in the wing. When everything on the Barracuda was folded for carrier storage, one test pilot noted it gave the impression of “having been involved in a very nasty accident.”

Once in service, the Barracuda seemed to be an improvement over the biplanes it replaced. It handled well on carrier landings and the large, powerful flaps/airbrakes allowed it  to dive bomb accurately and to make rapid, controlled descents to the low altitudes required for torpedo attacks.

Unfortunately, Barracudas suffered a series of fatal accidents when several rolled inverted and crashed as they pulled off of simulated low-level torpedo attacks. Test pilots found the large rudder made excessive inputs during this maneuver and the rudder was re-balanced to solve the problem.

The Barracuda’s first – and most important – combat mission was Operation Tungsten on April 3, 1944. The German battleship Tirpitz was about to leave Alten Fjord, Norway, and move out of RAF heavy bomber range when two waves of 42 bomb-carrying Barracudas from the British carriers HMS Victorious and Furious attacked in the early morning.

They scored 14 direct hits on Tirpitz with 500 pound and 1,600 pound bombs. Though the bombs could not sink the Tirpitz, they caused more than 500 casualties and devastated the upper works. The Tirpitz was immobilized for more than two months.

The Barracuda continued in service until the end of World War II, when it was quickly replaced by the now surplus U.S. TBM Avengers.

For questions or comments, contact Dr. Michel at marshall.michel@ramstein.af.mil.