Barracudas Mid-air-collision 1944

By Douglas Gordon

I had heard of this story so when I met Murdo Armstrong, I asked him to tell me what had happened. Murdo was up at Delny which is high up and has a good view over Nigg Bay, he saw these 2 Barracudas flying in formation one above the other. When suddenly one either went up or the other came down he was not sure as it happened so quickly they crashed into each other and then they turned sideways and crashed into Nigg Bay. The wreckage lay there for some time before they were recovered, this would have been 1944.

There would have been probably 3 men in each plane, pilot, rear gunner and navigator/ the man that arms the torpedo for direction etc. So there could have been 6 men killed but not sure as they would have been practicing and may have only been 2 men on each plane.

Barracudas Mid-air-collision 1944 By Douglas Gordon from story told by Murdo Armstrong I had heard of this story so when I met Murdo Armstrong, I asked him to tell me what had happened. Murdo was up at Delny which is high up and has a good view over Nigg Bay, he saw these 2 Barracudas flying in formation one above the other. When suddenly one either went up or the other came down he was not sure as it happened so quickly they crashed into each other and then they turned sideways and crashed into Nigg Bay. The wreckage lay there for some time before they were recovered, this would have been 1944. There would have been probably 3 men in each plane, pilot, rear gunner and navigator/ the man that arms the torpedo for direction etc. So there could have been 6 men killed but not sure as they would have been practicing and may have only been 2 men on each plane. Information from Canmore

http://canmore.org.uk/site/310166/fairey-barracuda-ii-nigg-bay-cromarty-firth (Classified as Fairey Barracuda II: date of loss cited as 25 November 1944). MD646: this aircraft of 812 sqdn [FAA] suffered a mid-air collision (LS679) and crashed opposite Barbaraville, Nigg Bay. Douglas Gordon 10th September 2015