RN Fairey Barracuda MD963 on Close Moss, Marsden, West Yorkshire.
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RN Fairey Barracuda MD963
Not much is known about this accident. Pilot Sub-Lieutenant George Henry Ambler died in the crash on 29 July 1945. Cunningham says there was a witness however, a rambler who saw the Barracuda appear from the clouds. The pilot suddenly saw the ground and pulled away in a tight turn. However, Sub-Lieutenant Ambler apparently pulled a bit too hard, and the rambler saw that as the Barracuda banked, it stalled and fell to the ground, exploding on impact.
The Barracuda was based at Royal Naval Air Station Dunino Station Flight, but flown from RNAS Donibristle near Dunfermline.
Pule Hill and the Carriage House inn beyond.
This photo appears in the photobook Marsden Moods.
See www.northernmoods.co.uk/
(thanks Andy)
Details from Peakland Air Crashes – The North by Pat Cunningham (2006).
Sub-Lieutenant George Henry Ambler was aged 19. A former Sheffield City Grammar School pupil, he had joined the Fleet Air Arm aged 18 and at the time of his death was attached to HMS Merlin at RNAS Donisbristle, which was a regional aircraft repair unit. He lived at Whitehouse Lane, Walkley, Sheffield, and is buried in Sheffield at Wisewood Cemetery, Hillsborough. The crash happened just after 1pm when his aircraft emerged from low-cloud flying at 150-feet. In an effort to avoid striking rising ground, the aircraft stalled. It crashed and exploded into flames. The eye-witness cited by Cunningham was a local blacksmith, Mr Wood, of Bleak Hey Nook, Standedge Foot (the ‘rambler’) who was taking his dog for its lunchtime stroll. He raised the alarm from the nearby Great Western Hotel, and emergency services attended including firefighters from Huddersfield and Slaithwaite. A Police Surgeon who attended ruled George had died on impact from multiple injuries. He had been a member of 228th (Langsett Road Methodists) Rover Scouts (Sheffield) albeit on their records his date of birth is erroneously transcribed (giving the wrong age of death as 21).
Many thanks Paul