External links
- Fleet Air Arm Archive Squadron Profile
- Traces of World War 2 – FAA – No. 806 Squadron
- Håkans Aviation Page – Biplane Fighter Aces – 'Jackie' Sewell
- Håkans Aviation Page – Biplane Fighter Aces – Roger Nicholls
| 806 Naval Air Squadron | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1940-1943 1945-1947 1948 1953-1955 1957-1960 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Royal Navy |
| Part of | Fleet Air Arm |
| Anniversaries | none |
| Battle honours | Norway 1940 Dunkirk 1940 Mediterranean 1940-41 Libya 1940-41 Matapan 1941 Diego Suarez 1942 Malta Convoys 1942 |
806 Naval Air Squadron (806 NAS) was a fighter squadron in the Fleet Air Arm that existed from February 1940 to December 1960 and saw active service in the Norwegian campaign, the Dunkirk evacuation and the Malta Convoys.
According to one source, 806 Naval Air Squadron was formed at HMS Kestrel on 1 February 1940 with Lieutenant Commander Charles Evans as the Commanding Officer and Lieutenant Desmond Vincent-Jones as the Senior Observer and using eight Blackburn Skuas and four Blackburn Rocs. However, another source gives the date and location as being 15 February at Eastleigh, possibly referring to HMS Raven and states that the squadron did not have sufficient crews to operate its aircraft until the next group from the fighter training school had been trained.
806 NAS then saw its first action when it was moved in the beginning of May to HMS Sparrowhawk in order to finish working up and to then carry out bombing attacks on targets around Bergen in Norway. In these the squadron attacked oil facilities and ships, escorted by Coastal Command Bristol Blenheims from No. 254 Squadron RAF.
Their first such attack was carried out on 9 May upon a ship at Doksjeir jetty in Bergen Harbour that was reported potentially to be a cruiser at the time but later believed to have been a transport. Escorted by six Blenheims the eight Skuas armed each with a 500 lb semi-armour-piercing bomb attacked the harbour in conjunction with their escorts. Enemy action shot down a single Blenheim and also damaged one Blackburn Skua but its crew, Petty Officer Jopling and Naval Airman Jones, managed to bring the damaged plane back and were unharmed. A source states that Lieutenant Campbell-Horsfall was leading the raid and that it resulted in a single direct hit claimed upon a transport and another upon an oil tank within the port and that some escort vessels were strafed by the Skuas. According to Midshipman Hogg in quotes within the same source, reconnaissance photographs received on 11 May showed that the raid successfully sunk a training cruiser due to three direct hits, one forward, one amidships, one astern. Also Midshipman Hogg recalls that the Skua piloted by Sub Lieutenant Orr also returned with damage.
Another source, however, only mentions several hits being claimed upon the transport and also states that the Commanding Officer and Senior Observer led the raid and each received a Distinguished Service Cross, while Petty Officer Muskett and Petty Officer Clare both received a Distinguished Service Medal.
Another raid on 11 May was executed with an oil tank farm complex located on Askøy Island as the target. Lieutenant Commander Evans led six Blackburn Skuas who were each armed with a single 250 lb semi-armour-piercing bomb and four 20 lb cooper bombs. Presumably, only six Skuas took part due to the remaining two not being serviceable due to the damage sustained during the attack on 9 May. Three Blenheims armed also with incendiary bombs escorted the Skuas. The squadrons' attack was virtually unopposed with no casualties amongst either squadron and several hits were claimed upon the oil tanks and these were later confirmed to be ablaze by reconnaissance photographs.
On 12 May another attack was made upon shipping around Bergen. In this attack the target was an enemy transport ship believed to be attempting to run through to Bergen Harbour with anti-aircraft guns intended to protect the port area. As in 11 May raid Lieutenant Commander Evans led six Skuas accompanied by three Blenheims. The squadron located the ship as it was entering the fjords around Bergen with two escorting destroyers or motor torpedo boats and split into two waves they attempted to dive bomb the target however all six 500 lb semi-armour-piercing bombs missed although no casualties were received.
806 Naval Air Squadron's last attack on shipping and oil installations in the Bergen area was carried out on 16 May 1940 upon German warships reported to be within the harbour. Nine Skuas armed with a single 250 lb semi-armour-piercing bomb and four 20 lb cooper bombs were to take part in this raid and, just as with the previous attacks, the Blenheims of No. 254 Squadron RAF were to join them. However, in the event the Blenheims and Skuas failed to rendezvous and as 806 Naval Air Squadron searched on alone no warships were located in the area. Instead the Skuas attacked their secondary target of the fuel tanks at Skålevik and scored hits on these and received no casualties.
After the attacks over Norway the squadron returned to HMS Kestrel but was soon moved to RAF Detling in Kent on 27–28 May in order to provide air cover for the Dunkirk evacuation and started its first patrol on 28 May.
The first patrol started poorly as the sections Blackburn Roc which was piloted by Midshipman Day with Naval Airman Jones manning its dorsal turret crashed whilst getting airborne but luckily without casualties. It got worse as the remaining two, which were both Blackburn Skuas, were then attacked by friendly fighters near Goodwin Sands. This resulted in the Skua which was crewed by Lieutenant Campbell-Horsfall and Petty Officer Clare being shot down and picked up by a nearby destroyer while the other piloted by Midshipman Hogg had managed to limp to RAF Manston damaged and Naval Airman Burton, the Telegraphist Air Gunner, killed. Lieutenant Campbell-Horsfall and Petty Officer Clare both received bullet wounds.
Another section that was sent to patrol in the afternoon on 29 May with Lieutenant Barnes and Lieutenant Vincent-Jones leading in an Blackburn Skua. Another Blackburn Skua piloted by Sub Lieutenant Ayres and a single Blackburn Roc crewed by Midshipman Day and Naval Airman Newton were the other two machines in the section's patrol. They surprised five Junkers Ju 88's that were attacking a convoy near Ostend. Both Skuas attacked above while the Roc flew directly under the enemy and with the turret firing upwards managed to destroy one Ju 88 resulting in the Blackburn Roc's sole air-to-air kill in the war. Both Skuas also managed to damage another Ju 88 which was then seen limping away with serious damage and losing height. All three aircraft landed back at RAF Detling safely.
Another patrol on 30 May in poor conditions attacked a Heinkel He 111 that was preparing to attack an transport. The enemy machine jettisoned its bombs due to the Skuas attack but was then lost in the poor visibility.
806's final patrol in the operations over Dunkirk was carried out on 2 June 1940 with Charles Evans leading the patrol. During this, an enemy Ju 88 was seen to attack HMS Calcutta and was attacked by the squadron but this machine disappeared into clouds in a slow spiral, possibly destroyed. Another Ju 88 was seen and attacked but this also dived and was lost in the clouds. An Avro Anson of RAF Coastal Command later reported seeing an Ju 88 return over Dunkirk with its port engine alight shortly after the time that 806 Naval Air Squadron attacked the Ju 88.
An 801 Naval Air Squadron detachment joined 806 NAS in operations during Operation Dynamo on 31 May 1940 and eventually relieved 806 Naval Air Squadron which was then to start training onto the Fairey Fulmar at HMS Kestrel.
In June the squadron embarked in HMS Illustrious along with 815 and 819 Naval Air Squadrons with whom they had been temporarily based at RAF Detling for Operation Dynamo. Illustrious then left for Bermuda in order to work-up the ship's company and the embarked squadron's crews. On one flight during this work-up a Blackburn Skua from 806 Naval Air Squadron was accidentally lost. The aircraft had been sent up with an aircraft from 815 Naval Air Squadron that was piloted by Charles Lamb in order to make dummy attacks at them to work out the best defence for Swordfish from daylight fighter attack. In its second dummy attack the Swordfish was at sea level, and the Skua pilot dived down from two or three thousand feet, misjudging both aircraft altitudes and failed to recover on his dive and plunged into the sea with no survivors.
In another flight during their time in Bermuda, all three squadrons on Illustrious were flown from the deck while it was at anchor however when the time came to land an hour later the wind had disappeared. With the crash barrier down in order to use the full length of the deck all the Swordfish managed to land safely without tearing their arrestor hooks out. When it became 806 Naval Air Squadron's turn, Lieutenant Commander Charles Evans was the first to attempt to land and with the higher speed at touch down from the Blackburn Skua the arrestor hook on his aircraft was torn out from the fuselage and he had to resort to applying right rudder and slamming the nose of his aircraft into the ships island in order to prevent it continuing down the deck and falling into the water. The second aircraft to attempt to land still retained enough speed to become airborne again after it had torn its arrestor hook out and had to wait in the air while the rest of the squadron attempted to land, and was in the end instructed to find somewhere on Bermuda to make a forced landing; he chose to land on a golf course, resulting in the aircraft's wings being sheared away by trees. All the other pilots in the squadron then either repeated the commanding officer's actions on their turn to land or continued down the deck and fell into the water, except one other aircraft, which had managed to stop before falling off the deck. Although nobody was hurt from this last incident in Bermuda all the aircraft in the squadron had been damaged and instead of heading straight to the Mediterranean from Bermuda the Illustrious had to return to the Clyde, where they re-equipped with Fulmars, and the squadron was given a few weeks to get acquainted with the new aircraft.
HMS Illustrious with 806 Naval Air Squadron on board (along with some Gloster Sea Gladiators adding to the Fulmars) was then sent to the Mediterranean and was engaged in combat on numerous occasions with no less than nine pilots eventually becoming aces while flying the squadrons Fulmars. During September 1940 the squadron took part in operations near Rhodes and the Dodecanese and in October covered a convoy to Malta. In November the squadron was given the Sea Gladiators which had belonged to HMS Eagle's fighter flight.
806 NAS remained in the Mediterranean (moving to HMS Formidable after Crete) until Formidable was badly bombed in May 1941. 806 then disembarked at Aboukir to fight in the Western Desert as part of Royal Navy Fighter Squadron from August 1941 to February 1942, re-equipping with RAF Hawker Hurricanes for that purpose. On the RNFS's disbandment, 806 changed aircraft again (to 12 Fulmars) and moved to Ceylon, based at Ratmalana and fighting against the Easter Sunday Raid.
In May 1942, the squadron then split into "A" Flight (with Martlet IIs on HMS Indomitable, fighting in Operation Pedestal) and "B" Flight (with Fulmars on Illustrious). The former was disbanded in the UK when its ship was damaged in Pedestal and returned to the UK, while "B" Flight disembarked at Port Reitz Airport in East Africa in October 1942, only to be disbanded at Tanga in January 1943. The Squadron re-formed two years later, in August 1945, ready for the Far Eastern theatre, but its 12 Seafire L.IIIs had only reached Machrihanish by the time that campaign ended.
On 2 March 1953 the squadron was recommissioned at HMS Goldcrest with the Hawker Sea Hawk, gaining the distinction of being the first front-line squadron in the Fleet Air Arm to use the type. As well as being the first to use it, they were also the last front-line Fleet Air Arm squadron to use the Sea Hawk when they relinquished the final aircraft and were finally decommissioned in December 1960.
A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughout the bomb run. This allows attacks on point targets and ships, which were difficult to attack with conventional level bombers, even en masse.
HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before the Second World War. After being completed in late 1940, she was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as a replacement for her crippled sister ship Illustrious. Formidable's aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941, and they subsequently provided cover for Allied ships and attacked Axis forces until their carrier was badly damaged by German dive bombers in May.
The Blackburn B-25 Roc was a British Second World War-era Fleet Air Arm fighter aircraft designed by Blackburn Aircraft Ltd. It took its name from the mythical bird of the tales of the Arabian Nights, the Roc. Derived from the Blackburn Skua and developed in parallel, the Roc had its armament in a turret. The Roc came to be viewed as inferior to existing aircraft such as the Skua and the type had only brief front-line service.
The Fairey Fulmar was a British carrier-borne reconnaissance aircraft/fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by aircraft company Fairey Aviation. It was named after the northern fulmar, a seabird native to the British Isles. The Fulmar served with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) during the Second World War.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1940:
The Blackburn B-24 Skua was a carrier-based low-wing, two-seater, single-radial engine aircraft operated by the British Fleet Air Arm which combined the functions of a dive bomber and fighter. It was designed in the mid-1930s and saw service in the early part of the Second World War. It took its name from the sea bird.
The Siege of Malta in the Second World War was a military campaign in the Mediterranean Theatre. From June 1940 to November 1942, the fight for the control of the strategically important island of Malta, then a British colony, pitted the air forces and navies of Italy and Germany against the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy.
Lionel Peter Twiss was a British test pilot who holds the World Air Speed Record as the first man to fly a jet aircraft faster than 1,000 mph.
Operation Excess was a series of British supply convoys to Malta, Alexandria and Greece in January 1941. The operation encountered the first presence of Luftwaffe anti-shipping aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea. All the convoyed freighters reached their destinations. The destroyer Gallant was disabled by Italian mines and Axis bombers severely damaged the cruiser Southampton and the aircraft carrier Illustrious.
800 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier-based squadron formed on 3 April 1933 by amalgamating No's 402 and 404 Flights.
801 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm squadron of the Royal Navy formed in 1933 which fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Falklands War.
803 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron.
804 Naval Air Squadron was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy, formed in November 1939 from part of 769 NAS Sea Gladiators which had been detached to RNAS Hatston. The squadron was merged into 800 NAS in June 1944 and subsequently reformed in September.
810 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier based squadron formed on 3 April 1933 with the amalgamation of the 12 Blackburn Dart aircraft from 463 and 44 Flight Flights Royal Air Force to the Fleet Air Arm. The squadron saw action during the Second World War, the Suez Crisis and the Korean War.
Stanley Gordon Orr, was the highest scoring fighter ace of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Flying with the Fleet Air Arm he was credited with the destruction of 17 aircraft. His success was recognised by the awards of the Distinguished Service Cross and Two Bars, an Air Force Cross and a Mention in Despatches.
Ronald Cuthbert Hay, was a British naval aviator and the only Royal Marine fighter ace. He joined the Royal Marines in 1935 and then served as an aviator with the Fleet Air Arm. In 1940 he joined 801 Naval Air Squadron flying the two seater Blackburn Skua on HMS Ark Royal for the Norwegian Campaign, claiming his first victory on his first operational flight. He took part in operations covering the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the Dunkirk beaches. Then flying the Fairey Fulmar joined 808 Naval Air Squadron during the Battle of Britain.
Richard John "Dickie" Cork, was a fighter ace in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Cork served in the Battle of Britain as the wingman for Douglas Bader of No. 242 Squadron RAF. When he returned to the Fleet Air Arm in 1941, Cork served with 880 Naval Air Squadron in the Arctic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. It was during Operation Pedestal in 1942 that he became the only Royal Navy pilot to shoot down five aircraft in one day, and was the leading naval ace using the Hawker Hurricane. He was given command of the 15th Naval Fighter Wing aboard HMS Victorious before being killed in a flying accident over Ceylon in 1944.
Francis Dawson-Paul was a fighter ace in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. He was seconded to the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, serving with No. 64 Squadron RAF. Between 1 and 25 July he shot down seven and a half German aircraft before being shot down himself over the English Channel. Taken prisoner by the crew of a German E-boat he died of his wounds five days later. In those 24 days of combat he became the first naval air ace of the battle and the highest scoring naval ace on the Supermarine Spitfire, a record which still stood by the end of the war.
The Kanalkampf was the German term for air operations by the Luftwaffe against the British Royal Air Force (RAF) over the English Channel in July 1940. The air operations over the channel began the Battle of Britain during the Second World War. By 25 June, the Allies had been defeated in Western Europe and Scandinavia. Britain rejected peace overtures and on 16 July, Adolf Hitler issued Directive 16 to the Wehrmacht, ordering preparations for the invasion of Britain, under the codename Unternehmen Seelöwe.
Group Captain Richard Cummins Haine OBE DFC was a pilot and a commanding officer with the Royal Air Force from 1936 to 1970. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in the Second World War, including the first night fighter defence over Britain, and was involved in the first fighter attack of the war on German territory. Haine served as the commanding officer of No. 488 Squadron RNZAF in 1944.
