860 Naval Air Squadron VSQ-860 | |
---|---|
NH90 N-175 of 860 Squadron, August 2013 | |
Active | 1943–1964 1966–present |
Country | United Kingdom Netherlands |
Branch | Royal Navy Royal Netherlands Navy |
Part of | Fleet Air Arm Naval Aviation Service |
Garrison/HQ | Naval Air Station De Kooy |
Motto(s) | Arcens affligo (Latin: "I defend and strike") |
Engagements | World War II Indonesian War of Independence |
Battle honours | Atlantic 1941-45 |
860 Naval Air Squadron (860 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during World War II, which was transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1946, and remains active.
860 Squadron was formed in June 1943 at RNAS Donibristle, Scotland, from personnel of the Royal Netherlands Navy, under the command of Luitenant J. van der Tooren. As a torpedo-bomber/reconnaissance squadron, flying the Fairey Swordfish, the squadron moved to Maydown, Northern Ireland, in November 1943. There it was divided into two flights of six aircraft to operate from the merchant aircraft carriers MV Acavus and MV Gadila, and then from Acavus and MV Macoma from June 1944. In June 1945 the squadron was re-equipped with the Fairey Barracuda, and in August it was assigned to the escort carrier HMS Nairana. [1]
In May 1946 the squadron converted to the Fairey Firefly, and in September 1946 was handed over to Dutch control, becoming part of the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service. [2]
Assigned to the former Nairana, now renamed HNLMS Karel Doorman (QH1), it took part in operations in Java during the Indonesian War of Independence. It operated the Hawker Sea Fury from 1950 until 1956, then the Hawker Sea Hawk from 1957, while based at Valkenburg Naval Air Base, and flying from the second HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81). Disbanded in 1964, it was reformed in October 1966 as an ASW/SAR helicopter squadron operating from Naval Air Station De Kooy and the Van Speijk-class frigates. Equipped with the Westland Wasp, then the Westland Lynx from 1978, [2] [3] in early 2008 it converted to the NHIndustries NH90, and in July that year became part of the joint military Defence Helicopter Command. [4]
The Westland Wasp is a small 1960s British turbine-powered, shipboard anti-submarine helicopter. Produced by Westland Helicopters, it came from the same Saunders-Roe P.531 programme as the British Army Westland Scout, and is based on the earlier piston-engined Saunders-Roe Skeeter. It fulfilled the requirement of the Royal Navy for a helicopter small enough to land on the deck of a frigate and carry a useful load of two homing torpedoes.
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HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81) was a Colossus-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Formerly the British ship HMS Venerable, she was sold to the Netherlands in 1948 as a light attack carrier. In 1960, she was involved in the decolonization conflict in Western New Guinea with Indonesia. In the mid 1960s, her role was changed to anti-submarine warfare carrier and only ASW aircraft and helicopters were carried. An engine room fire took her out of service in 1968. She was sold to Argentina in 1969 and renamed ARA Veinticinco de Mayo.
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The Netherlands Naval Aviation Service is the naval aviation branch of the Royal Netherlands Navy.
HMS Nairana was the lead ship of the Royal Navy's Nairana-class escort carriers that saw service in the Second World War. She was built at John Brown & Company shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland. When construction started in 1941 she was intended as a merchant ship, but was completed and launched as an escort carrier, entering service at the end of 1943.
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824 Naval Air Squadron is a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron based at RNAS Culdrose and currently operating the AgustaWestland Merlin HM2 Operational Conversion Unit. It trains aircrew in Anti-Submarine warfare and Airborne Surveillance and Control.
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772 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded during September 1995. 772 Naval Air Squadron formed as a Fleet Requirements Unit out of 'Y' Flight from 771 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Lee-on-Solent in September 1939. While the headquarters remained there, floatplanes were operated out of RNAS Portland, however, mid 1940 saw the whole squadron move north to RNAS Campbeltown and roughly twelve months afterwards the short distance to RNAS Machrihanish. The unit moved to RNAS Ayr in July 1944 and became the Fleet Requirements Unit School. In January 1946 the squadron moved to RNAS Burscough in Lancashire, before moving to RNAS Anthorn in Cumberland, in May. It became the Northern Fleet Requirements Unit upon moving to RNAS Arbroath, in June 1947, but disbanded into 771 Naval Air Squadron in October. 772 Naval Air Squadron reformed as a Helicopter Support Squadron at RNAS Portland in September 1974. In September 1977 the squadron took over responsibility for a number of Ships' Flights of Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships. The squadron was used to reform 848 Naval Air Squadron for the Falklands Task Force in 1982, with the Ships' Flights absorbed into 847 Naval Air Squadron. In August 1982 it took on the Anti-Submarine Warfare Flight from 737 Naval Air Squadron and between 1983 - 1985 a Search and Rescue Flight operated out of RNAS Lee-on-Solent.
781 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which disbanded at the end of March 1981. Planned as a Reserve Amphibious Bomber Reconnaissance squadron, it formed as a Communications Unit in March 1940 and operated a large variety of aircraft. It provided a Bristol Beaufighter conversion course which eventually became 798 Naval Air Squadron and also had a ‘B’ Flight at Heathrow and then Heston aerodromes before becoming 701 Naval Air Squadron. After the Allied invasion of Normandy the squadron flew to various Royal Navy units on the continent and established an ‘X’ Flight based in France and then Germany. In July 1945 the squadron disbanded into 782 Naval Air Squadron although the ‘X’ Flight was moved to 799 Naval Air Squadron.
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