Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit | |
---|---|
Active | 1939-1993 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | Royal Air Force Ministry of Supply |
The Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit is a former unit of the Royal Air Force and the Ministry of Aviation Supply which was operational between 1939 and 1993.
The unit was originally formed during September 1939 at Gosport as the Torpedo Development Unit within No. 16 Group RAF. [1] It was renamed to Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit on 11 November 1943 when it absorbed the Torpedo Experimental Establishment, Stokes Bay and moved to No. 19 Group RAF. The unit had detachments at RAF Leuchars and RNAS Crail (HMS Jackdaw) between April and August 1944 due to the invasion preparations on the south coast for the Normandy landings (D-Day), a new Special Torpedo Unit joined on 1 March 1945. The unit moved to RNAS Culdrose (HMS Seahawk) on 11 June 1956, and at some point moving to No. 61 Group RAF. Control passed to the Ministry of Supply on 31 August 1958. [2] Controlled than passed to the Ministry of Aviation in 1959, [3] the Ministry of Technology at some point then the short-lived Ministry of Aviation Supply in 1970. [4] The unit was also operated by the Royal Navy at some point before being disbanded during 1993. [5]
The unit possibly began as early as 1921 at Gosport as part of RAF Base Gosport as the Torpedo Development Flight which was renamed to the Torpedo Development Section. [6]
The unit used an observation point near Porthkerris Point, The Lizard, Cornwall, [5] along with a pier within Stokes Bay [7] and a site at Helston, [8] with a range near Falmouth. [9]
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751 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It was initially active as an Observer Training Squadron from 1939 to 1944 as part of No.1 Observer School. 751 Naval Air Squadron formed at RNAS Ford in May 1939. Ford was attacked and bombed, in August 1940, and the following day the squadron relocated to RNAS Arbroath. Twelve months later it moved to RNAS Dundee, remaining there until disbanding at Dundee in May 1944.
762 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It formed at HMS Heron, RNAS Yeovilton, in March 1942 as an Advanced Flying Training School. Almost immediately the squadron relocated to HMS Vulture, RNAS St Merryn, but before the end of the year, it was back at HMS Heron. The squadron disbanded nine months later. It reformed in 1944 at HMS Daedalus, RNAS Lee-on-Solent, as a Twin Engine Conversion Unit, but immediately moved to HMS Goldcrest, RNAS Dale, where it operated a variety of multi engined aircraft. At the end of 1945 the squadron moved to HMS Sparrowhawk, RNAS Halesworth and HMS Peregrine, RNAS Ford in quick succession. Now known as the Heavy Twin Conversion Unit it spent nearly two and a half years at HMS Peregrine, before relocating to HMS Seahawk, RNAS Culdrose, where it eventually disbanded at the end of 1949.
774 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded in August 1945. 774 Naval Air Squadron formed at HMS Kestrel, RNAS Worthy Down, in November 1939 as an Armament Training Squadron for Observers and TAGs. Aircraft were assigned from storage and a couple of other naval air squadrons. It moved a week later to RAF Aldergrove, and was attached to No.3 Bombing and Gunnery School. In July 1940 it moved to HMS Fieldfare, RNAS Evanton, and then in September to HMS Vulture, RNAS St Merryn, Throughout the next few years, the older aircraft were withdrawn and replaced with newer types and variants. 774 NAS moved to HMS Merganser, RNAS Rattray in October 1944, where it became a target-towing unit.
777 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN), which formed as a Fleet Requirements Unit in West Africa during the Second World War. Throughout most of 1943, the squadron was responsible for the air defence of Sierra Leone. It disbanded at HMS Spurwing, RNAS Hastings, Sierra Leone, during December 1944. The squadron reformed in May 1945, from 'B' Flight of 778 Naval Air Squadron, as a Carrier Trials Unit operating aboard HMS Pretoria Castle, and using shore bases at HMS Siskin, RNAS Gosport, and HMS Peregrine, RNAS Ford in England, and HMS Wagtail, RNAS Ayr, in Scotland. 777 Naval Air Squadron number was assigned to the aircraft collection at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in April 2006.
788 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded during June 1945. The squadron formed at RN Air Section China Bay in Ceylon, in January 1942, as the British Eastern Fleet's Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance Pool, however it lost half its strength during the heavy raids by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft in the April. The squadron regrouped at RNAS Tanga in Tanganyika, East Africa to become a Fleet Requirements Unit and relocating almost immediately to RN Air Section Port Reitz, in Mombasa, where it remained operational for the next three years.
790 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which disbanded in November 1949 at RNAS Culdrose. It initially formed during 1941 as an Air Target Towing Unit, at HMS Landrail, RNAS Macrihanish, in Scotland, from elements of two other Fleet Air Arm squadrons, however, this only lasted for three months and the unit was disbanded, absorbed into 772 Naval Air Squadron. It reformed the following year, in July 1942, tasked as a Fighter Direction Training Unit, at RNAS Charlton Horethorne. It provided support for the Fighter Direction School and had short spells at RAF Culmhead and RNAS Zeals, before reloacting to RNAS Dale in Pembrokeshire, next to the new purpose built Air Direction School, HMS Harrier or RNADC Kete, in 1945. The squadron moved to HMS Seahawk in Cornwall during December 1947.
796 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded at RNAS Culdrose in October 1958. 796 Naval Air Squadron formed as the Eastern Fleet Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance Pool, at RN Air Section Port Reitz, in Mombasa, in July 1942, it provided a detachment embarked in HMS Illustrious in August to support the invasion of Madagascar. This Flight also disembarked to Majunga in September to join 207 Group of the Royal Air Force and later rejoined the squadron at RNAS Tanga, in November and added operational training unit to its roles until disbanding in April 1944. It reformed in November 1947 at HMS Vulture, RNAS St Merryn, as the Aircrewman Training School, for conversion of T.A.G.'s to aircrewman standard. Its task changed to Observer School Part II in January 1950. The squadron moved to HMS Seahawk, RNAS Culdrose, in November 1953 and in 1957 took on the task of the disbanded 765 Naval Air Squadron.