823 Naval Air Squadron was a

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

aircraft squadron before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

History

Pre-war

823 squadron was formed on 3 April 1933 by a merger of No's 441 and 448 (Fleet Spotter Reconnaissance) Flights aboard HMS ''Glorious'', a cruiser converted to an aircraft carrier in the 1920s. The new squadron was equipped with

Fairey III The Fairey Aviation Company Fairey III was a family of British reconnaissance biplanes that enjoyed a very long production and service history in both landplane and seaplane variants. First flying on 14 September 1917, examples were still in u ...

Fs and served in the Mediterranean. Following a ship refit the squadron split its aircraft between HMS ''Courageous'' and ''Glorious'' when they sailed to the Mediterranean in August 1935 in response to the Abyssinian crisis. The squadron, now re-equipped with

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also us ...

, was transferred to Admiralty control in 1940.

World War II

In the early part of the war the squadron sailed aboard HMS ''Glorious'' into the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to attack enemy shipping, returning to the Mediterranean in Jan 1940. They operated from Hal Far, Malta until March 1940, until they were needed to take part in the defence of Norway. There HMS ''Glorious'' was sunk by the German battleships ''Gneisenau'' and ''Scharnhorst'' on 8 June 1940, and half of the squadron (5 aircraft) lost. The remainder flew from RNAS Hatston with 821 Squadron on 21 June 1940 to attack ''Scharnhorst'', with little or no success. On 24 July 1940 they attacked enemy destroyers and shipping off Norway but were disbanded at Hatston in December 1940. In November 1941 the squadron was reformed at Crail airfield in Fife, Scotland as a torpedo bomber reconnaissance (TBR) Swordfish squadron, subsequently sailing on HMS ''Furious'' in August 1942 with 9 Albacores for convoy duties. In September 1942 the squadron was attached to No 16 Group, Coastal Command at

RAF Manston Royal Air Force Manston or more simply RAF Manston is a former Royal Air Force station located in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site was split between a commercial airport Kent International Airpo ...

and

RAF Tangmere RAF Tangmere was a Royal Air Force station located in Tangmere, England, famous for its role in the Battle of Britain, and one of several stations near Chichester, West Sussex. The famous Second World War aces Wing Commander Douglas Bader, a ...

for anti-submarine patrols in the English Channel. In June 1943 the squadron was re-equipped with

Fairey Barracuda The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo and dive bomber designed by Fairey Aviation. It was the first aircraft of this type operated by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) to be fabricated entirely from metal. The Barracuda ...

IIs at Lee-on-Solent and joined the 11th TBR Wing in southern India. They were finally disbanded in July 1944 at

Katukurunda Airport Katukurunda Airport ( si, කටුකුරුන්ද ගුවන්තොටුපළ ''Katukurunda Guwanthotupala'', ) is a domestic airport located near the town of Kalutara in Sri Lanka. It is also a military airbase known as Sri Lanka A ...

after being merged with 822 squadron.

Aircraft operated

References

Sqn Histories 712–825
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 800 series Fleet Air Arm squadrons Military units and formations established in 1933