830 Naval Air Squadron was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

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 ...

squadron formed in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in July 1940 flying

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 used ...

torpedo bombers. During 1940–41 the squadron carried out attacks against the Axis supply effort in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. These included torpedo attacks against merchant ships and their Royal Italian Navy warship escorts, and also bomb attacks on port installations in Sicily and Libya. In July 1941 the squadron began operations with ASV RDF airborne radar to locate ships. Operations were mostly by night, with some dusk bombing sorties to Sicily. By March 1942 the squadron was so depleted that it merged with 828 Naval Air Squadron and continued operations. By March 1943, however, losses were such that the composite squadron ceased to exist. In May 1943, 830 Squadron was reformed in its own right at Lee-on-Solent as a torpedo-bomber reconnaissance squadron operating Barracuda IIs. Most of the squadron's personnel at this time were

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

ers. After completing training, in March 1944 the squadron embarked upon and subsequently participated in

Operation Tungsten Operation Tungsten was a Second World War Royal Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship ''Tirpitz''. The operation sought to damage or destroy ''Tirpitz'' at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she could become ...

, a dive bombing attack on the German battleship '' Tirpitz''. Throughout May to October the squadron alternated between the ''Furious'' and and continued to carry out operations against the ''Tirpitz''. In October 1944 the squadron was absorbed by

827 Naval Air Squadron 827 Naval Air Squadron was an aircraft squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. It operated Fairey Barracudas starting in May 1943, becoming the first squadron to receive the Fairey Barracuda in any substantial nu ...

and ceased to exist. The squadron was reformed in October 1955 with the

Westland Wyvern The Westland Wyvern was a British single-seat carrier-based multi-role strike aircraft built by Westland Aircraft that served in the 1950s, seeing active service in the 1956 Suez Crisis. Production Wyverns were powered by a turboprop engine dri ...

turboprop strike fighter. Flying from HMS Eagle, 830's Wyverns took part in Suez operation of November 1956, before again disbanding in January 1957.Poolman, K. p184

References

{{Royal Naval Air Squadrons Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944 800 series Fleet Air Arm squadrons