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824 Naval Air Squadron

Flying squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm

Field	Value
unit_name	824 Naval Air Squadron
image	824 Naval Air Squadron badge.svg
image_size	150
caption	Badge
dates	Royal Air Force
Royal Navy

country
branch
type	Flying squadron
role	Merlin HM2 crew training
command_structure	Fleet Air Arm
garrison	RNAS Culdrose
garrison_label	Home station
motto
colors
colors_label
equipment	AgustaWestland Merlin HM2
equipment_label	Aircraft
website
current_commander	Commander Chris Jones

Royal Navy

824 Naval Air Squadron (824 NAS), also referred as 824 Squadron, is a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN), based at RNAS Culdrose and currently operating the AgustaWestland Merlin HM2 Operational Conversion Unit. It trains both aircrew and engineers on the methods of flying, operating, and utilising in Anti-Submarine warfare and Airborne Surveillance and Control.

History

The squadron was originally formed on 3 April 1933 as a Spotter Reconnaissance squadron. During World War II, the squadron carried out various duties, such as convoy protection, bombing raids, spotting for gunnery bombardments and attacks on enemy destroyers. The squadron took part in the Battle of Taranto on 11 November 1940, where together with aircraft from 813, 815 and 819 squadrons flying from HMS Illustrious, it successfully attacked the Italian Battle Squadron. It was disbanded 10 times between 1934 and 1970, in that time it was equipped with the Fairey Seal, Fairey Swordfish, Fairey Barracuda, Fairey Firefly and finally the Fairey Gannet.

The squadron participated in the Falklands War, later responsible for trials of the Sea King helicopter. The squadron again disbanded in August 1989 and its aircraft were transferred to 819 Naval Air Squadron at Prestwick.

Current use

824 Naval Air Squadron reformed on 2 June 2000 at RNAS Culdrose, equipped with eight AgustaWestland Merlin HM.1 helicopters. In January 2013 824 NAS received its first new HM.2 Merlin aircraft with the squadron fully converted by the end of 2013.

It currently trains Pilots, Observers and Aircrewman on the Merlin HM.2 helicopter in Anti-Submarine Warfare. Once trained the aircrew go to one of the front line Merlin squadrons 814 NAS and 820 NAS.

Aircraft operated

Fairey III F
Fairey Seal
Fairey Swordfish I & II
Hawker Sea Hurricane IIc
Grumman Wildcat V
Fairey Barracuda II
Fairey Firefly FR.1 & AS.6
Grumman Avenger TBM-3E & AS.4
Fairey Gannet AS.1, T.2 & AS.4
Westland Whirlwind HAS.7
Westland Sea King HAS.1, HAS.2/2a, HAS.2(AEW), HAS.5 & HAS,6
AgustaWestland Merlin HM.1
AgustaWestland Merlin HM.2 (current)

Battle honours

824 Naval Air Squadron has received the following battle honours:

Calabria 1940
Mediterranean 1940
Taranto 1940
Libya 1940
Malta Convoys 1942
Arctic 1944
Falkland Islands 1982

References

Bibliography

References

[http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.2313 824 Squadron's official history]
"824 Naval Air Squadron {{!}} Royal Navy".
[http://www.fleetairarmoa.org/asp/fleetairarm.asp?ServiceType=2 Fleet Air Arm Battle Honours]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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