816 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 ...

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 ...

carrier based squadron formed at the start of the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

. The squadron formed aboard in October 1939 with 9

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 ...

torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...

s for anti-submarine duty on convoys between the UK and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

In 1948 it was re-formed as

816 Squadron RAN 816 Squadron is a Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron that started out as a Royal Navy unit, 816 Naval Air Squadron. Current roles 816 is currently active as a helicopter squadron equipped with MH-60R helicopters. The Squadron is based ...

an Australian squadron with the

Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Avia ...

and embarked on HMAS ''Sydney''.

Battle honours

*Norway 1940, *Narvik 1940, *Malta Convoys 1941, *Mediterranean 1941, *Atlantic 1943, *Arctic 1944, *Normandy 1944

Aircraft operated

I (Anti submarine Warfare, Search) *

II (Strike) * Supermarine Seafire Ib & L.IIc (Strike) * Grumman Wildcat V (Strike) *

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 ...

II (Torpedo/dive Bomber) *

FR.I (Fighter Reconnaissance) *

NF.I (Night Fighter)

External links

Fleet Air Arm Archive

816 __NOTOC__ Year 816 (Roman numerals, DCCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * October 5 – King Louis the Pious (son of Charlemagne) is crow ...

Military units and formations established in 1939 {{UK-mil-unit-stub

Battle honours

Aircraft operated

See also

External links