802 Naval Air Squadron
Encyclopedia

Early history

802 Squadron was formed on 3 April 1933 aboard by the merger of two independent RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 naval units, 408 (Fleet Fighter) Flight
408 (Fleet Fighter) Flight
408 Flight was a naval aviation unit of the RAF operating during the early 1930s.-Disbandment:408 Flight was disbanded and merged with 409 Flight aboard HMS Glorious on 3 April 1933, both units becoming 802 Naval Air Squadron....

 and 409 (Fleet Fighter) Flight
409 (Fleet Fighter) Flight
409 Flight was a naval aviation unit of the RAF operating during the early 1930s.-Example Aircraft:Nimrod I S1632 562 Osprey S1687 549.-Disbandment:...

. By 1939, 802 Squadron was operating from (Dekhelia) in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

  where, like all Fleet Air Arm units, it was taken over by the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

 on 24 May 1939.

Aircraft

  • Nimrod I
    Hawker Nimrod
    The Hawker Nimrod was a British carrier-based single engine, single seat biplane fighter aircraft built in the early 1930s by Hawker Aircraft.-Design and development:...

     S1579 571
  • Osprey I K2783
  • Osprey III K3643 549
  • Osprey III Seaplane K3644 590

World War II

In April 1940 802 Squadron was serving aboard Glorious with twelve Sea Gladiators
Gloster Gladiator
The Gloster Gladiator was a British-built biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. It was the RAF's last biplane fighter aircraft and was rendered obsolete by newer monoplane designs even as it...

 when the ship was recalled to participate in the defence of Norway
Norwegian Campaign
The Norwegian Campaign was a military campaign that was fought in Norway during the Second World War between the Allies and Germany, after the latter's invasion of the country. In April 1940, the United Kingdom and France came to Norway's aid with an expeditionary force...

. The squadron ceased to exist after Glorious was sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 8 June 1940 during the defence of Norway.

Reformed from part of 804 Squadron
804 Naval Air Squadron
804 Naval Air Squadron was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy, formed in November 1939 from part of 769 NAS Sea Gladiators which had been detached to RNAS Hatston. The squadron was merged into 800 NAS in June 1944 and subsequently reformed in September.-World War II:During World War II, she...

 on 21 November 1940 with Martlet Is, the squadron sub-flights embarked on in July 1941, with B flight serving on in August. In the following month the whole squadron was involved in Gibraltar escort convoys from Audacity from which it shot down four Fw 200s
Focke-Wulf Fw 200
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, also known as Kurier to the Allies was a German all-metal four-engine monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner...

. The squadron was lost on 21 December 1941 when Audacity was sunk by .

The squadron was re-formed at Yeovilton in February 1942 with Sea Hurricane Ibs
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...

, before embarking on for escorting Arctic Convoy PQ 18 in September during which time five enemy aircraft were shot down and 17 damaged, in conjunction with 883 Squadron. In September, the squadron embarked on Avenger and provided fighter cover on the Algerian invasion
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....

 beaches. While returning to the UK Avenger was torpedoed and sunk by on 15 November 1942.

The squadron lay dormant till May 1945 when reformed at Arbroath with 24 Seafire L.IIIs
Supermarine Seafire
The Supermarine Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire specially adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. The name Seafire was arrived at by collapsing the longer name Sea Spitfire.-Origins of the Seafire:...

. By VJ day
Victory over Japan Day
Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event...

, the squadron had spent a short period in , and had been anticipated to leave for the British Pacific Fleet
British Pacific Fleet
The British Pacific Fleet was a British Commonwealth naval force which saw action against Japan during World War II. The fleet was composed of British Commonwealth naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944...

 with 9th Carrier Air Group.

Post-war service

By the summer of 1947, 802 Squadron had switched to Seafire XVs operating from . During the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

 802 Squadron was assigned to , and equipped with Sea Furys
Hawker Sea Fury
The Hawker Sea Fury was a British fighter aircraft developed for the Royal Navy by Hawker during the Second World War. The last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, it was also one of the fastest production single piston-engined aircraft ever built.-Origins:The Hawker Fury was an...

. Squadron pilot Lieutenant "Hoagy" Carmichael
Peter Carmichael
Commander Peter Carmichael , nicknamed "Hoagy", was a combat pilot with the Royal Navy during and after the Second World War...

 shot down a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and it achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where early in the war, it outclassed all straight-winged enemy fighters in...

 on 9 August 1952. Carmichael achieved this feat during a dogfight which started when a formation of four Sea Furys under his command were attacked by eight MiGs during a fighter bomber mission over Chinnampo.

By the time of the Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...

, 802 Squadron had transferred to , and was equipped with Sea Hawk FB3s
Hawker Sea Hawk
The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm , the air branch of the Royal Navy , built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its origins stemmed from earlier Hawker piston-engined fighters, the Sea Hawk became the...

 – one of these aircraft lost the front of a drop tank to ground fire while the squadron was embarked aboard in September 1956. 802 Squadron re-equipped with Sea Hawk FB5s before transferring to the Ark Royal in May 1957. Following a trip to the United States, which included cross-operations with , 802 Squadron completed two tours in the Mediterranean, the second of these starting in September 1958 aboard , and ending with the disbandment of 802 Squadron at RNAS Lossiemouth
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Lossiemouth is a Royal Air Force station to the west of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. It is one of the RAF's biggest bases and is currently Britain's main base for Tornado GR4s. From 2013 the Northern QRA force of Typhoon F2 will relocate to Lossiemouth following the closure of...

 on 10 April 1959. Plans to reform 802 Squadron at Yeovilton in 1979 with five Sea Harriers failed to materialise.
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