819 Naval Air Squadron

819 Naval Air Squadron
A Westland Sea King HAS.2A of 819 NAS in flight over RNAS Yeovilton
Active	1940-41 1941-45 1961-71 1971[1]-2001[2]
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Part of	Fleet Air Arm
Anniversaries	none
Battle honours	Mediterranean 1940-41 Libya 1940 Taranto 1940 English Channel 1942 *Atlantic 1943 Normandy 1944 Arctic 1944[3]

819 Naval Air Squadron (819 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm.

History

Along with No. 815 Squadron, it performed the successful night attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto on 11 November 1940. The attack was performed with Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.

More recently, 819 operated the Sea King HAS6 from HMS Gannet at Prestwick Airport, constituted to have two flights supporting RFA ships and one SAR flight. In 2001, 819 NAS was decommissioned; its SAR flight transitioned into HMS Gannet SAR Flight, operating the Sea King HU5. Gannet SAR Flight went on to be one of the busiest SAR flights in the UK and holds the record for the most callouts in a single year. It decommissioned on 1 January 2016 as part of the contractorization of military SAR.

Aircraft operated

The squadron operated a variety of different aircraft and versions:^[3]

• Fairey Swordfish I, II & III
• Grumman Wildcat IV, V & VI
• Westland Whirlwind HAS.7
• Westland Wessex HAS.1 & HAS.3
• Westland Sea King HAS.1, HAS.2/2A, HAS.5 & HAS.6

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Jackson, Robert, The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Parragon Books, Ltd. 2006 ISBN 1-4054-2465-6
• Sturtivant, R; Ballance, T (1994). The Squadrons of The Fleet Air Arm. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-223-8.

External links

Media related to 819 Naval Air Squadron at Wikimedia Commons

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