816 Naval Air Squadron

816 Naval Air Squadron (816 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which formed at the start of the Second World War. It was first formed in March 1939, aboard the carrier HMS Furious, to support anti-submarine and strike missions for North Atlantic convoys. It conducted the first aerial torpedo attack of the war during the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940. An attack on the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was attempted in September 1940, and on the squadron joined RAF Coastal Command in March 1941 for operations along the Dutch and French coasts. The squadron re-embarked on HMS Furious in June 1941 to provide anti-submarine cover while RAF aircraft were sent to Malta. On the return trip, it transferred to HMS Ark Royal and stayed with her until she sank in November 1941

It was reformed in February 1942, in Palisadoes, Jamaica, as a TBR squadron that joined HMS Avenger to escort a convoy from the USA to the UK. The squadron joined HMS Dasher in February 1943 for Arctic convoy escort but faced heavy losses when the ship exploded in March 1943, during exercises in the Firth of Clyde. It regrouped at RNAS Machrihanish with new aircraft and by May 1943 was able to target German shipping in the English Channel. Later the squadron then embarked on HMS Tracker for North Atlantic convoys. In March, an aircraft assisted the destroyer HMS Onslaught in sinking a German U-boat, followed by further operations in the days that followed.

It took part in operations in the English Channel to support the Normandy landings. Disbanded at RAF Perranporth in August 1944, it reformed at RNAS Lee-on-Solent in February 1945, as a torpedo bomber reconnaissance squadron on a light fleet carrier and stayed active until 1948.

In 1948 it was re-formed as 816 Squadron RAN a Royal Australian Navy, Fleet Air Arm (RAN) squadron with Fairey Firefly and embarked on HMAS Sydney.