880 Naval Air Squadron

880 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm aircraft carrier-based squadron formed in January 1941. The squadron served throughout the Second World War being embarked in the carriers HMS Furious, Indomitable, Argus and Implacable serving off East Africa, in the Mediterranean, off Norway and in the Far East. It was disbanded on 11 September 1945 at Schofields, Sydney, Australia.

880 Naval Air Squadron
Active1941–1945
CountryUnited Kingdom
BranchRoyal Navy Fleet Air Arm
RoleFighter squadron

The squadron was reformed on 1 May 1951 as a carrier-based anti-submarine squadron in the Royal Canadian Navy. It was redesignated VS 880,[lower-alpha 1] in 1952. After the decommissioning of HMCS Bonaventure, Canada's last aircraft carrier in 1970, the squadron transferred to shore based inshore anti-submarine operations, and in 1973 changed role again to protection of Canada's Exclusive Economic Zone, this changing the squadron's designation to MR 880. It ceased operations in April 1990 when its aircraft were retired.

Royal Navy

The squadron was first formed as a fighter squadron of the Fleet Air Arm on 15 January 1941 at RNAS Arbroath in Scotland. It was initially equipped with a mix of aircraft, including Grumman Martlets, Gloster Sea Gladiators and Hawker Sea Hurricane Ias, before settling on the carrier-compatible Sea Hurricane Ib in July that year.[2] On 21 July, a flight of four Hurricanes from the squadron embarked on the carrier Furious to take part in a raid on the ports of Kirkenes in Norway and Petsamo in Finland. The Hurricanes took part in the attack on Petsamo on 30 July, and on 31 July, one of the flight's Hurricanes shot down a German aircraft shadowing the British force.[2][3][4][lower-alpha 2] In October that year, the complete squadron embarked aboard the newly completed carrier Indomitable, which was allocated to the Far East.[2] In January 1942, 48 crated RAF Hurricanes were loaded aboard Indomitable at Durban, South Africa, for delivery to the East Indies. While these aircraft were accompanied by RAF ground crew, who were intended to ready the Hurricanes for flight, few of the RAF personnel had any experience of working on Hurricanes and the task of assembling the aircraft passed to 880 Squadron, with the Hurricanes being flown off Indomitable on 27 January.[5]

In May 1942, the squadron took part in the invasion of Madagascar, being largely employed in ground attack duties during the capture of Diego-Suarez at the start of the invasion, and destroying one light aircraft by strafing at Arrachart airfield, leaving air superiority duties to the Martlets of 881 and 882 Squadrons operating off Illustrious.[6] In July 1942, Indomitable, with 880 Squadron aboard, returned to Britain to prepare for Operation Pedestal, a plan to run a convoy carrying vital fuel, supplies and food to besieged Malta.[7] The squadron claimed eight German and Italian aircraft shot down and three more damaged during Pedestal, for a loss of three aircraft, while Indomitable was badly damaged by German bombs on 12 August.[2] Four of the squadron's pilots were killed either in the air or when Indomitable was bombed.[8]

Seafires of 880 and 801 Squadrons aboard HMS Implacable in 1945. Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers are ranged at the aft end of the ship's flight deck

After Indomitable's return to Britain later that month, 880 Squadron re-equipped with Supermarine Seafires, joining Argus in October 1942 as Indomitable was still under repair.[2] In November , the squadron took part in Operation Torch, the Anglo-American invasion of French North-West Africa, operating in support of the landings at Algiers.[9] In March 1943, the squadron re-embarked on Indomitable, with the carrier part of the covering force protecting the Allied invasion of Sicily from any intervention by Italian naval forces in July 1943.[2][10] Indomitable was damaged during the Sicily operations, and in August, 880 Squadron joined the Escort carrier Stalker, helping to provide a Combat Air Patrol over the landings at Salerno, Italy, in September 1943.[11][12]

In February 1944, the Squadron embarked aboard Furious for operations off Norway, continuing operations off that carrier until September that year,[13] taking part in Operation Tungsten, an attack against the German battleship Tirpitz on 3 April 1944.[14] In November the squadron embarked aboard Implacable, which took part in operations off Norway in November and December that year.[2][15] In March 1945, the squadron was on board Implacable as the carrier left Britain on passage to join the British Pacific Fleet.[16] In June 1945, 880 Squadron took part in Operation Inmate, an attack on the isolated Japanese base at Truk atoll by Implacable and supporting ships. Implacable's Seafires (from 880 and 801 Squadrons) dive-bombed oil tanks and spotted for the cruisers of the task force as they shelled targets on the atoll.[17] In July–August 1945, Implacable's air wing, including 880 Squadron, (with the squadron's Seafires now fitted with drop tanks to increase range), took part in strikes against the Japanese home islands.[16][18] The squadron was disbanded at RAAF Station Schofields, near Sydney, Australia, on 11 September 1945, when it was merged with 801 Squadron.[16]

Canada
A VS 880 Tracker aboard HMCS Bonaventure in 1966

The squadron was re-formed as an anti-submarine squadron of the Royal Canadian Navy on 1 May 1951, when, as part of a renumbering of Commonwealth Naval Air Squadrons, 825 Squadron, based at HCMS Shearwater, a Canadian Naval airbase at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and equipped with Fairey Firefly AS.5s, was renumbered 880 Squadron.[16] The squadron, which regularly deployed aboard the carrier Magnificent, re-equipped with Grumman TBM-3E Avengers and was renamed VS 880 following the USN naming convention in November 1952.[13] In September 1957, VS 880 first embarked on Canada's new carrier, Bonaventure,[19] and the squadron began to re-equip with Grumman CS2F-1 Trackers in October 1957, flying its last flight with the Avenger on 13 December that year.[20] On 7 July 1959, the Tracker-equipped VS 881 merged with VS 880, leaving the enlarged VS 880 with a complement of 24 Trackers and 450 personnel.[20] From January 1960, the squadron received CS2F-2 Trackers, with improved sensors, to replace its CS2F-1s, which were discarded by the end of December that year.[19][20]

On 1 February 1968, VS 880 joined the newly established Canadian Armed Forces as the Royal Canadian Navy was merged with the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force.[21] Bonaventure was decommissioned without replacement on 3 July 1970, with VS 880 carrying out its last flight from the carrier on 12 December.[21][22] With the demise of Bonaventure, VS 880 was transferred to shore-based inshore anti-submarine operations, with its Trackers receiving the new designation of CP-121 on 27 July 1970.[21] In December 1973, Canada declared a 200 nmi (230 mi; 370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and the squadron's role was changed to protecting the EEZ, which resulted in the squadron being re-designated MR 880, and anti-submarine systems being removed from its Trackers.[23] Duties included fisheries protectionpollution and wildlife surveys and ice patrols over Canada's Arctic coasts, with the aircraft receiving new radar and communications equipment in 1978, and adding the ability to carry CRV7 rockets from 1982.[21] It moved to CFB Summerside on Prince Edward Island in 1981.[24] Late-1980s' plans to upgrade Canada's Trackers with turboprop engines were abandoned, and the fisheries protection role was privatised, leading to the squadron's Trackers being retired in April 1990.[21] The squadron has never been officially disbanded and still exists as a "zero strength" unit.[25]

References
  1. Canadian naval squadron designations are correctly written with a space rather than a hyphen, unlike the otherwise similar US Navy designations.[1]
  2. The aircraft shot down was a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor according to Thetford[3] and a Dornier Do 18 flying boat according to Sturtivant and Ballance.[2]
  1. Stitt 1996, p. 41
  2. Sturtivant & Ballance 1994, p. 300
  3. Thetford 1978, p. 229
  4. Rohwer & Hümmelchen 1992, p. 75
  5. Shores, Cull & Izawa 1992, pp. 160, 350
  6. Shores 1996, pp. 278, 283
  7. Shores, Cull & Malizia 1991, pp. 448–451
  8. Shores, Cull & Malizia 1991, p. 669
  9. Shores et al. 2016, pp. 48, 50
  10. Roskill 1960, pp. 126, 128
  11. Hobbs 2013, pp. 103, 149
  12. Shores et al. 2018, pp. 346–347
  13. Sturtivant & Ballance 1994, pp. 300, 302
  14. Hobbs 2013, p. 43
  15. Hobbs 2013, p. 110
  16. Sturtivant & Ballance 1994, p. 301
  17. Hobbs 2017, pp. 200–210
  18. Hobbs 2017, pp. 252–253, 261, 263–264, 281
  19. Sturtivant & Ballance 1994, p. 302
  20. Stitt 1996, p. 43
  21. Stitt 1996, p. 52
  22. Hobbs 2013, pp. 208–209
  23. Stitt 1996, pp. 49, 51
  24. "880 Squadron". Archived from the original on 18 August 2001. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  25. "Index of Naval Air Squadrons: 880 Squadron (Canada)". Fleet Air Arm Archive. Archived from the original on 25 August 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  • Hobbs, David (2013). British Aircraft Carriers: Design, Development and Service Histories. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-138-0.
  • Hobbs, David (2017). The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy's Most Powerful Strike Force. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-0283-8.
  • Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1992). Chronology of the War At Sea 1939–1945. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-117-7.
  • Roskill, S. W. (1960). The War at Sea 1939–1945: Volume III The Offensive Part I: 1st June 1943–31st May 1944. History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Military Series. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
  • Shores, Christopher; Cull, Brian; Malizia, Nicola (1991). Malta: The Spitfire Year 1942. London: Grub Street. ISBN 0-948817-16-X.
  • Shores, Christopher; Cull, Brian; Izawa, Yusuho (1992). Bloody Shambles: Volume One: The Drift to War to the Fall of Singapore. London: Grub Street. ISBN 0-948817-50-X.
  • Shores, Christopher (1996). Dust Clouds in the Middle East: The Air War for East Africa, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Madagascar, 1940–42. London: Grub Street. ISBN 1-898697-37-X.
  • Shores, Christopher; Massimello, Giovanni; Guest, Russell; Olynyk, Frank; Bock, Winfried (2016). A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940–1945: Volume Three: Tunisia and the End in Africa: November 1942 – May 1943. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-1-910690-00-0.
  • Shores, Christopher; Massimello, Giovanni; Guest, Russell; Olynyk, Frank; Bock, Winfried; Thomas, Andy (2018). A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940–1945: Volume Four: Sicily and Italy to the Fall of Rome: 14 May, 1943 – 5 June 1944. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-1-911621-10-2.
  • Stitt, Robert M. (January–February 1996). "Willing Tracker: The Grumman S2F Tracker in Canadian Service: Part One". Air Enthusiast. No. 61. pp. 40–51. ISSN 0143-5450.
  • Sturtivant, Ray; Ballance, Theo (1994). The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-223-8.
  • Thetford, Owen (1978). British Naval Aircraft since 1912 (4th ed.). London: Putnam. ISBN 0-370-30021-1.
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