The Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm’s 809 Naval Air Squadron, “The Immortals,” have been shuttered since 1982, after being stood up to fly Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible during the Falklands.
British Buccaneer XT283 of 809 Squadron arrives aboard HMS Ark Royal. Museum of Science, by Michael Turner, 1972
Going even further back, they operated Sea Venoms aboard HMS Albion in 1956 during the Suez Crisis while in WWII they flew Fairey Fulmars from the Med to North Russia and Seafires covering the Torch, Avalanche, Dragoon, Dracula, and Zipper landings from Casablanca to Malaya.
This week, 809 NAS became the first Royal Navy squadron to stand up to operate the F-35 Lightning.
The recommissioning sees the number of UK squadrons operating the Lightning expand to four, two front-line– the Dambusters of 617 Sqn plus 809 NAS– along with 207 Sqn (Operational Conversion Unit) and 17 Test and Evaluation Sqn.
Of the more than 100 historic Fleet Air Arm units whose numbers are currently dormant, 809 was selected more than a decade ago as a F-35 Lightning formation, largely due to its illustrious history as a strike and attack squadron having received battle honours from operations in the Arctic, Mediterranean, Burma, Suez and South Atlantic over a 41-year period.
The Venerable Andrew Hillier addresses guests and personnel from RAF Marham on parade for the 809 Naval Air Squadron Recommissioning Ceremony. A second frontline F-35B Lightning stealth fighter squadron has been stood up at RAF Marham. 809 Naval Air Squadron, known as the Immortals, has a long and distinguished history and has been recommissioned as the nation’s second front-line fighter unit operating the F-35B Lightning stealth fighter. At the parade at RAF Marham, Norfolk, Commander Nick Smith formally received the Squadron Crest from his predecessor, Cdr (Ret’d) Tim Gedge, close to 41 years to the day since 809 NAS decommissioned as a Sea Harrier squadron.
While British industry will build 15 percent by value of each of the more than 3,000 planned F-35s, by 1 May 2023, the UK had only received 31 of the planned 48 F35-Bs from its Tranche 1 initial order. A subsequent Tranche 2 order will bring an additional 27 aircraft, totaling 74, down from the originally planned 138. The RAF owns all of these STOVL birds and lets the RN operate some.
Redtails receive F-35s
Meanwhile, the “Red Tails” of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 187th Fighter Wing, of the Alabama Air National Guard, out of Dannelly Field, Alabama, last week received its first F-35s, becoming only the third ANG unit slated to transition to fifth generation fighter.
An F-35 Lightning II parked on the flight line at Dannelly Field, on December 6, 2023. The 187th Fighter Wing received their first aircraft from Luke AFB, Ariz., and will begin transitioning to their new mission. Photo by 1st Lt. Michael Luangkhot
Of course, the 100th FS, dating back to December 1941, is one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen squadrons of WWII.
USAAF armorer of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 15th U.S. Air Force checks ammunition belts of the 12.7 mm machine guns in the wings of a North American P-51B Mustang in Italy, ca. September 1944.
Flying P39s then P-40s, P-47s, and finally P-51 Mustangs during the war, the 100th became first a tanker squadron (in 1953) then transitioned to a training squadron in 1999 before chopping to replace the 160th FS in 2007, driving fighters again, this time F-16s.
187th Fighter Wing, the Alabama Air National Guard unit at Dannelly Field ANGB in Montgomery, deployed to Romania in August 2012 to participate in Dacian Viper 2012, a three-week joint exercise with the Romanian Air Force.
They hung up their Vipers earlier this year and will receive 20 F-35s between now and 2026 when they will be fully staffed.
Official caption: “Royal Marine J Crompton of Wigan, Lancashire, attached to the British East Indies Fleet, with Puncho, the Alsatian mascot of the Marine camp, attempt to camouflage themselves.”
Photo by Hales, G (Sub Lt), Admiralty Collection, IWM A 30104
The image was taken in Ceylon in early August 1945, at HMS Rajaliya, the Royal Navy air station located at the Puttalam airfield.
Note the Marine’s late-war Enfield No. 4 with its distinctive spike bayonet and the possibly locally-acquired slouch hat worn at a jaunty angle and fitted with a braided leather band rather than the traditional pugaree linen wrap.
The base was kind of unorthodox, with lots of local flavor.
Rajaliya, set up 60 miles south of Colombo as a dispersal field in case of Japanese air raids that allowed easy overflow from visiting RN carriers, was home to the much loved “Puttalam Elephants” as depicted by a painting by Robert Taylor in the collection of the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.
The below shows an FAA crew at Puttalam employing their elephant “Fiffi’ to drag an F4U Corsair from No.1 Corsair squadron of the Naval Operational Training Unit, South East Asia Command (SEAC), back onto the Marston mat metal runway after it slid off a slippery surface and landed in the mud.
Warship Wednesday, June 2, 2021: Flattop of the Americas
Library and Archives Canada 4950939/WO-A057319
Here we see an incredible original color photo of the Colossus-class light aircraft carrier HMCS Warrior, Canada’s first flattop, at sunset circa 1946. She would fly three different flags across her short career and get close enough to an H-Bomb to almost touch the sun.
British birth
Warrior was one of 16 planned 1942 Design Light Fleet Carriers for the RN. This series, broken up into Colossus and Majestic-class sub-variants, were nifty 19,500-ton, 695-foot-long carriers that the U.S. Navy would have classified at the time as a CVL or light carrier. They were slower than the fast fleet carriers at just 25-knots with all four 3-drum Admiralty boilers were lit and glowing red, but they had long legs (over 14,000 miles at cruising speed) which allowed them to cross the Atlantic escorting convoys, travel to the Pacific to retake lost colonies or remain on station in the South Atlantic or the Indian Ocean for weeks.
The classes’ 1946 Jane’s entry under the RN’s section. Note that Warrior is missing.
Capable of carrying up to 44 piston engine aircraft of the time, these carriers had enough punch to make it count.
The thing is, only seven of these carriers were completed before the end of World War II and even those came in during the last months and weeks. They effectively saw no service. Laid down beginning in 1942, most of the ships were launched but when the war ended, construction was canceled. Two were completed as a peculiar RN invention of a “maintenance carrier,” intended just to repair and ferry but not operate aircraft. Some were immediately transferred to expanding Commonwealth fleets. Suddenly, the Australians, Canadians, and Indians became carrier operators. The Dutch (then Argentines) and Brazilians soon followed. Class leader Colossus was sold to France as Arromanches.
Speaking of being sold off, Warrior was ordered, originally as HMS Brave, on 7 August 1942 from Harland and Wolff (builders of the Titanic) at their yard in Belfast. Launched on 20 May 1944, just two weeks before D-Day, she was the last of the Colossus class to finish construction in WWII on 2 April 1945, just as Berlin was falling. Intended for use in the Pacific, she was made available to Ottawa on a “try it before you buy it basis” while Japan was still in the war.
Oh, Canada
The Canadians were not entirely neophytes to carrier operations, having used a couple of Ruler/Bouge-class escort or “Jeep” carriers (the RN-flagged HMS Nabob and HMS Puncher) during the war already. Outfitting four squadrons (803, 825, 826, and 883 for the RCN), she would soon be ready to fly Supermarine Seafires (later replaced by Hawker Sea Fury) fighters, and Fairey Firefly IV strike aircraft (later replaced by TBM Avengers). Commissioned as HMCS Warrior on 24 January 1946, she was the largest warship Canada operated up until that time, having previously just had cruisers and escorts.
She arrived at Halifax in March 1946 and, had Japan not surrendered six months prior, would have likely gotten in on Operation Coronet, the planned and likely very bloody Allied invasion of Honshu, where the British Pacific Fleet was scheduled to play a big part. After all, her sisters HMS Colossus, Glory, Venerable, and Vengeance had already joined the BPF in Sydney in 1945.
Instead, Warrior never went to war under a Canadian flag.
HMCS Warrior, broadside view taken from shore, 14:30 hours, 23 Aug. 1946. LAC 3198949
Warrior underway, circa 1946. Original color. LAC 4950938/WO-A057319
The batsman on HMCS Warrior, signaling aircraft to land on the flight deck, circa 1946-48. Original color. LAC 4950874/WO-A057319
HMCS-Uganda (C66) as seen from the Canadian aircraft carrier HMCS Warrior circa 1946, note the Fairey Firefly and Maple Leaf insignias. LAC-MIKAN-No 4821077
Fairey Firefly on the deck of HMCS Warrior, circa 1946-48. Original color. WO-A057319
Crowded hangar deck of Canadian aircraft carrier HMCS Warrior
Warrior passing under the Lions’ Gate Bridge in Vancouver 10 February 1947. Photo by Jack Lindsey/City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1184-3461
HMS Warrior (R-31) passing under the Lion’s Gate Bridge, Vancouver. Feb 9, 1947. Jack Lindsey/City of Vancouver Archives
Deck Landing Control Officer (DLCO) signaling Hawker Sea Fury to take off, on an RCN aircraft carrier, circa 1947-57. Original color. LAC 4950873/WO-A057319
RCN 881 Anti-Submarine Squadron Grumman Avenger in flight LAC 4951377
Canada’s first proper flattop was returned to the Royal Navy on 23 March 1948 at Portsmouth, replaced by the Majestic-class near-sister HMCS Magnificent.
London Calling
Upon her return to Britain, Warrior was used as a trial ship for flexible deck experiments and then was laid up. Reactivated for Korea, she was used as a transport carrier to haul troops and aircraft to the epic battle for the Peninsula, arriving there in August 1950.
HMS Warrior off Gibraltar MOD 45139702
HMS Warrior (R31), USS Des Moines (CA-134), and HMS Gambia (48) at Malta, circa in 1951. IWM A32043
Same, IWM A32044
After a refit with new commo gear and radars, she would embark Sea Furies and Fireflies for a West Pac cruise in 1954, where she would have the White Duster in both South Africa and Hong Kong.
During this cruise, she served as a “floating nursery,” clocking in to carry refugees from newly independent North Vietnam down to the Republic of Vietnam.
Given another refit to add an angled deck– the Brits were the first to use such a novelty, she would embark both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft on occasion. This included another trip to the Pacific where she would standby of the Grapple X test at Christmas Island– the first British hydrogen bomb.
Grapple test as seen from HMS Warrior via Histarmar. The carrier would be very close to three separate bombs during the tests.
There, her Avengers, Vampires, and HAR3/4 Whirlwinds would collect fallout samples the old-fashioned way, by flying through it.
Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Warrior (R31). The photo was taken circa 1957, as Warrior wears the deck code “J” which had been assigned to HMS Eagle (R05) from 1951 to late 1956. Eagle then received the new deck code “E”, whereas deck code “J” was assigned to the newly refitted Warrior. NNAM No. 1996.488.037.025
Same, different view, NNAM 1996.488.037.024
HMS Warrior on speed trials in 1957, note her “J” deck designator.
On her way back from the Grapple tests, Warrior stopped off in Argentina, then a British ally, for a very special set of tours. You see, the carrier was surplus to RN needs and was very much for sale.
Back to the Americas
Sold to Argentina, HMS/HMCS Warrior was renamed ARA Independencia (V-1) on 6 August 1958 while at Portsmouth undergoing refit. Leaving for her new homeland, she arrived in December and wasn’t officially commissioned until mid-1959 with the first Argentine carrier landing in history taking place on her deck in June.
Her initial airwing would be made up of Korean War-era F4U-5L Corsairs complete with wing-mounted radars, a few navalized SNJ-5Cs Texans, the occasional T-28A Trojan, and, after 1962, a handful of early S-2A Trackers.
Archivo Fotográfico Portaaviones “Independencia” 27 de mayo de 1960 Archivo General de la Nación Dpto. Doc. Fotográficos.
Argentina carrier ARA Independencia with Corsairs on deck, colorized by Diego Mar of Postales Navales
Aviacion Naval Argentina F4U-5 Corsair carrier
F4U-5NL Vought Corsairs of the Aviacion Naval Argentina, circa 1962, original color. The country operated 26 F4U-5/N/5NL Corsairs from 1956 to 1968, primarily flying from Independencia
Archivo Fotografico ARA INDEPENDENCIA Puerto de Buenos Aires Julio/60 Fotografia Archivo General de la Nación Dpto. Doc. Fotográficos. Buenos Aires. Argentina. Note the white-painted F4U-5 Corsairs on deck
In August 1963, an ex-U.S. Navy F9F-2B Panther flown by Capt. Justiniano Martínez Achával became the first jet to land on an Argentine carrier when it was trapped on Independencia. However, it had to be craned off as her catapults were not thought to be powerful enough to launch it safely.
At least one of the country’s two F9F-8T Cougar trainers was photographed aboard as well.
First aircraft carrier of Argentina ARA Independencia (V-1) and Vickers G-class destroyer ARA Misiones (E-11) via Histamar, circa 1965
Argentina carrier ARA Independencia y ARA Punta Médanos Foto By N del Sr Adolfo Jorge Soto Buques de guerra colorised by Diego Mar Postales Navales
Argentinian light carrier ARA Independencia -ex-HMS Warrior, a Colossus class carrier) operated “navalized” T-6 Texan (SNJ), a unique force. The USN used them but in the Great Lakes in the training carriers USS Sable & USS Wolverine.
With the delivery of the more modern Colossus-class sister HNLMS Karel Doorman (ex-HMS Venerable) from Holland in 1968– which could launch Panthers and Cougars and would later carry A-4 Skyhawks– the Argentines commissioned the new flattop as ARA 25 de Mayo (V-2) on 12 March 1969 and Independencia’s days were numbered. Laid up, she was sold on 17 March 1971 and scrapped.
Today, little of Warrior remains, with her bell still washed up in Canada at the Shearwater Aviation Museum in Nova Scotia.
HMCS Warrior’s bell at Shearwater Aviation Museum via Wiki Commons
There are, also, assorted scale models of her aircraft, including those flown by the FAA, RCN, and Armada.
The last of her class in the Royal Navy, Triumph, was kept around as a repair ship until 1975 then scrapped. The final vessel of her class sent to the breakers, the third-hand ex-HMS/HMAS Vengeance/ex-NAeL Minas Gerais, was sold for scrap by the Brazilian owners in 2004, torched to man-portable pieces on the beach at Alang.
George Baulch on the deck of HMS Warrior after the first explosion. “One of his daughters was born with severe learning disabilities, which Mr. Baulch blames on the radiation. She died in her 30s of unexplained reasons.”
Specs:
Warrior’s 1946 Entry in Janes
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RN Fleet Air Arm carrier planes, 1943/44. Nearest to farthest is a Seafire (marinized Spitfire), Corsair, Martlet (Wildcat), two Barracuda to the right, aircraft at the end is a Firefly and a Sea Hurricane facing the camera. Photo was taken at RNAS training facility a Royal Navy mechanics school in the Midlands, NAS Mill Meece / HMS Fledgling. The facility was used to train WRNS Air Mechanics (Ordnance) on FAA types.
During WWII, the Royal Navy saw the writing on the wall in the respect that, to remain a first-rate naval power with a global reach, it needed a fleet of modern aircraft carriers. Entering the war in 1939 with three 27,000-ton Courageous-class carriers converted from battlecruiser hulls, the 22,000 ton battleship-hulled HMS Eagle, the unique 27,000-ton Ark Royal, and the tiny 13,000-ton HMS Hermes (pennant 95, the world’s first ship to be designed as an aircraft carrier)– a total of just six flattops, within the first couple years of the war 5/6th of these were sent to the bottom by Axis warships and aircraft!
Luckily, two 32,000-ton Implacable-class and four 23,000-ton Illustrious-class carriers, laid down before the war, were able to join the fleet to help make good those losses until the first of 16 planned follow-on Colossus-class light fleet carriers, a quartet of 35,000-ton Audacious-class, four Malta-class supercarriers (57,000-tons), and 8 planned Centaur-class carriers could be built (although most weren’t)– not to mention 45 escort carriers quickly folded into service– hence the wide array of comprehensive carrier-based strike and fighter aircraft seen above.
Here we see a pair of McDonnell Douglas A4G Skyhawks of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm 805 Squadron (VF-805) coming in low and hot over the RAN’s only operable aircraft carrier of the time, HMAS Melbourne (R21) sometime in the 1970s.
While the RAN FAA traces its lineage back to the Great War, it was only after WWII that it was able to stand up fixed-wing carrier squadrons, flying Hawker Sea Fury’s in Korea. After a brief interlude in Sea Venoms, 805 Squadron picked up their Seahawks in 1968.
