Traces of World War 2 
FAA - No. 814 Squadron
10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940

      home - latest update 28 February 2008


FLEET AIR ARM 814 SQUADRON - Bomber, Fairey Swordfish I

History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks



On the outbreak of war this torpedo spotter reconnaissance squadron with 9 Swordfish transferred to HMS Hermes at the outbreak of war, sailing to West Africa to join French ships operating out of Dakar and Freetown, in the search for the German battleship Graf Spee.

After the French surrender to Germany in 1940, the squadron was tasked with attacking its former allies at Dakar, damaging the French battleship Richelieu on 8 July 1940.

In December 1940 the ship sailed for the Indian Ocean, operating off the East African coast and providing support for the land forces in British Somaliland and enabling the capture of 5 enemy merchant ships and bombing of a 6th by the cruiser HMS Hawkins in February 1941.

In May 1941 the squadron provided support to the RAF in Iraq

 


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Operations and losses 10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940
Not all operations listed; those with fatal losses are.

16/05/1940:
dummy attack. 2 Planes lost, 2 MIA

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16/05/1940: dummy attack

In exercises from Aircraft carrier Hermes near Freetown at 8-31N, 13-37W, Lt E. A. Liversidge and Leading Airman S. G. Bax of 814 Squadron were killed when their Swordfish crashed into the sea. A second Swordfish of the 814 Squadron was lost that day crashing on shore.

See also: FAA losses HMS Hermes

Type: Fairey Swordfish II
Serial number: ?, -H3G
Operation: dummy attack
Lost: 16/05/1940
Leading Airman Sidney G. Bax, RN C/SSX. 15409, H.M.S. Hermes, [814 Squadron?], age 24, 16/05/1940, missing [according to Naval History killed in air crash, 16/05/1940]
Lieutenant (A) Edward A. Liversidge, RN, H.M.S. Hermes [814 Sqdn.], age unknown, 16/05/1940, missing [according to Naval History killed in air crash, 14/05/1940]
both were killed when a Swordfish of 814 Sqn dived into sea pres. at 0831N-1337W - carrying out a dummy attack on HMS Hermes.
Commemorated on the Lee-on-Solent Memorial. See also RAF Commands Forum

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Type: Fairey Swordfish II
Serial number: ?, -?
Operation: ?
Lost: 16/05/1940

Source: British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day


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Sources

814 Squadron - Fleet Air Arm Archive
Air of Authority
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Australian War Memorial
Bail-outs for 1940
T.K. Derry (1952), The Campaign in Norway
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Casualty Lists Royal Navy
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Fleet Air Arm Archive 1939-1945
Fleet Air Arm Museum
Fleet Air Arm Archive 1939-1945: Prisoners of War
Lee-on-Solent Memorial (missing FAA members)
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
RAF - Campaign Diary - The Battle of France (May-June 1940)
RAF Museum: British Military Aviation in 1940
RAF Order of Battle, France, 10th May 1940
Royal Air Force History Section
The Royal Air Force, 1939-1945
The Second World War - a day by day account

The War in France and Flanders, 1939-1940, by Major L.F. Ellis, 1954

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Books

Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008
Ross McNeill 'Royal Air Force Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War' (Midland Counties)
Ray Sturvivant, Fleet Air Arm Aircraft 1939-1945, Air Britain Historians Ltd, 1995

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Links

Discussion Groups
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
RAF Commands Forum

Other
Abbreviations used in the Royal Air Force
Code Names & RAF Vocabulary

Air Aces
Airwar over Denmark
Allied World War II Casualties in the Netherlands
Armée de l'Air - Order of Battle, 10th May 1940
Australian Wargraves
Axis History Factbook
Battle-of-Britain.com
De Belgen in Engeland 1940-1945 (in Dutch)
Belgian Aviation History Association Archaeological Team
British Aircraft Directory
British Aviation Archaeological Council - Books and research links
Canada's Air Force History
HMS Cavalier
Ciel de Gloire (in French) RAF Squadrons
CWGC Cemeteries Germany
CWGC Cemeteries Netherlands
Czechoslovak airmen in the RAF 1940-1945
Danish WW2 Pilots

Dutch Pilots in RAF Squadrons
Eagles Squadrons (American pilots in the RAF)
Foreign Aircraft Landings in Ireland 1939-1946
Håkans aviation page (from Sweden, in English)
'High flight', poem by John Gillespie Magee
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, poem by W.B. Yeats
Jagdgeschwader 27 (in German)
Luchtoorlog ('Arial War', in Dutch, with many photos)
Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth
The Luftwaffe, 1933-1945
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
The National Ex-Prisoners of War Association
Naval History.net
Nordic Aviation during WW2
Pilotfriend.com: aircraft of WW2
Polish Air Force 1940-1947 Operations Record Books
RAF Battle of Britain
RAF Upwood
De Slag om de Grebbeberg
(Dutch)
Warbird Alley
War over Holland
World War II Aircraft wrecksites in Norway
www.bomber-command.de

Aircraft crashes on the North Yorkshire Moors, England
Bills-Bunker.de
The Lancastershire Aircraft Investigation Team
Luftfahrt-Archäologie in Schleswig Holstein (in German)
North East Diary 1939-1945
Wartime Leicester and Leicestershire

The Aerodrome - Aces and Aircraft of World War 1
WW1 Cemeteries

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This page is dedicated to the men of FAA 814 Squadron.

© Bart FM Droog / Rottend Staal Online 2008. Permission granted for use of the data gathered here for non commercial purposes, if this source is mentioned with a link to http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/index.html