Traces of World War 2 
FAA - No. 815 Squadron
10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940

      home - latest update 2 March 2008


815 SQUADRON - Bomber, Fairey Swordfish
Fleet Air Arm

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



The squadron formed at Worthy Down in October 1939 from the remnants of 811 and 822 squadrons surviving the sinking of HMS Courageous in September 1939, and disbanded in November 1939.

The same CO, L/C S Borrett, RN reformed the squadron later that month with 9 Swordfish, and in April 1940 the squadron was attached to RAF Coastal Command at Bircham Newton.

In May 1940 the Squadron bombed Waalhaven airfield (Rotterdam, NL) and provided support to the Dunkirk evacuation.

In June 1940 No. 815 embarked on HMS Illustrious and sailed for the Mediterranean in August, attacking and minelaying Benghazi, Rhodes and Tobruk.


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

12/05/1940: Waalhaven, NL. 1 Plane lost

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12/05/1940: Waalhaven, NL

In the evening six Bristol-152 Beaufort Mk I from No. 22 Squadron and nine Fairey Swordfish MkI from No. 815 Squadron bomb Waalhaven airfield.

Type: Swordfish I
Serial number: L9784, L3M
Operation: Waalhaven
Lost: 12/05/1940
Lt (A) A.S. Downes, RN
Lt R.W. Little.
Took off from Bircham Newton. Force-landed after being hit by flak at 22.10 hrs. in polder Oud Herkingen, near Herkingen on the isle of Overflakkee, on a field called 'de Munnik', owned by the Kardux brothers. The crew evaded via Antwerp to Ramsgate. They members returned unhurt on 14/05/1940.

Sources: Hans Onderwater, British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day; Ray Sturvivant, Fleet Air Arm Aircraft 1939-1945; TOCH Forum.


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Sources

British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day
Casualty Lists Royal Navy
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
FAA 815 Squadron
Fleet Air Arm Archive 1939-1945
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

War over Holland

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Books

Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008
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 815 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