Traces of World War 2 
FAA - No. 820 Squadron
10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940

      home - latest update 27 February 2008


FLEET AIR ARM 820 SQUADRON - Torpedo spotter reconnaissance, Swordfish

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



After the outbreak of war this torpedo spotter reconnaissance squadron of 9 Swordfish sailed with HMS Ark Royal for the South Atlantic and thence the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.

In April 1940 the squadron carried out bombing attacks on Vaernes airfield, when the ship was recalled for the defence of Norway, then with the Fall of France attacked French battleships at Oran, and subsequently attacked Cagliari and Dakar.

In November 1940 the squadron attempted an attack on the Italian battleship Littorio off Sardinia, and remained in the Mediterranean the rest of the year.

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

13/05/1940: Silvik, Norway. 2 Planes lost

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13/05/1940: Silvik, Norway

Two Swordfishes of 820 Squadron force landed during a bombing raid of Silvik. were unhurt. A second Swordfish with Lt H.de G. Hunter and

Type: Swordfish Mk I
Serial number: ?, -?
Operation: Silvik
Lost: 13/05/1940
Captain A.C. Newson, RM, safe
Lt Cdr G.B. Hodgkinson, safe
Leading Airman R. H.McColl, safe
Force landed

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Type: Swordfish Mk I
Serial number: ?, -?
Operation: Silvik
Lost: 13/05/1940
Lt H. de G. Hunter, safe
Leading Airman D. Smith. safe
Force landed two miles south of Harstad.

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

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Sources

820 Squadron - Fleet Air Arm Archive
Air of Authority
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Australian War Memorial
Bail-outs for 1940
British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day
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
Flying Marines
Lee-on-Solent Memorial (missing FAA members)
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
RAF against odds (Time, USA, 27/05/1940)
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
Norman Franks, Air Battle Dunkirk
Ross McNeill 'Royal Air Force Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War' (Midland Counties)

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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 820 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