12 NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2008
No.2
The new avengers
S
HIP and squadron
mottos invariably
encapsulate
fi ghting spirit,
s
bravado, boldness.
The watchwords of 820 Naval
Norway ................. 1940-41
Air Squadron are no different.
Spartivento ................1940
But they neatly sum up the Bismarck ....................1941
squadron’s role past and present: Atlantic .......................1941
tutamen et ultor – safeguard and Malta Convoys ...........1941
avenger.
North Africa.......... 1942-43
Safeguard: the squadron has
Sicily ...........................1943
been at the forefront of Britain’s
Salerno .......................1943
defence against the submarine
Palembang .................1945
threat for more than half a
Okinawa .....................1945
century.
Japan .........................1945
And avenger: twice she meted
out severe retribution on an enemy
Falkland Islands.........1982
Battle Honours
who delivered brutal blows to the
Royal Navy. Aircraft: Merlin HM Mk1
Today, however, there’s more Engines: 3 x 2,200 shp
safeguarding than avenging.
Rolls-Royce gas turbines
Based at RNAS Culdrose and
Length: 22.8m (74ft 10in) es
equipped with six Merlin HM
Height: 6.65m (21ft 10in)
Mk1s (although the Mk2 is
Rotor span: 18.59m (61ft)
already looming on the horizon),
Weight: 14.6 tonnes
820 is one of the triumvirate of
(32,000lb)
front-line Merlin squadrons.
Unlike 829 NAS, 820 is not
Speed: 167 knots
assigned to specific ships (such as
Crew: one pilot, one
the Type 23 fleet) but deploys with
observer, one aircrewman
carriers, RFAs, or operates from
Endurance: 750 nautical
land bases around the globe...
miles
... as has been demonstrated in
Armament: Up to four
● An 820 NAS Merlin leaves the rugged Cornish coast behind and heads to pick up a ‘casualty’ from HMS Portland
the past 12 months: exercises in
Picture: LA(Phot) Carl Osmond, RNAS Culdrose
Sting Ray torpedoes or
the North Sea, Baltic, Denmark, depth charges, 2 x GPMG,
and further afield have kept the
of its lifespan 820 NAS has Ark Royal IV which would be would dominate much of 820’s In those final months, her
smiper rifle
120 personnel (30 pilots/observers/
been devoted to anti-submarine its home for much of the great war. Re-equipped with Fairey Avengers struck at the oil refineries Facts and figur
aircrewmen and 90 mechanics and
warfare. carrier’s legendary three-year Albacore torpedo bombers, the of Palembang and the heart of the
technicians) busy. All but one of its dozen battle career. squadron supported the Allied Japanese Empire (Tokyo) before
Kings formed the cutting edge in
Most recently, the squadron has honours were earned before its From Ark Royal – and later landings in North Africa (sinking HMS Indefatigable brought the
the war against the underwater
been conducting training in home fliers became specialists in anti- Victorious – 820’s Swordfish
the U-boat which had destroyed squadron home in 1946 and 820
threat.
waters, including practising the submarine warfare. biplanes struck at German-
HMS Barham the year before), disbanded.
The squadron’s most recent
art of casualty evacuation at sea Indeed the first two decades of occupied airfields in Norway, the
Sicily and Salerno. The squadron re-formed five
battle honour was earned in the
(‘casualties’ provided by the ship’s the squadron’s life were as varied French fleet at Mers el Kebir and,
Falklands (its aircrew flew more
More new aircraft (Fairey years later, first with fixed-wing
company of HMS Portland). as the aircraft with which it was most famously, at the Bismarck
than 4,700 hours during the
Barracudas) and a new target aircraft (Fireflies, Avengers and
First formed in 1933 when the equipped. (nemesis of the Hood) when the
campaign to re-take the South
(Tirpitz) followed (the squadron Gannets) before the decision was
RAF transferred several Fairey III Originally attached to HMS squadron crippled the pride of
Atlantic islands).
aircraft from its 405 Flight to
didn’t sink the leviathan) before taken to convert to helicopters.
Courageous on reconnaissance Hitler’s Kriegsmarine.
820 finally bade farewell to the
the Royal Navy, for two thirds duties, it was reassigned to HMS The Mediterranean theatre
yet another change of weaponry It was here, in December 1957,
Sea King in 2003 and welcomed
(Grumman Avengers) and a final that 820’s association with anti- the helicopter which is now
theatre of war (the Far East) submarine warfare began. the mainstay of Britain’s anti-
concluded 820’s war. Whirlwinds, Wessexes and Sea submarine defence.
HEROES OF THE ROYAL NAVY No.54
James Hurry, George Bevan, Maurice
MacMahon, Edward Richardson, Christopher
Watson, James Henry and Malcolm Thompson
THERE was little cause for cheer and little end merchantman, SS Earl of Forfar, carrying shells
in sight to Armageddon in the fi rst week of and other ammunition.
November 1916. The wharves of Archangel were emptying as
The year 1916 had offered so much hope to sailors tried to move their endangered ships to
the Allied cause: for the fi rst time co-ordinated safety.
action by the united nations, the arrival of There was no thought of moving the Earl of
Kitchener’s armies on the Western Front, the Forfar. Her stern had already blown up and fi res
clash of dreadnoughts in the North Sea. raged on her forecastle too now.
Hopes and dreams faded in the mud of the But above the crackle of bullets ‘cooking off’
Western Front and murk of the Skagerrak. on the quayside and explosions rocking his ship,
The Battle of the Somme still had ten days to from the shoreside the Earl of Forfar’s captain,
run – plenty of time to add a few more hundred James Campbell Hurry, could hear his men
names to its butcher’s bill of more than a million groaning, crying for help.
casualties on both sides. He rounded up a party of volunteers through
Verdun, the grimmest of all the grim charnel the fl ames, lifted several shells off the deck and
houses of the Great War, would see another six hauled seven injured men to safety.
weeks of battle before the Meuse mill ground the Elsewhere on the ship’s shattered forecastle,
last of its 700,000 victims. Lt Cdr Maurice MacMahon and Capt George
The latest battle on the Isonzo (the ninth) had Bevan RN shifted smouldering debris to lift a
just ended – like the previous eight – without mate, his arm, leg and collarbone broken, on to a
the Italian armies sweeping through the Austria- waiting tug, the Sunderland.
Hungarian positions in the Alps. There, Lt Edward Richardson, 2nd Engineer
Only the Eastern Front did not sway back Christopher Watson and ABs James Henry and
and forth with the attack and counter-attack of Malcolm Thompson were showered
warring nations. by burning embers as as
But the Eastern Front was not at peace. The they carried the Forfar’’s
Tsar’s Army had driven the Austro-Hungarians to stricken crew onboard.
the foothills of the Carpathians before exhausting Maurice MacMahon was s
itself – only after infl icting one and a half million not done yet, however. He e
casualties on its foe. rushed over a plank on to
It wasn’t just the Tsar’s Army which was a fl oating crane next to
exhausted. So too were its supplies. A generation the Earl of Forfar and
before convoys ferried vital aid from the West dragged a carpenter
to the East to sustain the Russian soldier in and the crane’s two
his struggle with the Teuton, less-heralded Russian crew to safety.
merchantmen braved the waters of northern With that, all who
Europe to deliver war materiel to Russia. could be saved had been
This Wednesday, November 8, the port of saved – and minutes
Archangel was fi lled – as ever – with ships being later the Earl of Forfar was as
loaded and unloaded, while others waited their rocked by one fi nal explosion osion
turn at anchor of Bakaritsa Island. as her deck blew up.
In the fading light of a mid-autumn afternoon, All seven rescuers were
the wharves were suddenly rocked by an gazetted for the Albert
explosion as the SS Baron Driesen, a weather- Medal the following
worn 15-year-old steamer blew apart while her September.
crew unloaded munitions. Each one had
The blast did more than rock the harbour. It displayed “utmost
spread fl ames, embers and molten metal around gallantry” and
the wharves setting stores and ships alight. “disregard for personal
Next to go up in fl ames was another safety”.
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