808 Naval Air Squadron

808 Naval Air Squadron/ 808 Squadron RAN
Unit badge for 808 Squadron while in RAN service
Active	1940–1941 1942–1945 1950–1954 1955–1958 2011–Current
Country	United Kingdom (former)  Australia
Branch	Royal Navy (former)  Royal Australian Navy
Type	Ship based helicopter squadron
Role	Tactical Transport
Size	One Squadron
Part of	Fleet Air Arm
Motto(s)	Strength in Unity
Equipment	MRH-90 Taipan
Battle honours	Spartivento 1940 'Bismarck' 1941 Malta Convoys 1941 Atlantic 1943 Salerno 1943 Normandy 1944 Burma 1945 Korea 1951-2

808 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier based squadron formed in July 1940. It served on a number of the Navy's aircraft carriers during the Second World War, serving in most of the theatres of the war, before decommissioning at the end of the war. It was re-formed in 1950 as 808 Squadron RAN, a carrier-based attack squadron of the Royal Australian Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and saw action during the Korean War before disbanding again in 1958.

808 Squadron was formed at RNAS Worthy Down in July 1940, flying twelve Fairey Fulmars in the role of a Fleet Fighter squadron. They were initially assigned to the Isle of Man to carry out patrols over the Irish Sea, but were soon transferred to Wick for the defence of the dockyards. Following this, the squadron was reassigned to RAF Fighter Command and was one of only two Allied naval aviation squadrons to take part in the Battle of Britain, the other being 804 Naval Air Squadron.

In September 1940, the squadron was assigned to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which was part of Force H, operating in the Mediterranean. The squadron shot down two enemy aircraft in an attack on Sardinia in November, followed by another two in operations over Sicily in January 1941, and a fifth while defending Malta in May. The carrier was reassigned to the Atlantic in late May, as part of the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck. Following the successful sinking of the Bismarck, the carrier returned to the Mediterranean, with 807 and 808 Squadrons claiming fifteen aerial kills during July and August. 808 Squadron was embarked when Ark Royal was torpedoed and sunk by the U-81 on 13 November 1941. Although all of the squadron personnel survived the sinking, many of the aircraft were lost in the attack: the surviving aircraft were flown from Ark Royal before the carrier sank and on arrival in Gibraltar were merged with the survivors of 807 Squadron, which had also been embarked.