Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm. RNAS, Boaz Island

RNAS Boaz Island (HMS Malabar)
The hangar at the former HMS Malabar, the Fleet Air Arm's Royal Naval Air Station on Boaz Island
RNAS Boaz Island Shown within Bermuda
Coordinates	32°19′16″N 064°50′25″W / 32.32111°N 64.84028°W / 32.32111; -64.84028Coordinates: 32°19′16″N 064°50′25″W / 32.32111°N 64.84028°W / 32.32111; -64.84028
Type	Royal Naval Air Station
Site information
Owner	Admiralty
Operator	Royal Navy
Site history
Built	1940 (1940)
In use	1940-1946 (1946)
Garrison information
Garrison	North America and West Indies Station

RNAS Boaz Island (HMS Malabar) was a Royal Naval Air Station in Bermuda. The station became the primary base for the Royal Navy in the North-West Atlantic following American independence. It was the location of a dockyard, an Admiralty House, and the base of a naval squadron.

In the 20th century, when aeroplanes were added to the naval arsenal, large warships carried seaplanes and flying boats for use in reconnaissance, directing the ship's artillery fire, and for carrying out offensive actions on their own. These aeroplanes were generally carried on, and launched from catapults, and retrieved by crane after landing on the water. Unlike aircraft carriers, the cruisers and capital ships which carried these floatplanes had very limited abilities to maintain their aeroplanes, or to protect them from the elements.

Between World War I and World War II, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had assumed responsibility for operating the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). From 1933, an RAF detachment at the HM Dockyard, on Ireland Island, Bermuda, was responsible for the maintenance of the aeroplanes carried by the C-Class cruisers based at the station.

This detachment, which originally operated on the dockside within the Dockyard, also held aeroplanes in store, crated in parts. When an aeroplane could not be repaired, another was assembled as a replacement.

In 1936 it was decided to move the FAA operation outside of the yard, and to build a dedicated air station. The under-used Boaz Island, to the south of Ireland Island, was selected. The Island was covered with tarmac areas, a hangar, workshops and living quarters. As no landplanes were handled, there was no need for a runway. Seaplanes and flying-boats were brought ashore via two slips and in July 1936 718 (Catapult) Flight was formed equipped with Fairey 111 and Osprey aircraft. The Royal Naval Air Station was completed in 1939 and commissioned as HMS MALABAR II;[]/ ];/, the year the Second World War began. The decision had been made, by then, for the Royal Navy to resume responsibility for its own air arm. Although RAF personnel would continue to make up the shortfalls in the FAA's naval manpower, Boaz Island would be operated as a completely naval facility. The responsibility of the station remained the maintenance and storage of aeroplanes. The transfer took place on 24 May 1939 and 718 Flight became 718 Squadron now equipped with Supermarine Walrus amphibians and Fairey Seafox seaplanes in support of the 6 ships of the 8th Cruiser Squadron. On 21 Jan 1940 all the catapult units worldwide were combined into 700 Squadron and soon afterwards MALABAR II was decommissioned and now operated as part of the main base HMS MALABAR