Interwar period (1933-1939) 802 Squadron was formed on 3 April 1933 aboard by the merger of two independent
Royal Air Force naval units,
408 (Fleet Fighter) Flight and
409 (Fleet Fighter) Flight. By 1939, 802 Squadron was operating from , the Royal Naval Air Station at Dekheila,
Alexandria in
Egypt, where, like all of the Royal Air Force's Fleet Air Arm squadrons, it was taken over by the
Admiralty on 24 May 1939.
Aircraft •
Nimrod I S1579 571 •
Osprey I K2783 • Osprey III K3643 549 • Osprey III Seaplane K3644 590
Second World War (1939-1945) In April 1940 802 Squadron was serving aboard
Glorious with twelve
Gloster Sea Gladiators when the ship was recalled to participate in the
defence of Norway. The squadron ceased to exist after
Glorious was sunk by the German battleships
Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau on 8 June 1940 during the defence of Norway. Reformed from part of
804 Squadron on 21 November 1940 with
Martlet Is, the squadron sub-flights embarked on in July 1941, with B flight serving on in August. In the following month the whole squadron was involved in Gibraltar escort convoys from
Audacity from which it shot down four
Focke-Wulf Fw 200's. The squadron was lost on 21 December 1941 when
Audacity was sunk by . with twelve
Supermarine Seafire L Mk.IIIs and twelve F Mk.XVs. In August the L Mk.IIIs were replaced with twelve F Mk.XVs. By
VJ day, the squadron had spent a short period in , and had been anticipated to leave for the
British Pacific Fleet with 9th Carrier Air Group. In December the squadron disbanded at RNAS Ayr (HMS
Wagtail). In January 1946, the squadron reformed with Seafire F Mk.XVIIs and personnel set sail for the Far East in April without their aircraft, with the intention of relieving
1851 Naval Air Squadron aboard the
Colossus-class light aircraft carrier . However, upon receiving twelve new Seafire F Mk.XVs, the squadron instead embarked in sister ship . In March 1947, the ship returned home, and upon arrival in Plymouth, 802 Squadron disembarked at
RNAS Eglinton (HMS Gannet) in County Londonderry and subsequently disbanded on 30 March. When the squadron was re-established with twelve aircraft at RNAS Eglinton on 1 May 1947, the Seafire F.15s were once more the aircraft utilised, as a component of the
15th Carrier Air Group. In September, the Group boarded HMS
Vengeance and subsequently departed for the Mediterranean; however, 802 was returned to the UK in March 1948. In August, a Mig-15 was attributed to a pilot from the squadron. Squadron pilot Lieutenant
"Hoagy" Carmichael was thought to have shot down a
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 on 9 August 1952. Carmichael was recorded to have achieved this feat during a dogfight which started when a formation of four Sea Furys under his command were attacked by eight MiGs during a fighter bomber mission over
Chinnampo. It was later confirmed by squadron testimony and comparison against the squadron diary that the kill was achieved by Sub Lieutenant Brian 'Shmoo' Ellis, making the more junior 'Shmoo' one of only a handful of pilots of propeller planes to have shot down a jet. Approximately 4,000 sorties were conducted from 11 May to 31 October. In November, the squadron relocated the majority of its aircraft to the
Colossus-class light fleet carrier or to
RNAS Sembawang (HMS Simbang), Singapore, subsequently moving to HMS
Theseus at Malta, where it was disbanded upon reaching
RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus), Hampshire, in December. It jointly received the
Boyd Trophy with
825 Naval Air Squadron for its operations in Korea throughout 1952.
Post Korean War In February 1953, 802 Squadron was re-established with twelve Sea Fury TB.11s at RNAS Arbroath, subsequently embarking its aircraft aboard HMS
Theseus in April. it re-embarked for a cruise in the Mediterranean before returning to the United Kingdom.
Sea Hawk (1954-1959) F1 on ; an example of the type used by 802 Squadron In February 1954, 802 Naval Air Squadron transitioned to the Sea Hawk F1 at RNAS Lossiemouth (HMS
Fulmar), located in Moray. The inaugural production
Hawker Sea Hawk took to the skies in November 1951, and it was integrated into FAA squadrons in 1953, replacing the
Supermarine Attacker jet fighter and the Hawker Sea Fury piston-engined fighter. Similar to other FAA Sea Hawk units during that period, the squadron utilised later variants of the Sea Hawk as they were made available, culminating in the FGA. 4 by the time it set sail on HMS
Eagle for the Mediterranean in May 1955. However, 802 Squadron disbanded in November of that year.
Suez Crisis (1956) By the time of the
Suez Crisis, 802 Squadron had already reformed at RNAS Lossiemouth and was equipped with Sea Hawk FB3s, one of these aircraft lost the front of a drop tank to ground fire while the squadron was embarked aboard in September 1956. In November, during
Operation Musketeer, assaults were conducted on airfields, followed by attacks on artillery positions primarily located in the
Port Said region.
Post Suez 802 Squadron re-equipped with Sea Hawk FB5s before transferring to the
Audacious-class aircraft carrier in May 1957. Following a trip to the United States, which included cross-operations with the
United States Navy's , 802 Squadron completed two tours in the Mediterranean, the second of these starting in September 1958 aboard HMS
Ark Royals sister ship , and ending with the disbandment of 802 Squadron at RNAS Lossiemouth on 10 April 1959. Plans to reform 802 Squadron at Yeovilton in 1979 with five
British Aerospace Sea Harriers failed to materialise. == Aircraft flown ==