History 

History 

Formed in November 1939 from 769 NAS Sea Gladiators which had been detached to RNAS Hatston to counter enemy attacks on Scapa, the squadron subsequently embarked on HMS Glorious in April 1940 to provide fighter patrols during ferrying operations of 269 Sqn. RAF Gladiators to Norway, and then transferred to HMS Furious at Cambeltown in early May 1940.

May until September 1940 was spent by 804 NAS at Hatston, operating in defence of Scapa Flow, and subsequently recognised as only one of two FAA squadrons operating with RAF Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain.  

Most of September was spent at detachments on HMS Furious, and In October 1940 the squadron was re-equipped with Martlet Is at Skaebrae, and subsequently with Fulmar IIs and Sea Hurricanes from February 1941 at RNAS Yeovilton.

From April 1941 the squadron’s new role was to operate from catapult-armed merchant ships (CAM- ships) until the role was taken over by the RAF Merchant Ship Fighter Unit in May 1942. During this time the squadrons had detachments on HMS Ariguani, HMS Springbank until sunk on 27 September 1940, HMS Maplin, and SS Michael until sunk on 2 June 1941.

Whilst operating from HMS Maplin a squadron Sea Hurricane shot down a Fw 200 in August 1941.  

The squadron was involved in Gibraltar convoys with HMS Argus in July 1942 and in October 1942 joined HMS Dasher with Sea Hurricane IIc’s for the North African landings.

In August 1943 the squadron received Hellcat Is and in October joined No 7 Naval Fighter Wing following two months later by embarking on HMS Emperor accompanying a US-bound convoy.

In early 1944 the squadron was involved in operations against Norwegian coastal targets including the German battleship Tirpitz in Operation Tungsten in April 1944, when Barracuda dive-bombed and crippled the battleship, with support of the fighter cover from the 7th Naval Fighter Wing of which 804 sqdn was part.

In June 1944, 804 NAS was absorbed into 800 NAS.

The squadron reformed in September 1944 at Wingfield, South Africa with 24 Hellcat IIs. In January 1945 the squadron embarked on HMS Ameer to provide cover during the landings on Ramree Island, and subsequently missions over Sumatra and Malaya.

In April 1945 the squadron embarked on HMS Empress and also HMS Shah for attacks on the Andaman Islands and the coast of Burma, returning to HMS Ameer in June for attacks on Sumatran airfields and Phuket Island ops, only returning to the UK after VJ Day in November 1945.

- Has anyone more Informations about this Squadron -