Fairey Swordfish

Snautzer01 said:

re arming rockets

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nuuumannn said:

This is a bit of a guess, but given these two guys, R.J. Dick of Edinburgh and J. Nickel of Bathgate, both Scottish, this picture is possibly taken at HMS Jackdaw, or RNAS Crail, in Fife, which was a training station for FAA aircrew, initially on torpedo training. The last surviving British wartime synthetic torpedo trainer building still exists at Crail.

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EwenS said:

Taken at St Merryn in Cornwall. As it says, one of a sequence. The whole sequence can be found on the IWM site. Dated to 1 Aug 1944. Note the D-Day stripes above the flare racks.

Find an object | Imperial War Museums

www.iwm.org.uk

Lt Cdr P Snow, noted in the narrative accompanying the photo, was CO of 816 Swordfiish squadron from 3 May 1944 until it disbanded on 7 Aug 1944.

After service on the escort carrier Chaser until mid-March 1944, 816 visited several RNAS in Scotland, including Crail for a couple of days, before settling at Perranporth / St Merryn in Cornwall on 20 April 1944 while on loan to Coastal Command for D-Day. It was just one of a number of Swordfish and Avenger squadrons so deployed. It disbanded there on 7 Aug 1944, with aircraft and crews joining 836 squadron at Maydown in Northern Ireland.

Lt Cdr Snow then took command of 838 squadron on 18 Aug, another Swordfish squadron loaned to Coastal Command for D-Day when it had been based at Harrowbeer near Plymouth. It too went to Northern Ireland in mid-Aug. He remained CO until the squadron disbanded in Feb 1945.

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