The 835 Royal Naval Air Squadron Memorial Grove

  By Branch Member Maynard Scott

They were well down their eighties, when surviving members of 835 RNAS, together with family members and friends, met at the Arboretum on 14^th May 2004. They came to commemorate all the officers and men who served with the squadron in World War II, but especially to dedicate a Memorial Grove to remember their seven colleagues who made the ultimate sacrifice when serving aboard HMS Nairana.

The grove is located in a corner of the Royal Navy Review adjacent the Merchant Navy Wood and the lagoon.  It comprises eight oak trees, one for the squadron and one for each of the seven airmen who did not return.  At the time of the dedication the Arboretum management was recommending oak trees (Heart of Oak) for all the Naval plots in the Royal Naval Review.

Unfortunately, the trees in this important little grove have passed largely unnoticed as they do not have an accompanying plinth / plaque to draw attention.   Having said that, this memorial remembers some of the bravest men whoever went to sea on behalf of the Royal Navy and it will always exist ‘Lest We Forget'.

The squadron was commissioned in February 1942 as a convoy protection squadron equipped with 4 Swordfish aircraft.  Subsequently, it served for short periods aboard H.M. Ships Furious, Activity, Battler, Chaser and Argus, all aircraft carriers, and during the period May 1942 to November 1943 was moved from place to place no fewer than 16 times.

In 1943 the squadron was equipped with 12 Swordfish and 6 Sea Hurricane aircraft and on 31^st December that year it embarked on board HMS Nairana, which was to be its parent ship until decommissioning at the end of March 1945. During this period, the squadron helped to protect 19 convoys from which only one merchantman (a straggler) was lost.  Those who came to the dedication Service at the Arboretum were mainly associated with those who served and died whilst attached to the aircraft carrier, HMS Nairana.

Initially, the squadron that served aboard the Nairana was used to protect Gibraltar convoys and on anti-U-boat operations in the Atlantic but after the fighter flight was re-equipped with 6 Wildcat aircraft in September 1944, she was transferred the next month to escorting convoys to Russia and to operations against German shipping in the Norwegian fjords.

German U-boats were only dangerous at periscope level from where they could identify and attack their targets. The primary duty of Swordfish was therefore to patrol the convoy and to attack with depth-charges or other weapons, any U-boats that became visible at periscope level.  Although such Swordfish attacks were minimal, their constant patrolling, both night and day and in all weathers, kept the U-boats submerged for long periods.

When convoys, of necessity, sailed close to enemy coastlines they also risked attack by land-based enemy aircraft.  In such situations it was the turn of the Sea Hurricanes and the Wildcat aircraft from the Nairana, and any of the other carriers, to defend the convoy.

The Nairana, a converted cargo ship, had a flight deck just 495 feet long and 60 feet wide and a maximum speed of 17 knots. A former Squadron Commander would eventually write a book about serving on the Nairana in Arctic conditions. In one passage he referred to the airmen’s ability “to land and take off from such a small ‘moving runway’ in 70 mph gales, with ship tossing, corkscrewing and rolling sometimes at 100 degrees.”  This is beyond belief.  The aircrew did this hundreds of times, often on a snow-covered deck and in virtual darkness. At the same time, the ship and those in flight, were constantly at risk of attack from the enemy.

It is my understanding that three airmen were lost at sea when their Swordfish took-off from HMS Nairana and never returned.  The other four airmen were apparently lost following conflict with enemy aircraft.   The brother of one of those lost at sea informed me that the Service of Worship in the Millennium Chapel, prior to the dedication at the Memorial Grove, was the closest that the family had ever had to a funeral.    In addition, he told me the ‘girlfriend’ of his late brother (who was also present at the service) was ‘still flying the flag for him after all these years and had never married.’

One of the pilots described how in February 1945 a German Junker 88 tried to sink the Nairana.  “It very nearly succeeded, but flying close to sea level the Junker clipped a wave and damaged a propeller.  The pilot immediately turned away, and flying on only one good engine, he only just managed to reach his base in German occupied Norway.”  Many years later, the British pilot, met up with the German pilot, and they had a much more friendly encounter - so much so that the former even visited the latter at his home at Lubeck.  The British pilot summed up their original meeting in an email...  “He tried to torpedo us and we tried to shoot him down…both being unsuccessful I’m glad to say.”