This posted for a fellow Aussie forumite, Geoff ‘Cavok’.
I am trying to establish the date of the loss of Royal Navy Avenger JZ444 overboard from the HMS Indefatigable, most likely in 1945. Can anyone point me to where such a record may exist?
By: bms44 - 31st August 2008 at 15:31
Fleet Air Arm Aircraft 1939 to 1945 ( Ray Sturtivant -Air Britain) adds a little more info: 820 Squadron, port undercarriage collapsed, over side ‘Indefatigable’ Code 3 (I have no details on the Code system : presumably written off) Date 28/7/1945 Pilot was Sub Lt.DM Thomas.No mention of fatalities .(Another interesting entry is for JZ613 820 Squadron , also in the ‘Indefatigable’ same pilot ,20/04/45 , bounced,floated over No 1 Barrier and crashed into No 2.
(Another Code 3..whatever that indicates) And Sub Lt Thomas , yet again, JZ443 Caught No 3 wire, landed to starboard, wing hit ‘Indefatigable’s’ island (The dreaded Code 3 again, this time 2/04/1945)
Whether it was ‘three strikes and you’re out!’ I can’t say, but I imagine this particular pilot could have wished for a less-eventful posting to 820 and the ‘Indefat’.
(All credit to the late Ray for his untiring trawl through the records to glean the information that exists today for our benefit. Ray, you’re sadly missed)
It may be worth contacting the FAA Museum Yeovilton, to see whether more information may be gleaned from 820 Squadron records, if any survive. )
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August 31, 2008 at 1:50 pm