July - November 1944

 

Formation and work-up

The personnel for 1848 Squadron assembled at RNAS Donibristle  in May 1944, and sailed for the USA to form and train. The squadron officially formed on July 1st 1944 at USNAS Brunswick as a single seat fighter squadron under the command of Lt. Cdr (A) E. l Clark RNVR.
 

U.S. Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine.

The squadron was issued with 12 Corsairs, a mix of Mk. 1 & IIs. After familiarisation with the aircraft and equipment the squadron began training in earnest to prepare for active service. Training included navigation exercises, low flying, formation flying and combat tactics.

There are only three flying incidents recorded during this training period, they involved 3 different aircraft but three of them bore the code '16V9'; in the first incident was on July 19th when Sub-Lt D.O Mackay taxed JT691 ('16V9' into the tail of JT704 ('I6V9') damaging his prop and the tail of JT704. The other two involved Midshipman E.F.K. Webb RNVR who crashed two different aircraft on the same day, July 31st ; JT102 ('16V9'), made a forced landing and nosed up, writing off the aircraft, and JT691 ('16V9') suffered engine failure at 300ft, stalled onto the runway and nosed up, also written off. Midshipman Webb was OK.

On July 30th the the squadron began practicing ADDLs (Aerodrome Dummy Deck Landings) utilising the nearby US Naval Auxiliary Airfield at Bar Harbour, Maine. They return to Brunswick on August 5th.! Usually the squadron would have conducted DLT (Deck Landing Training) on the training carrier the USS CHARGER, operating in Chesapeake Bay but there is no record of this happening – 1846 squadron training in parallel with 1848 conducted DLT August 23rd – 25rh..

On completion of working up at USNAS Brunswick1848, now increased to 18 aircraft and sister squadron 1846, flew to  USNAS Norfolk on October 15th 1944; these were hoisted aboard the escort carrier HMS RANEE on the 18th for passage to the UK. On completion of loading a cargo of lend-lease airframes and spares the ship sailed for New York On the 22nd she sailed with the Liverpool bound Convoy CU 44, RANEE left the convoy off Ireland and preceded to Belfast where she unloaded the squadrons and her ferry load at RNAMY Belfast before continuing on to Greenock. 1846 flew to RNAS Eglinton on November 2nd while 1848 went to RNAS Machrihanish on the 8th.

Disbanded at Machrihanish

On November 21st 1848 was disbanded, it its aircraft and pilots being shared equally between Nos.1843, 1845 and 1846 Squadrons bringing them up to 24 aircraft each.

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Content revised: 26 September 2021