ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 282484
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| Date: | Wednesday 16 September 1942 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Supermarine Walrus Mk1 |
| Owner/operator: | 764 NAS |
| Registration: | K8340 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Cleddau Ddu. -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Standing |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RNAS Lawrenny Ferry. |
| N.A. |
Details:
The Supermarine Walrus (originally designated the Supermarine Seagull V) was a British single-engine amphibious biplane reconnaissance aircraft designed by R. J. Mitchell and manufactured by Supermarine at Woolston in Southampton.
The Walrus first flew in 1933, the design effort having commenced as a private venture four years earlier. It shared its general configuration with that of the earlier Supermarine Seagull. Having been designed to serve as a fleet spotter for catapult launching from cruisers or battleships, the aircraft was largely employed in other roles, notably as a maritime patrol aircraft and as a rescue aircraft for ditched aircrew. The Walrus featured numerous innovations for the period, being the first British squadron-service aircraft to incorporate in one airframe a fully retractable undercarriage, completely enclosed crew accommodation and an all-metal fuselage. K8340 was built at Southampton and her first post was one of a pair, the other being K8341, onboard the heavy Cruiser, HMS Exeter during 1935 & 36. HMS Exeter was the second and last York-class heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s. Aside from a temporary deployment with the Mediterranean Fleet during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–36, she spent the bulk of the 1930s assigned to the Atlantic Fleet.
During May 1939 administrative control of the Fleet Air Arm, the naval aviation wing of the Royal Navy, was transferred to the Board of Admiralty from the Royal Air Force under the "Inskip Award". The Fleet Air Arm encompassed all RAF aircraft that operated from carriers and other fighting ships, renamed the Air Branch of the Royal Navy, at the onset of the Second World War, the Fleet Air Arm consisted of only 20 squadrons and 232 aircraft. Royal Navy Air Squadrons were to be numbered in two blocks, 800–899 for frontline, and 700-799 for second-line units.
When WW2 began in September 1939, K8340 was assigned off the ship leaving her stablemate behind, the cruiser was assigned to patrol the South Atlantic against German commerce raiders. Exeter was one of the three British cruisers that fought the German pocket battleship, Admiral Graf Spee, in the Battle of the River Plate. She was severely damaged during the battle, with both Walrus’s badly damaged, so much so that they were jettisoned over the side. As for Exeter, and she was in drydock for over a year. K8341 now lay at the bottom of the South Atlantic! As for K8340, she went to 769 squadron RN FAA in the search and rescue roll. Then in 1941 she came to 711 NAS. Her final squadron was to be No.764 NAS.
The squadron formed at RNAS Lee-on-Solent on the 8th of April 1940 as an Advanced Seaplane Training Squadron, Lt. Cdr F. E. C. Judd in command. Equipment included Walrus amphibians, Seafox and Swordfish Seaplane; after completing a conversion course successful trainee embarked in the Seaplane Carrier HMS PEGASUS for the catapult training phase before passing out.
After only a short time of operations the squadron was relocated to RAF Pembroke Dock in South Wales on the 3rd of July. Training continued but from August the squadron was redesignated as the Seaplane Flying Training Course Part II - Advanced Seaplane training; trainees arrived having complete Part I conducted by 765 squadron at RNAS Sandbanks. the squadron began operating from another site upriver at Lawrenny Ferry. This site was being developed as an RN establishment and the squadron’s Walrus aircraft moved there on the 4th of October 1940 but remained attached to RAF Pembroke Dock; the Swordfish floatplanes had been withdrawn in September.
The new facilities at Lawrenny Ferry commissioned as an RN Air Station under the control of RNAS Lee-on-Solent, HMS DAEDALUS on the 1st of February 1942 and the squadron’s detachment at RAF Pembroke Dock ended.
Attrition amongst the Walrus complement was fairly high, there were 5 incidents during 1942:
On the 2nd of July K8340 flown by Midshipman P. L. B. C. Young, RNVR grounded on the slipway at the station.
R6546 piloted by Sub-Lt J. D. Nunn, RNVR ran into a derelict jetty on the 6th of August.
After repair, K8340 made a forced landing striking a hedge on the 8th of September after the pilot, Sub-Lt S. W. Richards, RNZNVR got lost. Sadly, the exact spot the incident occurred has been lost through the natural course of time. After more repair and patching up to make her seaworthy she was back on duty six days later, she came out of the maintenance hanger at Lawrenny on her wheels with a fresh coat of sky-blue paint on her hull. On the 15th of September K8340 sat out on the dispersal concrete standing and was let down the slipway into the water. She floated in the water and tethered to the tender. The mechanics conducted the remaining tests before declaring her fit to float, wheels came up, she was ready, signed off, and taken to her mooring in the Cleddau Ddu, then tied up, the tender along with the groundcrew returned to the base in time for tea.
The following day, the 16th, she was due for air testing before cleared for op’s, the crew climbed into the tender, then went out into the middle of the moorings. Only to find the mooring empty! Initial thoughts lent too ‘how had she slipped the mooring’? but it soon became evident she had NOT been seaworthy!
Crew:
Un-manned.
Wreckage:
The aircraft was eventually raised but was deemed a wright off and scrapped.
Memorials:
Various memorials dotted around Pembrokeshire.
Additional Information:
Supermarine Walrus K8341, shipborne on the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, was damaged beyond repair by shelling from the German pocket battleship Graf Spee during the Battle of the River Plate, South America and was jettisoned overboard on 13th December 1939.
Sources:
www.royalnavyresercharchive.org.uk
www.abct.org.uk
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 07-Sep-2022 06:01 | Davies 62 | Added |
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