August 1943 - June 1944

 

Formation and work-up

No.1832 squadron formed at Royal Naval Air Station Eglinton, Northern Ireland on August 15th 1943 as a single seater fighter squadron under the command of Lt. Cdr (A) T. W. Harrington RN. Initial equipment was 10 Wildcat Vs. The squadron was tasked with forming fighter flights, of four aircraft each, for attachment to TBR squadrons serving in escort carriers; eventually ten flights were formed.

An example of the Wildcat Mk. V  operating from the deck of a CVE.

 It moved to RAF Speke on September 20th to begin training and forming flights. The squadron suffered its only fatal flying incident on October 28th, Sub-Lt J. N. Wardill RNVR, was killed when he was forced to ditch in Wildcat FN109 near the Morecambe Bay Lightship.

The first of ten fighter flights, 'A' Flight was formed at RNAS Maydown November 6th 1943. 'A' Flight undertook a short period of Deck Landing Training (DLT) aboard the carrier ARGUS begging on the 15th. The first recorded squadron flying incident occurred on this date; Sub-Lt R. A. Fleischmann-Allen RNVR, entered the barrier in JV343. On completion of the training the flight flew ashore to RNAS Machrihanish on the 19th where a replacement aircraft was issued before they embarked in the CVE FENCER on the 20th to operate as the fighter flight of 842 Squadron, a composite squadron operating Swordfish and Seafires. Two further Wildcats were added in January 1944 and they were joined by ‘E’ flight on March 17th when the Seafire element was withdrawn bringing the Wildcat strength to 10 aircraft; the fighter flights were absorbed into 842 Squadron and became ‘Q’ flight.

The squadron relocated to RNAS Stretton on December 9th 1943 and ‘C’ Flight was formed on this date. Lt. Cdr (A) M. Hordern RN assumed command on December 15th, Lt. Cdr Harrington having been appointed as commanding officer of 1844 squadron. ‘C’ flight moved to RNAS Machrihanish on January 30th 1944 where the flight was attached to 832 Squadron. The squadron was shipped to Ceylon in March 1944 for operations with the Eastern Fleet, the Wildcats being aborted into 832 squadron.

‘B’ Flight was formed at RNAS Machrihanish on December 20th 1943 and attached to 846 squadron for service in the CVE TRACKER, embarking on January 4th 1944, the Wildcats being aborted into 846 squadron.

1832 squadron returned to RNAS Eglinton on February 2nd 1944 where it absorbed part of No. 878 Wildcat Squadron which had been disbanded there in late January. ’D’, ‘E’, ‘F’, & ‘G’ fights were formed there on the 3rd. ‘D’ fights was to join 845 squadron, like ‘C’ Flight it was to be shipped to Ceylon in March and served with the Eastern Fleet, Being absorbed into the squadron on June 1st. ‘E’ flight joined ‘A’ flight in FENCER on March 17th. ‘F’ flight was originally destined for Ceylon with 848 in the  AMEER but was reallocated to 813 squadron operating from CAMPANIA from April 5th, being absorbed into the squadron on June 1st. ‘G’ flight was attached to 852 squadron for service in NABOB and absorbed into the squadron on June 1st.

‘H’, ‘I’. & ‘J’ flights were formed on March 26th but appear to have remained at RNAS Eglinton until the surround disbanded. The final flight to be formed was ‘L’ on May 13th 1944 at RNAS Machrihanish to join ‘B’ Flight attached to 846 squadron in readiness for re-joining TRACKER on June 3rd for anti-submarine sweeps in support of the D-Day landings.

The 8 Wildcat fighters of 846, formerly 'B' & 'L' flights 1832 Sqn, aboard TRACKER on D-Day. Three are engines running preparing for take-off (one on the catapult), the remainder are parked with wings folded along the starboard side of the flight deck.

Squadron disbanded

1832 squadron disbanded at RNAS Eglinton on June 1st 1944, all remaining detached sub-flights being absorbed into the squadrons to which they were attached. Plans were outlined to re-equip 1832 in November 1945 with 15 Corsairs as part of a spare Illustrious -class 15th Carrier Air Group (1832 and 1838 Corsair, and 852 Avenger squadrons) this was cancelled after VJ-Day.
 

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