Royal Naval Air Service

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The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of World War I, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force.

[edit] History

When the RFC was founded on April 13, 1912, it was intended to encompass all military flying. The Navy, however, was not pleased at all forms of naval aviation being moved to an Army corps, and soon formed its own, unauthorised, flying branch with a training centre at Eastchurch. At the time, the Admiralty, known as the "Senior Service", had enough political clout to ensure that this act went completely unchallenged. The Royal Naval Air Service was officially recognised on July 1, 1914 by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. The new service was completely separate from the RFC except for the Central Flying School, which was still used, and became in effect a rival air force!

By the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the RNAS had more aircraft under its control than the RFC. The Navy maintained twelve airship stations around the coast of Britain from Longside, Aberdeenshire in the northeast to Anglesey in the west. In addition to seaplanes, carrier borne aircraft, and other aircraft with a legitimate "naval" application the RNAS also maintained several crack fighter squadrons on the Western Front, as well as allocating scarce resources to an independent strategic bombing force at a time when such operations were highly speculative. Inter-service rivalry even affected aircraft procurement. Urgently required Sopwith 1½ Strutter two-seaters had to be transferred from the planned RNAS strategic bombing force (for which the type was in any case quite unsuitable) to RFC squadrons on the Western Front because the Navy had "cornered" Sopwith production. In fact this situation continued - although most of Sopwith's products were not specifically naval aircraft. Thus RNAS fighter squadrons obtained Sopwith Pup fighters months before the RFC - and then replaced these first with Sopwith Triplanes and then Camels while the hardpressed RFC squadrons soldiered on with their obsolescent Pups. An account of this scandalous situation may be found in the book No Parachute by Arthur Gould Lee.

On April 1, 1918 the RNAS was merged with the RFC to form the RAF. At the time of the merger, the Navy's air service had 67,000 officers and men, 2,949 aircraft, 103 airships and 126 coastal stations.

The RNAS squadrons were absorbed into the new structure, individual squadrons receiving new squadron numbers by effectively adding 200 to the number so No. 1 Squadron RNAS (a famous fighter squadron) became No. 201 Squadron RAF

The Royal Navy regained its own air service in 1937 when the Naval Air Branch (covering carrier borne aircraft but not the seaplanes and maritime reconnaissance aircraft of Coastal Command) was returned to Admiralty control and renamed the Fleet Air Arm.

[edit] Roles and missions

The main roles of the RNAS were fleet reconnaissance, patrolling coasts for enemy ships and submarines, attacking enemy coastal territory and defending Britain from enemy air-raids. The RNAS systematically searched 4000 square miles of the Channel and the North Sea for U-boats. In 1917 alone, they sighted 175 U-boats and attacked 107. Because of the technology of the time the attacks were not very successful in terms of submarines sunk, but the sightings greatly assisted the Navy's surface fleets in combatting the enemy submarines.

It was the RNAS which provided much of the mobile cover using armoured cars, during the withdrawal from Antwerp to the Yser, in 1914. Later in the war, squadrons of the RNAS were sent to France to directly support the RFC. The RNAS was also entrusted with the air defence of London. This led to its raids on airship stations in Germany, in places as far from the sea as Friedrichshafen.

Before techniques were developed for taking off and landing on ships, the RNAS had to use seaplanes in order to operate at sea. Beginning with experiments on the old cruiser HMS Hermes, special seaplane tenders were developed to support these aircraft. It was from these ships that a raid on Zeppelin bases at Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven was launched on Christmas Day of 1914. This was the first attack by ship-borne aircraft. A chain of coastal air stations was also constructed.

[edit] Notable personnel

• Henry Allingham - Mechanic - oldest living British veteran at age 110
• Richard Bell-Davies - 3 Squadron - awarded the Victoria Cross
• Henry John Lawrence Botterell - Naval 8 - longest surviving WWI fighter pilot (he died January 2003 at age 106)
• Raymond Collishaw - Naval 10 - top RNAS ace, with 60 victories
• Christopher Draper - 3 Wing 6 Naval, Naval 8 - "The Mad Major"
• Bert Hinkler - Australian aviation pioneer
• Robert Little - Australia's top scoring ace of WWI, with 47 victories
• Ivan Stedeford - Industrialist
• Reginald Alexander John Warneford - awarded the Victoria Cross
• Josiah Wedgwood - awarded the D.S.O., commanded the machine guns on the SS River Clyde
• James White - Naval 8 - ace