HMS Hermes info

[Mike Pryce]

A very interesting set of twenty PDFs on the design, build and ops of HMS Hermes:

http://www.axfordsabode.org.uk/pdf-docs/hermes01.pdf

continues up to:

http://www.axfordsabode.org.uk/pdf-docs/hermes20.pdf

 

[szukający]

HMS Hermes (R12) [1959–1984] - INS Viraat (R22) [1987-2017-.... ]

 

[datafuser]

What was the maximum number of Buccaneer S2s ever carried by HMS Hermes?

Tom Eeles's book 'Flying in Father's Slipstream' says HMS Hermes had 6 Buccaneers in the summer of 1968, and on August 23 the RN sent 4 Buccaneers from Scotland to HMS Hermes in the Malacca Straits to demonstrate a rapid reinforcement of the Far East Fleet, with the First Sea Lord in the back seat of one of the four Buccaneers.

So the maximum number of Buccaneers ever carried by HMS Hermes was 6 + 4 = 10?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flying-Fathers-Slipstream-Logbooks-1929-2010/dp/1911593226/

 

[BlackBat242]

Here is what I have from a now-defunct Fleet Air Arm site (not government-related):

Carrier Air Group
Years ............. Squadron ... Aircraft ...................... Total
1960-1962 - 803 sqn. - 8 Scimitar F1 ------------- 30
...................... - 890 sqn. - 12 Sea Vixen FAW1
...................... - 849 sqn. C flt. - 4 Gannet AEW3
...................... - 814 sqn. - 5 Whirlwind HAS7
...................... - Ships Flight - 1 Dragonfly HR5

1962-1964 - 803 sqn. - 8 Scimitar F1 ------------ 30
...................... - 892 sqn. - 12 Sea Vixen FAW1
...................... - 849 sqn. B flt. - 4 Gannet AEW3
...................... - 814 sqn. - 5 Wessex HAS1
...................... - Ships Flight - 1 Whirlwind HAR5

1966-1967 - 809 sqn. - 7 Buccaneer S2 ------------ 30
...................... - 892 sqn. - 12 Sea Vixen FAW2
...................... - 849 sqn. B flt. - 4 Gannet AEW3, 1 Gannet COD4
...................... - 826 sqn. - 5 Wessex HAS3
...................... - Ships Flight - 1 Wessex HAS1 (SAR)

1968-1970 - 801 sqn. - 7 Buccaneer S2 ------------ 30
...................... - 893 sqn. - 12 Sea Vixen FAW2
...................... - 849 sqn. A flt. - 4 Gannet AEW3, 1 Gannet COD4
...................... - 814 sqn. - 5 Wessex HAS3
...................... - Ships Flight - 1 Wessex HAS1 (SAR)

1973-1979 - 845 sqn. - 9 Wessex HU5 ------------ 18
...................... - 814 sqn. - 9 Sea King HAS1

1981 - 800 sqn. - 8 Sea Harrier FRS1 ------------- 17
...................... - 826 sqn. - 9 Sea King HAS5

1982 - 800 & 899 sqn. - 16 Sea Harrier FRS1 ------ 34
...................... - 826 & 846 sqn. - 18 Sea King HAS5

 

[EwenS]

803 squadron had reformed at Lossiemouth on 3 July 1967 as the Buccaneer HQ unit. On 18 Aug 1968 it despatched a flight of 4 aircraft to the Far East via Nicosia, Masirah & Gan with the assistance of aerial refuelling. They reached Hermes on 23 Aug. They are also recorded as being at Changi, Singapore on the same date, 23 Aug 1968. So the visit to Hermes can have been no more than a refuelling stop and the aircraft were never formally part of her air group..

They left Changi on 28 Aug 1968 and arrived back at Lossiemouth on 1 Sept 1968.

Information taken from "The Squadrons And Units of the Fleet Air Arm"

The same source gives 809 as reforming on in Jan 1966 with 6 Buccaneer S.2, "later increasing to eight aircraft". It embarked a detachment on Hermes between 6 & 9 Sept 1966 before the whole squadron embarked on Hermes on 18 Jan 1967. It finally left Hermes on 18 Feb 1968.

801 squadron reformed in Jan Oct 1965 with 12 Buccaneer S.2 for service in Victorious. However on the move to Hermes it must have downsized but unfortunately that source doesn't say to what figure. It first went aboard Hermes on 31 May 1968 and finally left the ship on 17 June 1970.

 

[datafuser]

Thanks for the posting.

So even if just for a refueling stop, there could have been up to 10 Buccaneer S2s on HMS Hermes in August 1968?

 

[datafuser]

Below is David Hobbs' recount of the event in his book "The British Carrier Strike Fleet after 1945".

 

[Archibald]

8000 miles ? ain't that enough range to fly a Black Buck...aneer raid to the Falklands and back ?

 

[EwenS]

8000 miles ? ain't that enough range to fly a Black Buck...aneer raid to the Falklands and back ?

Problem with the Buccaneer was it didn't carry enough oil for its engines for a Black Buck sortie.

As I noted above in post #5 in 1968 those 4 Buccs stopped at Nicosia, Masirah and Gan with air refuelling courtesy of the RAF in between. It wasn't an 8,000 mile non-stop trip.

 

[Archibald]

Drats, read too fast. Forget it.

 

[Hood]

Problem with the Buccaneer was it didn't carry enough oil for its engines for a Black Buck sortie.

There is a snippet on that in the letter's page of the latest issue of The Aviation Historian.
On the oil consumption issue relating to the Falklands Group Captain Tom Eeles recounts that Buccs flew non-stop from Lossiemouth to Bahrain in 1991 and from Ascension to Stanley in 1983. It seems that oil consumption was actually better than expected - although a round-trip Ascension-Argentina-Ascencion would be a totally different proposition. Eeles points out that the longest-haul RAF Bucc flights by 1982 were cross-Atlantic trips to Goose Bay and then onward to Nellis.

The Lossiemouth to Gan flight by Admiral Le Fanu beats the Lossiemouth to Bahrain run for distance certainly.