Royal Naval Air Service
|
Personnel of No 1 Squadron RNAS in late 1914 |
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
RFC to form the
RAF.
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 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.
On
April 1 1918 the RNAS was merged with the RFC to form the
Royal Air Force.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 became
No. 201 Squadron RAF The Royal Navy regained its own air service in
1937 when the Naval Air Branch was returned to Admiralty control and renamed the
Fleet Air Arm.
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 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.
*
Henry Allingham - Mechanic - oldest living British veteran (as of June 2005)
*
Richard Bell-Davies - 3 Squadron - awarded the
Victoria Cross*
Henry John Lawrence Botterell - Naval 8 - longest surviving WWI fighter pilot (he died January 2003).
*
Raymond Collishaw - 10 Naval - Top RNAS
ace, with 60 victories
*
Christopher Draper - 3 Wing,
6 Naval, Naval 8 - "The Mad Major"
*
Bert Hinkler - Australian aviation pioneer
*
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
