851 Squadron History
851 Squadron originated as a Royal Navy (RN) torpedo/bomber/reconnaissance squadron forming in October 1943 at Squantum, USA. The Squadron served aboard HMS Shah in the Indian Ocean adding a fighter flight to its complement in April 1944. Shah returned to Britain with 851 Squadron embarked, following the Japanese surrender in September 1945, where the Squadron subsequently disbanded.
851 Squadron recommissioned at Naval Air Station (NAS) Nowra on 3 August 1954 under the command of Lieutenant Commander (later Captain) Digby Johns, a Korean War veteran who had served with 808 Squadron aboard HMAS Sydney. Flying Fairey Firefly AS-5s and Douglas C-47A Dakotas, the Squadron's main responsibilities were training pilots and observers for the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm's (RAN FAA) front line Firefly squadrons (816 and 817 Squadrons). The Dakotas were primarily used as observation aircraft but also performed communications and transport duties, and sometimes carried VIPs and dignitaries such as the Duke of Edinburgh and Lord Mountbatten.
The Squadron would lose four of its members in two separate accidents in a relatively short period of time. Sub Lieutenant A Arundel, RN, and Midshipman Noel Fogarty were killed on 27 November 1956 when their Firefly collided with another 851 Squadron Firefly near Jervis Bay. The crew of the other aircraft were uninjured. Just four months later on 19 March 1957, Sub Lieutenant Warren Brown and Midshipman Ian Caird were killed while conducting navigational exercises when their Firefly crashed into Saddle Back Mountain in NSW.
In spite of its allotted training role, 851 Squadron embarked in Sydney for two weeks in March 1956 travelling to Brisbane. However, with the decision to operate just one carrier instead of two as originally planned, the need for 851 Squadron declined and the unit decommissioned at NAS Nowra on 13 January 1958.
851 Squadron recommissioned as a training and transport unit at NAS Nowra on 2 September 1968 flying six Grumman S-2E Trackers and two Dakotas. In addition, a Tracker simulator was also ordered at a cost of $2.5M with an ongoing maintenance contract of $80,000 pa. The Weapons System Trainer (WST) was to be built into two trailers, allowing it to be towed, with the cockpits and instrument console in one trailer, and the computer, associated electronics and workshop in the other trailer. The WST was meant to be operating by the end of 1967 but a fire, started by an urn that had been left on overnight, caused enough damage that it was returned to the US before it was commissioned. It would later be installed in a purpose-built brick building at NAS Nowra and became operational in May 1970.
Fourteen Trackers, along with ten McDonnell Douglas A-4G Skyhawks, arrived in Australia aboard HMAS Melbourne on 21 November 1967. The Trackers disembarked the following day in Sydney where they were transported by road to Mascot, checked, flight tested and flown to NAS Nowra later in the year.
The long range capabilities of 851 Squadron's aircraft meant that it was often called upon to perform duties outside of its normal training and transport roles such as search and rescue, coastal and fishery patrols in northern Australia, and security patrols of oil facilities in Bass Strait. Shortly after recommissioning, the Squadron adopted US Navy prefixes and became VC851 Squadron indicating that it was classed as a fixed wing composite unit.
The Dakotas had been scheduled to be replaced for some time and their long period of service in the RAN (the first was delivered in 1949) came to an end in 1973 when VC851 Squadron took delivery of two Hawker Siddeley HS748s. The first arrived at NAS Nowra on 7 June 1973, flown from the Hawker Siddeley factory in Woodford near Manchester marking the first transglobal flight by RAN personnel. On board were Lieutenant Commander Winston James, Lieutenants Bob Salmon, Jack McCaffrie and Owen Nicholls, Air Artificer Bob Griffiths, and Leading Seamen Air Technicians Doug Lange, Alan Bird and Michael Rischin. The second aircraft arrived on 17 August 1973. The twin turboprop HS 748s were used for navigation training, communications and transport duties, and also took part in continuation trials for the Ikara missile system.