Royal Naval Air Service
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Image:No 1 Squadron RNAS 1914.jpg
The Royal Naval Air Service (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 (RFC) to form the Royal Air Force.
History
When the Army founded the RFC was founded on April 13 1912, this organisation 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 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 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.
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 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.
Notable personnel
- 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
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