How about this amazing shot of a Fleet Air Arm Tarpon (Avenger) being spotted on the deck of armored carrier HMS Illustrious (87) in March 1945, some 80 years ago this month, while in operations with the British Pacific Fleet.
As noted by the Imperial War Museum, the Avenger’s war decorations include four bombing missions and one “unusual credit of a flying bomb shot down.”
Clik here to view.
IWM (A 29270)
The Avenger is likely JZ127 of 854 Naval Air Squadron, which was embarked on “Lusty” at the time.
Formed on 1 January 1944 at Squantum NAS in Massachusetts as U.S. Navy instructors were there to impart their knowledge of the quirks of the big TBM/F Avenger, 854 NAS saw its first combat under Coastal Command orders based ashore at RAF Hawkinge, running anti-shipping patrols above the Channel before, during and after the Overlord landings in Normandy.
During that time the squadron accounted for two unlikely air-to-air kills against V1 flying bombs including one by by Sub.Lt(A) David Pettit Davies, RNVR, on 10 July 1944, and a second by Lt(A) Allan Voak RNVR on 15 August 1944.
The Davies shoot-down, as chronicled in Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces: V1 Flying Bomb Aces, by Andrew Thomas, page 33, should probably more so be referred to as the Shirmer shoot-down:
The early morning of 10 July also saw a claim credited to a more unusual type. Flying from Hawkinge on a ‘Channel Stop’ operation, a Royal Navy Avenger of 854 Naval Air Squadron, flown by Sub Lt D P Davies, was at the end of a long patrol when at 0510 hrs Telegraphist Air Gunner L/A Fred Shirmer spotted a V1 approaching from behind. The ‘Diver’ gradually overtook them, and as the flying bomb passed about 700 yards down the port side Shirmer fired on it with his turret-mounted 0.50-in machine gun. His aim was good, for although he only fired 20 rounds, the V1 went down. This was the first time a flying bomb had been destroyed by a Fleet Air Arm aircraft, and it resulted in Shirmer subsequently being Mentioned in Despatches.
Davies and Shirmer remained a team with 854 NAS, shipping out on Illustrious for service in Eastern waters with the pilot earning the DSC and the gunner receiving the DSM for actions over Palembang in May 1945.
Later becoming a noted Civil Aviation Authority test pilot post-war, logging 6,000 hours in 150 types of aircraft, Davies added an OBE to his blazer in 1957 and passed in 2003, aged 83.
Acting Temporary Petty Officer Airman Frederick Christian Shirmer, FAA/FX.115139, meanwhile, faded into history.
As for 854 NAS, they left their Avengers in the Pacific post-VJ Day and disbanded for 60 years until they were reestablished in 2006 to fly AEW Sea King ASACS Mk 7s until furling their flags once again in 2015.
The squadron’s motto is “Audentes Fortuna Juvat” (Fortune Helps the Daring).