Per fess wavy gold and black, a cormorant statant wings addorsed proper collared to a line reflexed over the back red and attached to a drogue also red (1944)[2]
Identification Markings
single letters initially V9A+ (Woodvale detachment) R7A+ & R8A+ (1942)[3][2]
Military unit
776 Naval Air Squadron (776 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm which last disbanded at the end of October 1945. 776 Naval Air Squadron formed as a Fleet Requirements Unit at HMS Daedalus, RNAS Lee-on-Solent, at the start of 1941. It operated a detachment at RN Air Section Speke in 1941 and one at RAF Woodvale in 1942, with the squadron wholly moving to Speke in the October. 1943 saw further detachments and these were deployed at RAF Llanbedr, RAF Millom, RAF Usworth and RAF Waltham. In April 1945, the Woodvale detachment was reabsorbed into the squadron when it relocated there, the airbase now operated by the Admiralty and known as HMS Ringtail II. It moved to HMS Ringtail, RNAS, Burscough, at the start of October 1945.
By March 1945 the squadron provided target towing for the Night Fighter Operational School at RNAS Inskip (HMS Nightjar) and the Naval Gunnery Training School at Ainsdale and the Boulton Paul Defiant target tug aircraft were replaced by Miles Martinet target tugs.[2] On 7 April 1945 the squadron moved to RNAS Woodvale (HMS Ringtail II), what was previously RAF Woodvale, and reabsorbed the detachment there. The following month ten Supermarine Seafire arrived, a navalised version of the Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft.[3] The squadron moved to RNAS Burscough (HMS Ringtail), Lancashire, on 6 October and disbanded on 30th.[2]
Aircraft operated
The squadron operated a number of different aircraft types, including:[2]
Ballance, Theo; Howard, Lee; Sturtivant, Ray (2016). The Squadrons and Units of the Fleet Air Arm. Air Britain Historians Limited. ISBN978-0-85130-489-2.
Sturtivant, R; Ballance, T (1994). The Squadrons of The Fleet Air Arm. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN0-85130-223-8.