Sea Fury a/c numbers and serials, 802 Squadron FAA, Korea?

[Procopius]

Anyone know the aircraft and serial numbers of HMS Ocean's Sea Furies during her first tour off Korea in 1952? I'm curious in particular about the aircraft of S/Lt Brian "Schmoo" Ellis, who participated in the famous MiG-15 shootdown on 9 August 1952.

[hacker]

What scale?

[Procopius]

I'm just trying to see if anyone knows in general, scale is a later bridge to cross.

[Jennings Heilig]

What scale?

1/1

[stringbag]

1/1

I was going to say that

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

From the 'Air Britain' bible on FAA fixed wing stuff,Ellis' aircraft appears to be WE724/119 O of 802Sqn.

Some others at time WJ231/109,WJ232/114,WJ233/uncoded and WJ237/113.

That shoot-down took place on Ocean's sixth patrol in her time on station between 05 May and 08 Nov.

Good report in the 802 Squadron diary and it is re-produced in the book ''With the Carriers in Korea' by John R P Lansdown.Very informative but not too many photos.

Richard.

[mhaselden]

Richard,

You, sir, are my hero! Have the Hobbycraft Sea Fury in the stash and want to make a Korean War example but wasn't keen on doing yet another Carmichael bird. Ellis' aircraft could be just the ticket!

Thank you!!!!

Cheers,
Mark

[Ivor Ramsden]

I'm wondering if in the last 6 years anybody has come across any more 802 Squadron serials?

I've recently met with Sub-Lt Nick Cook who was with 802 on HMS Ocean. He didn't record serial numbers in his otherwise awesome log book but "his" Sea Fury was 112. I want to present him with a model of it but I need the serial.

[Seahawk]

Air Britain's Aeromilitaria 92/3 has a list of about 80 Sea Fury FB.11s which served with 802 Sq, of which about half have associated codes.  Codes were in order Q for Vengeance, T for Theseus, O for Ocean and T again for Theseus.

 

The subset of aircraft coded 112 is:

 

VX614 112/Q

VW583 112/--

VW552 112/Q

WE683 112/O

WE712 112/O

 

Of the Ocean aircraft

• WE683 joined 802 Sq in Ocean as 112 on 4/6/52.  On 4/11/52 it caught the No.10 wire (S/L BH Randall) and needed repair in the UK. 
• WE712 joined 802 Sq as 112 at Culdrose on 8/12/51.  On 11/5/52 its fuselage was badly damaged by a propeller whilst on Ocean and was collected by Unicorn on 21/5/52 and taken back to Sembawang for repair.

 

Sturtivant's FAA Fixed Wing Aircraft since 1946 (2004) associates Lt NJ Cook with 2 Sea Furies VX280 and VX662.  According to the detailed aircraft by aircraft entries, VX280 did not serve with 802.  Of VX662 it says "802 Sq Arbroath by 2/53.  Catapult failure, went into sea ahead of ship, Theseus, Cat ZZ (= total loss) 4/5/53 (S/L NJ Cook recovered by Cadiz); Struck off charge 11/5/53."  No code is recorded but 112/T is a reasonable presumption.  Have consulted Sea Fury (From The cockpit 12): nothing to add re Sea Furies coded 112 serving with 802 Sq.

 

S/L Cook (the only Cook listed who flew Sea Furies) is also recorded as flying Seafire F.17 SP354 168/CW with 738 Sq at Culdrose: on 29/5/51 a "coolant pipe burst on take-off but landed OK (Lt NJ Cook)".  On 17/7/51 he was in Sea Fury FB.11 VX280 when it suffered brake failure while taxying into dispersal and collided with the corner of an office block at Culdrose.  In March of that year VX280 had been 291/CW of 738 Sq: it may still have been in July.

 

Hope this helps.  (Here's where you tell me it was a different Cook!)

Edited November 14, 2020 by Seahawk

[Ivor Ramsden]

Amended - see next post

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ivor Ramsden

[Ivor Ramsden]

10 hours ago, Seahawk said:

Hope this helps.  (Here's where you tell me it was a different Cook!)

Nope, that's our Nick. He's shown me photos of him being recovered by Cadiz and later being winched back onto the carrier. His memory of the incident is very clear apart from the time after he was filled with gin on board Cadiz! Thanks for digging through your references. I've got very little reference material for post-war FAA.

I'm happy to go with WE683.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ivor Ramsden