848 Naval Air Squadron

848 Naval Air Squadron
848 Naval Air Squadron
	Squadron badge
Active	1943-1945; 1952-1956; 1958-1963; 1964-1976; 1982; 1990-1991; 1995-2013; 2015-2016;
Disbanded	2 June 2016
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Type	Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance squadron
Role	Carrier-based: anti-submarine warfare (ASW); anti-surface warfare (ASuW); ; Tactical airlift; Maritime counter-terrorism; Sea King HC.4 aircrew and maintainer training;
Part of	Fleet Air Arm
Mottos	Accipe Hoc; (Latin for 'Take This')
Aircraft	See Aircraft operated section for full list.
Battle honours	Normandy 1944; Okinawa 1945; Japan 1945; Falkland Islands 1982; Kuwait 1991;
Insignia
Squadron Badge Description	Red, plate charged with a hawk [Accipiter Gentilis] volant proper releasing a torpedo also proper into water barry wavy blue and white (1945)
Identification Markings	4A+ (Avenger); 370-391 (Avenger June 1945); single letters (Whirlwind 1952-56); 351-355 (Whirlwind 1959-63); single letters (Wessex); VA+ (Wessex June 1971); WA+ (Wessex 1982); WA+ (Sea King December 1990); ZO-ZZ (Sea King February 1995); WA-WZ (Sea King January 1999); single letters (Sea King 2015);
Fin Carrier/Shore Codes	X (Avenger March 1945); B (Whirlwind 1959-63); A:B (Wessex); A:B:VL (Wessex June 1971);

848 Naval Air Squadron (848 NAS), sometimes alluded to as 848 Squadron, was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It was most recently active with the Westland Sea King HC.4 / Westland Commando helicopter from May 2015 to June 2016 and was based at RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron) in Somerset.

It served during the latter years of the Second World War with Grumman Avenger and Fairey Swordfish. It flew variants of Westland Whirlwind helicopters during the fifties, supporting Royal Marines deployments overseas, transitioning to Westland Wessex and Westland Wasp helicopters during the sixties and seventies. It also briefly flew Westland Wessex during 1982, notably during the Falklands conflict. The squadron operated Westland Sea King during the nineties, initially during the Gulf War and later provided advanced flying training to pilots for the other squadrons in the Commando Helicopter Force until 2013.