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700 Naval Air Squadron (700 NAS) is a squadron of aircraft in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. ==History== 700 NAS was originally formed in January 1940 at RNAS Hatston (HMS ''Sparrowhawk'') in Orkney in a plan to centralise the operations of the 700 series "Catapult" flights attached to catapult units and to act as a pool and Headquarters for all catapult aircraft embarked on battleships and cruisers - chiefly the Supermarine Walrus flying boat and Fairey Seafox floatplane. On 21 June 1940, a Walrus (''P5666'') of 700 Squadron on the cruiser found the German battleship ''Scharnhorst'' but ''Manchester'' did not engage. Trailing German capital ships in the lead up to the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Walrus ''L2184'' of 700 NAS from was damaged by shellfire from ''Prinz Eugen'' in the Denmark Strait on 23 May 1941 while still on its catapult. The final successful attack on an enemy submarine by a Walrus was on 11 July 1942, when Walrus ''W2709'' of 700 (Levant) NAS sank the Italian submarine ''Ondina'', along with the South African surface vessels ''Protea'' and trawler ''Southern Maid'', east of Cyprus. There were at least 5 confirmed enemy submarines sunk or damaged by Walruses during the Second World War, including the Vichy French submarine ''Poncelet'' which was bombed by Walrus ''L2268'' of 700 NAS from and attacked by on 7 November 1940 off the Cameroons. The submarine was damaged and forced to surrender, and later scuttled off the Gulf of Guinea. The crew of Petty Officer P H Parsons, Sub Lt A D Corkhill and N A Evans were all awarded gallantry medals. 700 NAS was disbanded in March 1944, pilots transferring into 771 Naval Air Squadron, but it was reformed as a Test Pilot School in October 1944. 700 NAS re-emerged in August 1955 as a Fleet Requirements unit and from 1957 was based out of RNAS Lee-on-Solent to introduce the Westland Whirlwind HAS.7. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「700 Naval Air Squadron」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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