| Unit Name: | 793 Naval Air Squadron |
| Dates: | 25 October 1939 - 10 October 1945 |
| Type: | Fleet Air Arm Second Line Squadron |
| Role: | Air Towed Target Unit |
| Size: | Squadron |
| Command Structure: | Fleet Air Arm |
| Garrison: | RNAS Ford RNAS Piarco |
| Garrison Label: | Home station |
| Identification Symbol: | White, a falcon rising holding in its talons a target in military colours pierced in the centre by two arrows gold (1945) |
| Identification Symbol Label: | Squadron Badge |
| Identification Symbol 2: | W6A+ (Roc ~1943) W7A+ (Fulmar ~1943) W8A+ (Martinet ~1943) |
| Identification Symbol 2 Label: | Identification Markings |
| Aircraft Attack: | Fairey Albacore |
| Aircraft Fighter: | Blackburn Roc Fairey Fulmar |
| Aircraft Trainer: | Miles Martinet |
793 Naval Air Squadron (793 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm which disbanded during October 1945. It was formed in October 1939 at RNAS Ford (HMS Peregrine), as an Air Towed Target Unit, as part of No.1 Observer School. From 1940 to disbandment it operated at RNAS Piarco (HMS Goshawk), Trinidad.
793 Naval Air Squadron formed at RNAS Ford (HMS Peregrine), located at Ford, in West Sussex, England, on the 25 October 1939, as an Air Towed Target Unit and operating Blackburn Roc Mk.I aircraft, a British naval turret fighter which was used to tow targets for fighter aircraft training. A detachment was provided at RAF Warmwell, in Dorset, to tow targets for fighter aircraft based at RAF Exeter, in Devon, during August 1940.
On the 18 August 1940, a formation of Junkers Ju 87, or Stuka, dive bombers, attacked RNAS Ford as part of a large Luftwaffe force attacking airfields around Hampshire and Sussex. Twenty-eight personnel were killed and seventy-five were wounded in the raid, which also destroyed seventeen aircraft, damaged twenty-six more and caused significant infrastructure damage.[1] The only part of the squadron to escape destruction was the detachment.
The raid prompted 793 Naval Air Squadron to be stood down and moved to RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus), situated in Hampshire, England, in preparation for sailing to relocate to Trinidad and Tobago, located in the Caribbean, operating from RNAS Piarco, on the island of Trinidad, which began on the 18 November 1940.[1]
The squadron's role was to support the training of observers for the Fleet Air Arm. It formed part of the No. 1 Observer School operating out of, Royal Naval Air Station Piarco, working alongside three Observer Training Squadrons: 749 Naval Air Squadron,750 Naval Air Squadron and 752 Naval Air Squadron. Here, 793 Naval Air Squadron also operated Miles Martinet T.T.1 for target towing, Fairey Fulmar, a British carrier-borne reconnaissance aircraft/fighter aircraft, and Fairey Albacore a single-engine biplane torpedo bomber aircraft.[2]
793 Naval Air Squadron operated from RNAS Piarco (HMS Goshawk) for the remainder of the Second World War, finally disbanding there on the 10 October 1945.
The squadron has flown a number of different aircraft types, including:
793 Naval Air Squadron operated from a number of naval air stations of the Royal Navy, both in the UK and overseas:
List of commanding officers of 793 Naval Air Squadron with month and year of appointment:[3]