The Fairey Firefly was a British Second World War fighter and anti-submarine that saw service mainly with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) but also with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
Shortly after the creation of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm (RANFAA) in 1947, they acquired two aircraft carriers from the United Kingdom, the first one, (ex-HMS Terrible) was commissioned on 5th February 1949 as HMAS Sydney, and the second one (ex-HMS Majestic) had to be heavily modified to incorporate an angle deck, a steam catapult, a mirror landing system and larger deck lifts, so it wasn't until 28th October 1955 that she was commissioned as HMAS Melbourne. Meanwhile, the RAN had ordered Fireflies and Hawker Sea Furies in order to form three carrier air groups and had commissioned a shore base at Nowra, in New South Wales.
The RNAS Eglinton, in Northern Ireland, saw the birth of the RANFAA when the 28th Carrier Air Group (CAG) was commissioned there on 28th August 1948. This CAG was composed by 805 and 816 Naval Air Squadrons (NAS) which received training in the United Kingdom on Sea Furies and Fireflies respectively. Initially loaned by the Royal Navy, the aircraft were handed over to Australia on 27th October 1948 and, after having been worked up, they embarked on HMAS Sydney on 12th April 1949.
The 816 NAS was initially equipped with two instructional FR.4 and 24 FR.5. Shortly later, in 1950, Fairey at Bankstown, in Sydney, modified 20 FR.5 to AS.5 with the installation of ASW equipment and the removal of the guns.
816 NAS arrived in Australia on 25th May and the aircraft were towed by road to Nowra. They were complemented with the introduction of Fireflies AS.6 in July 1951 and in the summer of 1953 they were prepared to operate off Korea and worked up along with two Sea Fury squadrons aboard HMAS Vengeance. All the FR.6 were superseded by FR.5 at this time. The intended Korean War tour didn't materialise and the Fireflies returned ashore on 9th August. Even so 816 NAS was present off Korea when HMAS Sydney was involved in peace keeping activities after the cease fire, from November 1953 until June 1954. The other embarkations were all aboard HMAS Sydney. Four cruises with deployments at Hong Kong and Singapore, were carried out until 816 NAS was disbanded on 27th April 1955.
Sources:
1. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 28 - Fairey Firefly
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Firefly
3. https://www.navy.gov.au/aircraft/fairey-firefly-as5as6
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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