Smith - Skua: the Royal Navys Dive-Bomber

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all the many people who have helped me research the Skua in all her aspects over the course of fifty years.

Firstly to those who flew her: pilots, observers and TAGs. I have interviewed and corresponded with quite a number of these gallant, and modest, gentlemen. The majority have now, regretfully, crossed the bar, but it is hoped that their memories, both oral and written, conveyed personally to me and recorded within these pages, will be a small tribute to the enormous debt owed by the nation to their professionalism and self-sacrifice. So, thanks indeed to (in alphabetical order):

Mr R. V. Beckett
Mr W. H. C. Blake
Captain Eric M. Brown, Royal Navy
Colonel F. D. G. Bird, OBE, Royal Marines
Major V. B. G. Cheesman, DSO, MBE, DSC, Royal Marines
Captain R. Halliday, DSC, Royal Navy
Vice-Admiral Sir Donald Gibson
Mr A. E. T. Goble
Captain G. B. K. Griffiths, Royal Marines
Captain Tom W. Harrington, DSC, Royal Navy
Major L. A. Harris, OBE, DSC, Royal Marines
Lieutenant Commander Mike Horndern, Royal Navy
Mr Ronald G. Jordan, an armourer with No. 800 Squadron 1940
Major Alan M. Marsh, Royal Marines
Lieutenant Commander H. A. Monks, DSM, Royal Navy
Major R. T. Partridge, DSO, Royal Marines
Mr R. S. Rolph, BEM
Mr Ken Sims, DSM
Lieutenant Commander David Webb, Royal Navy
Mr Roy Stevens, armourer, RAF.

Also my thanks to the following very helpful people at the various repositories I visited and consulted:

Commander Graham Hobbs, RN, FAA Museum, Yeovilton, Somerset

Jerry R. Shore, Records, FAA Museum, Yeovilton, Somerset

Ms Debbie Stockford, FAA Museum, Yeovilton, Somerset

Mrs Catherine Rounsfell, Assistant Curator, Fleet Air Museum, Yeovilton, Somerset

Klas Gjlmesli, Norsk Luftfartmuseum, Bod

yvind Lamo, Norsk Luftfartmuseum, Bod

Birger Lansen, Curator Norsk Luftfartmuseum, Bod (with thanks for their help and hospitality during my stay with them)

Mr Hugh Alexandria, The National Archives, Kew, London

Caroline Herbert, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge

Mr Thomas B. Smyth, Regimental Headquarters, The Black Watch, Perth.

And my deep gratitude to:

Jack Bryant, the former editor of TAG magazine, whose help and knowledge down the years has been inspirational.

John Dell, whose Web site on the Skua is outstanding in every respect.

Mr Simon Partridge, son of Richard, who has been kindness itself.

David Ostrowski for tracking down elusive documents.

Ray C. Sturtivant, ISO the doyen of researchers, who has patiently tolerated my questions for more years than I care to remember.

Tony Collinson, of Blackburns.

Jackie Hampson, for getting me to Bod and back.

The Jennie Erwick Collection, Courtesy of Michael Hart who writes: My mother, Jennie Marie Erwick, without whom these pictures would not be possible, lived from 1931 to 1993. Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, she followed her mother, Johanna, to Bergen to care for her ageing grandparents in 1933. They were stuck in Norway when the war broke out and returned to the USA in 1945. These pictures she purchased and brought back with her at wars end.

More information is available at http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/photos/set5/default.aspx .