Avenger origins in a fast-expanding Fleet Air Arm

845 formed as a torpedo-bomber reconnaissance squadron while the Fleet Air Arm was expanding rapidly. Its personnel assembled at Lee-on-Solent, while the aircraft and initial Avenger qualification training were in New York. The unit then entered active Second World War service and reached Malaya. Southeast Asia would become a recurring setting in the squadron's history. The account dates its can-do culture to this early period, before the Junglies identity took shape.