Seven Skuas of 800 Naval Air Squadron and nine of 803 flew from Hatston at dawn on 10 April 1940 to attack Königsberg beside the quay at Bergen. The night crossing and strike near the limit of range demanded exceptional navigation, and all but one aircraft returned safely. Eleven days later the squadrons re-embarked in Ark Royal for further operations off Norway, where most of their Skuas were lost through combat, ditching, internment, or abandonment. A Skua also navigated Gladiators from Glorious toward their Norwegian destination, illustrating the two-seat type's continuing reconnaissance value. More power and cannon could have made the airframe a far stronger fighter, but those improvements were not available to the aircraft that fought in 1940.
Notable Point · 1:31:17-1:33:26
Skuas sink Königsberg at Bergen, then suffer in Norway
Sixteen Skuas crossed from Hatston to sink the German cruiser Königsberg at Bergen, but subsequent Norwegian operations exposed the type's range and fighter limitations.