Operational History
Trials proving satisfactory, the type went into production and service. Most of the F.17s shipped aboard the carriers HMS Campania, HMS Nairana and HMS Pegasus; the first aircraft joined Campania and the type took its name from her. Only Campania possessed a flight deck; Campanias operated from this using jettisonable, wheeled bogies fitted to the floats. The aircraft in the other ships took off from the water in the normal way.
The 27 F.22s operated from Royal Naval Air Service air stations. The Campania had an undistinguished career, but performed useful work as a spotter aeroplane. In all, 100 aircraft were ordered, but only 62 were completed.
On 1 August 1918, during the North Russia Campaign in support of the British intervention in the Russian Civil War, Campanias from Nairana participated in what was probably the first fully combined air, sea, and land military operation in history, joining Allied ground forces and ships in driving Bolsheviks out of their fortifications on Modyugski Island at the mouth of the Northern Dvina River in Russia, then scouting ahead of the Allied force as it proceeded up the channel to Arkhangelsk. The appearance of one of the Campanias over Arkhangelsk induced the Bolshevik leaders there to panic and flee. Campanias from Nairana then operated against the Bolsheviks from Arkhangelsk, as well as against the White Finnish defensive positions in Uhtua in the autumn of 1918 from Kem.
The Campania was declared obsolete in August 1919.
Read more about this topic: Fairey Campania
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