806 NAS then saw its first action when it was moved in the beginning of May to HMS Sparrowhawk in order to finish working up and to then carry out bombing attacks on targets around Bergen in Norway.
Their first such attack was carried out on 9 May upon a ship at Doksjeir jetty in Bergen Harbour that was reported potentially to be a cruiser at the time but later believed to have been a transport.
A source states that Lieutenant Campbell-Horsfall was leading the raid and that it resulted in a single direct hit claimed upon a transport and another upon an oil tank within the port and that some escort vessels were strafed by the Skuas.
According to Midshipman Hogg in quotes within the same source, reconnaissance photographs received on 11 May showed that the raid successfully sunk a training cruiser due to three direct hits, one forward, one amidships, one astern.
In this attack the target was an enemy transport ship believed to be attempting to run through to Bergen Harbour with anti-aircraft guns intended to protect the port area.
806 Naval Air Squadron's last attack on shipping and oil installations in the Bergen area was carried out on 16 May 1940 upon German warships reported to be within the harbour.
After the attacks over Norway the squadron returned to HMS Kestrel but was soon moved to RAF Detling in Kent on 27–28 May in order to provide air cover for the Dunkirk evacuation and started its first patrol on 28 May.
The first patrol started poorly as the section’s Blackburn Roc, which was piloted by Midshipman Day with Naval Airman Jones manning its dorsal turret, crashed whilst getting airborne but luckily without casualties.
This resulted in the Skua which was crewed by Lieutenant Campbell-Horsfall and Petty Officer Clare being shot down and picked up by a nearby destroyer while the other piloted by Midshipman Hogg had managed to limp to RAF Manston damaged and Naval Airman Burton, the Telegraphist Air Gunner, killed.
With the crash barrier down in order to use the full length of the deck all the Swordfish managed to land safely without tearing their arrestor hooks out.
When it became 806 Naval Air Squadron's turn, Lieutenant Commander Charles Evans was the first to attempt to land and with the higher speed at touch down from the Blackburn Skua the arrestor hook on his aircraft was torn out from the fuselage and he had to resort to applying right rudder and slamming the nose of his aircraft into the ships island in order to prevent it continuing down the deck and falling into the water.
806 then disembarked at Aboukir to fight in the Western Desert as part of Royal Navy Fighter Squadron from August 1941 to February 1942, re-equipping with RAF Hawker Hurricanes for that purpose.
The Squadron re-formed two years later, in August 1945, ready for the Far Eastern theatre, but its 12 Seafire L.IIIs had only reached Machrihanish by the time that campaign ended.