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CHAPTER ONE
A Narrative History The Seeds are Sown On the 31st of October 1939, negotiations began between representatives of the British and Canadian governments on the subject of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). Both sides approached the talks with entirely different perceptions and goals, and this would lead to protracted discussions and acrimonious relations over the following three years. The ‘Canadianisation’ of Royal Canadian Air Force personnel serving with the Royal Air Force was enshrined in Article XV of the BCATP agreement, which was signed on the 7th of January 1941, and originally called for the formation of twenty-five RCAF squadrons overseas. These were to be financed by Canada’s contribution to the Plan, still known to this day in the UK as the Empire Air Training Scheme, which was agreed at $350 million. From the outset the talks were dogged by the questions of control of the RCAF contingent and finance, and the Canadian negotiators found themselves being constantly out-manoeuvred by their British counterparts. Canada envisaged an independent air force operating alongside the RAF, much as the American 8th Air Force would from 1942. Britain, however, saw Canada as a source of manpower, and intended to integrate Canadian personnel into existing RAF Squadrons, or at least, to place the RCAF squadrons within RAF Groups. Canada expressed itself unwilling to finance RCAF personnel over whom it had no control, and after much wrangling, a compromise was eventually reached, which would allow all RCAF squadrons to operate from stations within close proximity to one another, and under the same RAF Group. All such units were to be numbered in the 400–450 series. Once sufficient squadrons had been formed, a RCAF Group would come into existence. By the time 1
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that negotiations had reached this stage, it was already 1942, and only four RCAF squadrons had thus far been formed, all in 1941. In the event, outside influences caused the programme to be cut back, allowing for just seven new squadrons in 1942, making a total of eleven. However, the number was considered acceptable to constitute an effective Group, and this compromise became a cherished dream in itself, achieving realisation on the 1st of January 1943. Ultimately, this was the best that Canada could wrest from the deal, having been backed into a corner by its own negotiators, and thus the RAF acquired the manpower and the control, while Canada footed the bill. On the day of its formation 6 Group comprised eight squadrons operating either Halifaxes or Wellingtons. 408 Squadron was stationed at Leeming under its long-standing commanding officer, W/C ‘Tiny’ Ferris, and had only recently converted from Hampdens to the Rolls-Royce Merlin-powered Halifax Mks II and V. 419 and 420 Squadrons were at Middleton St George under W/Cs Fleming and Bradshaw respectively, the former having also recently traded in its Wellingtons for Halifaxes, while the latter owned a mixture of Wellington IIIs and Xs. 424 Squadron and its Wellington Mk IIIs and Xs resided at Topcliffe under W/C Carscallen, while the Wellington-equipped 425 and 426 Squadrons occupied Dishforth under the leadership respectively of W/Cs St Pierre and Blanchard. The two remaining Wellington squadrons were 427 at Croft with W/C Burnside at the helm, and 428 under W/C Earle at Dalton. The founder member squadrons of 6 Group arrived at this historic moment by means of different routes. 408 Squadron was the senior founder member, having come into existence on the 24th of June 1941, following in the wake of 405 Squadron’s formation just two months earlier. 408 Squadron began life in 5 Group, which dictated that it would fly twinengine Handley Page Hampdens. The Hampden had given excellent service since being introduced early in 1939, but it was now becoming obsolete, and was in the process of being replaced by the new Avro Manchester, another twin-engine type whose performance in the hands of 207 and 97 Squadrons was giving cause for concern and was a source of much frustration. The failure of the Manchester would turn out to be a blessing, as it forced Avro’s designers to turn the basically excellent airframe into a four-engine bomber powered by Rolls-Royce Merlins. The Lancaster would transform Bomber Command, but at the time of 408 Squadron’s birth the Manchester still had a year of service ahead of it, and most 5 Group squadrons would have to cope with the inadequacies of its RollsRoyce Vulture engines. 408 Squadron was declared operational in mid August 1941, and during the ensuing twelve months carried out 191 operations and 1,234 sorties, including a single one by a Manchester. Posted to 4 Group in mid September 1942, 408 Squadron took on Halifaxes, but conducted no operations before being posted to 6 Group.
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3
419 Squadron became the first from Canada to enter 3 Group after its formation on paper on the 15th of December 1941. It existed physically when taking up residence at Mildenhall on the 21st under the command of W/C John ‘Moose’ Fulton, a Canadian with seven years’ RAF service, and a tour of operations behind him. Another Canadian, S/L Turner, was appointed as A Flight commander, and B Flight came under the command of a British officer, S/L Reid, both men also having extensive operational experience. The squadron’s progress to operational status was hampered somewhat by an initial lack of aircraft, and it was not until the 2nd of January 1942 that the first Wellington Ic, X9748, arrived to be taken on charge. On the night of the 11/12th 419 Squadron launched its first sorties in anger, when W/C Fulton and P/O Cottier and their crews operated against Brest. The night of the 28/29th of July became a tragic night for 419 Squadron when W/C Fulton failed to return from Hamburg. A message was received from X3488 suggesting that it had been attacked by a night fighter, wounding some of the crew, and it is presumed to have crashed into the North Sea. It was a bitter blow to the squadron, and shortly afterwards, as a token of the high esteem in which W/C Fulton was held, his nickname Moose was added to the squadron title, and its permanent place confirmed when His Majesty the King authorised the squadron’s official crest in June 1944. His replacement, W/C Walsh, was undertaking his second operation with the squadron on the night of the 2/3rd, when under two hundred aircraft delivered a telling blow on Karlsruhe. For the second time in five weeks, 419 Squadron was forced to post missing its commanding officer, and it was later learned that W/C Walsh had been killed with his entire crew when a night fighter accounted for X3711 over Belgium. W/C Fleming arrived as his replacement, and he was still at the helm when the squadron was posted to Middleton St George in November 1942. By this time the squadron had been stood down in preparation for conversion to the Halifax Mk II. There would be no further operations for the squadron during what remained of 1942, and it was declared operational on the day 6 Group became a reality on New Year’s day 1943. 420 Squadron had been formed in 5 Group at Waddington on the 19th of December 1941 under the command of W/C Bradshaw. Although many of that Group’s squadrons had converted to the ill-fated Avro Manchester by this time, and 44 Squadron was about to begin the process of working up to operational status as the first Lancaster unit in the Command, 420 Squadron was to begin its operational career on the trusty, if obsolete, Hampden. The squadron’s formation came during what was almost certainly the Command’s lowest point of the entire war. Back on the 18th of August 1941 civil servant, Mr D M Butt, completed his analysis of recent Bomber Command operations, and its disclosures were to send shock waves reverberating around the Cabinet Room and the Air Ministry. Having studied more than four thousand photographs taken during a
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hundred night raids in June and July, he concluded that only a tiny fraction of bombs were falling within miles of their intended targets. This swept away at a stroke any notion that the Command had in any way reduced Germany’s capacity to wage war thus far, and demonstrated the claims of the crews to be wildly optimistic. 420 Squadron went to war for the first time on the night of the 21/22nd of January 1942 when contributing five of twelve Hampdens for an attack by a total of thirty-eight aircraft on Emden. Three Hampdens and one Whitley failed to return, among them AT130, the aircraft captained by 420 Squadron’s B Flight commander, S/L Wood. It was brought down by flak over Holland, but the entire crew survived to fall into enemy hands. 420 Squadron left 5 Group for 4 Group on the 6th of August and took up residence at Skipton-on-Swale. It would take some time to fully re-equip with Wellington IIIs, but the first one, BJ644, arrived immediately, to be followed on the 11th by X3808 and X3809. Three more were taken on charge on the 19th, X3814, Z1724 and BJ717, while X3963 arrived on the 27th and BJ966 on the 28th. The remainder were received in September, chronologically X3800, BK235, BJ915, BK295, BK296, BK297, BJ917 and BK331, but it would be the following month before the squadron was declared operational. The Snowy Owls moved to their current home at Middleton St George on the 14th of October. 425 Squadron was assigned to 4 Group on its formation at Dishforth under W/C St Pierre on the 25th of June 1942, but it would take until early October for the squadron to work up to operational readiness on its Wellingtons. It was on the night of the 5/6th that the squadron contributed eight aircraft to a force of over 250 targeting Aachen in bad weather conditions. As a result the attack was only modestly effective, and some of the bombs fell well outside of the target, in fact some seventeen miles away on the Dutch town of Lutterade. (This was not appreciated at Bomber Command HQ, which would select a power station in the town for the first Mosquito Oboe bombing operation in December, believing it to be free of bomb craters, and, therefore, suitable for use as a calibration check on the device’s margin of error.) 424 Squadron was one of two Canadian units to come into existence on the 15th of October 1942. It was formed at Topcliffe under the command of W/C Carscallen, and was destined to begin life on Wellingtons, although it carried out no operations with the type before the transfer took place to 6 Group. BJ658 was the first example to be taken on 424 Squadron charge six days after formation, and twelve more were added by the 8th of November. This allowed the process of working up to operational status to begin in earnest, and no aircraft or crews were lost during the training period. 426 Squadron received its first four Wellingtons, BJ888, DF617, DF619 and DF620, on the 23rd of October and began the process of working up to operational status under the watchful eye of W/C Blanchard, although it would be the New Year before the squadron went to war.
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CHAPTER THREE
The Squadrons 405 (VANCOUVER) SQUADRON Motto: Ducimus (We lead)
Code LQ
405 Squadron was the first Canadian unit to form in Bomber Command, and this it did on the 23rd of April 1941 on the 4 Group station at Driffield in Yorkshire. It became the second squadron in the Command to fully equip with the Merlin-powered Wellington II, and operated these until they were replaced with Halifaxes in April 1942. In Late October the squadron departed Bomber Command for a five-month tour of duty with Coastal Command. In February 1943, shortly before the completion of this maritime interlude, the squadron was officially adopted by the city of Vancouver, and would proudly carry its name into battle for the remainder of the war. It was in March 1943 that the squadron joined 6 Group, but just six weeks later it became the only Canadian unit to join the Pathfinder Force, which it served with distinction until war’s end. Lancasters began to replace the Halifaxes in August 1943, and just as the war was ending it reequipped again with the Canadian-built Mk X. Among its commanding officers was W/C Johnny Fauquier, who served two terms at the helm, and saw out the last four months of the bombing war as the commanding officer of 617 Squadron, better known as the Dambusters.
STATIONS Topcliffe Leeming
01.03.43 to 06.03.43 06.03.43 to 19.04.43 140
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THE SQUADRONS 141 COMMANDING OFFICERS Wing Commander A C P Clayton DFC
19.11.42 to 19.04.43
AIRCRAFT Halifax II
04.42 to 09.43
OPERATIONAL RECORD Operations 13
Sorties 55
Halifaxes Aircraft Losses 47
% Losses 3
Category of Operations Bombing 13
TABLE OF STATISTICS Out of 15 squadrons in 6 Group Lowest number of overall operations, sorties and aircraft operational losses in 6 Group. Out of 15 Halifax squadrons in 6 Group Lowest number of Halifax overall operations, sorties and operational losses in 6 Group.
AIRCRAFT HISTORIES W7803 LQ-B W7810 W7853 W7885 BB210 BB212 LQ-P/U BB250 LQ-E BB334 BB367 BB369
FTR Stuttgart 11/12.3.43. To 1659 CU. To 1659 CU. From 35 Sqn. Returned to 35 Sqn. To 1659 CU. FTR Stuttgart 11/12.3.43. FTR Stuttgart 11/12.3.43. From 138 Sqn. Returned to 138 Sqn. From NTU. To 1669 CU. From NTU. To 1664 CU.
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BB372 BB373 BB374 DT507 DT515 DT551 DT553 DT560 DT565 DT573 DT695 DT699 LQ-G DT704 LQ-H DT723 LQ-F DT741 LQ-P DT745 LQ-V DT772 DT802 DT808 LQ-V HR723 HR796 HR797 LQ-A HR800 HR804 HR805 HR806 LQ-D HR807 LQ-G HR808 HR809 HR810 LQ-X HR811 HR813 LQ-H HR816 LQ-C HR817 LQ-C HR832 HR833 JB797 JB798 JB875
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To 35 Sqn. To 78 Sqn. To 1658 CU. To 1659 CU. To 76 Sqn. To 1659 CU. To 1659 CU. To 1666 CU. To 1659 CU. To 1659 CU. To 1652 CU. FTR from mining sortie 6/7.4.43. FTR Kiel 4/5.4.43. FTR Essen 3/4.4.43. FTR Essen 30.4/1.5.43. FTR Stuttgart 11/12.3.43. To 408 Sqn. To 1659 CU. From 102 Sqn. FTR Essen 3/4.4.43. To 35 Sqn. From NTU. To 1667CU. FTR D端sseldorf 11/12.6.43. From NTU. To 1666 CU. To 35 Sqn. To 10 Sqn. Crashed almost immediately after take-off from Gransden Lodge when bound for D端sseldorf 25.5.43. FTR Essen 27/28.5.43. Crashed on landing at Gransden Lodge while training 18.6.43. Crashed on landing at Gransden Lodge while training 2.9.43. FTR Mannheim 5/6.9.43. To 35 Sqn. FTR Cologne 3/4.7.43. FTR Wuppertal 24/25.6.43. FTR Peenem端nde 17/18.8.43. Crashed in Norfolk during training flight 16.6.43. To 35 Sqn. To 1658 CU. To 78 Sqn. To 78 Sqn.
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THE SQUADRONS 143 JB893
Struck JB906 at Leeming 4.4.43. Repaired. To 408 Sqn. FTR Dortmund 23/24.5.43. Crash-landed on approach to Wyton on return from Dortmund 5.5.43. To 10 Sqn. FTR Dortmund 4/5.5.43. To 1658 CU. Struck by JB893 at Leeming 4.4.43 and damaged beyond repair. To 78 Sqn. Crashed on landing at Leeming during training 13.4.43. To 1659 CU. To 419 Sqn. To 77 Sqn. FTR Duisburg 26/27.4.43. Crash-landed in Huntingdonshire on return from Dortmund 5.5.43. To 77 Sqn. FTR Bochum 13/14.5.43.
JB896 LQ-C JB897 LQ-T JB899 JB904 LQ-E JB905 LQ-G JB906 JB907 JB914 JB916 JB917 JB919 JB920 LQ-F JB957 LQ-A JB963 JB966 LQ-D
408 (GOOSE) SQUADRON Motto: For Freedom
Code EQ
408 Squadron was formed in 5 Group in June 1941 as the second Canadian unit in Bomber Command. The squadron operated Hampdens throughout its time in the east Midlands, but did manage just one sortie in a Manchester before transferring to 4 Group in September 1942. There the squadron operated Halifaxes, and retained these after becoming a founder member of 6 Group on the 1st of January 1943. In August 1943 the squadron took on the Hercules-powered Mk II Lancasters, but within a year these were succeeded by the similarly powered Halifax III and VII, with which the squadron saw out the war having served throughout with distinction.
STATIONS Leeming Linton-on-Ouse
17.09.42 to 27.08.43 27.08.43 to 13.06.45
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