426 Transport Training Squadron is a unit of the
Canadian Forces under
Royal Canadian Air Force, located at
CFB Trenton in
Trenton,
Ontario. It originated as a
squadron in the
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) that fought during the
Second World War as a
bomber squadron.
The motto of the squadron is "On Wings of Fire" and the squadron's badge contains a
Thunderbird. The badge refers to the squadron's ''Thunderbird'' designation.
History
Second World War
No. 426 Squadron RCAF was created during the Second World War as a result of the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zea ...
to supply aircrew for the war in Europe.
[
] It first formed at
RAF Dishforth, England on 15 October 1942, with
Vickers Wellington Mk IIIs and Mk Xs.
The squadron was used as bomber unit in
No. 4 Group RAF,
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
.
Its first operational mission occurred on the night of the 14th and 15 January 1943, when seven Wellingtons bombed
Lorient.
The squadron used to fly by night, principally over
Germany. Unlike the other RCAF Wellington squadrons it did not go to
Tunisia in that year, but remained operating over Germany.
That year the squadron transferred to
No. 6 Group RCAF
No. 6 Group RCAF was a group of Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) heavy bomber squadrons in Europe during the Second World War, between 1942 and 1945. The group operated out of airfields in Yorkshire, England.
History
No. 6 Group was a Royal Cana ...
.
In June of that year it moved to
RAF Linton-on-Ouse, where it re-equipped with the
Bristol Hercules
The Bristol Hercules is a 14-cylinder two-row radial aircraft engine designed by Sir Roy Fedden and produced by the Bristol Engine Company starting in 1939. It was the most numerous of their single sleeve valve ( Burt-McCollum, or Argyll, typ ...
-engined
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirlin ...
II. With this type it soon resumed the offensive, and continued with the night campaign from Linton for the next ten months. In April 1944 it began to re-equip with
Handley Page Halifax IIIs and VIIs, and for the next year continued to operate with these types as part of No. 6 Group.
During the war it flew 261 operational missions (242 bombing missions and 19 mining excursions) involving 3,213 sorties, and in doing so lost 88 aircraft. Its last operation took place on April 25, 1945, when 20 Halifaxes bombed gun batteries on island of
Wangerooge.
On May 25, 1945, the squadron was renamed to 426 Transport Squadron.
Possibly, the most heroic act realized by a member of the squadron during the war took place on October 20, 1943, when
Flight Sergeant Stuart (the pilot) and his crew were sent to bomb
Leipzig. During the mission he was engaged by enemy fighters,
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...
and
Junkers Ju 88, initially managing to shake them off but not before having his aircraft rendered almost unfit to fly, leaving it with shattered cockpits and gun turrets; holes in the fuel tanks, damaged hydraulics and no navigation instruments. Against all odds Stuart decided to continue the mission and successfully bombed his target before guiding his crippled aircraft home. He was awarded the
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.
Peacetime
The squadron was disbanded on January 1, 1946.
[
] It reformed at
RCAF Station Dartmouth on August 1, 1946, as a transport squadron. They moved to
RCAF Station Lachine,
Quebec, in March 1947,
where it began using the
North Star.
[
]
On March 8, 1948, a North Star of the squadron was used to make 426 Squadron's first flight to the
Arctic with a flight from
Dorval,
Quebec, to Lansdowne House by way of Rockliffe,
Resolute
Resolute may refer to:
Geography
* Resolute, Nunavut, Canada, a hamlet
* Resolute Bay, Nunavut
* Resolute Mountain, Alberta, Canada
Military operations
* Operation Resolute, the Australian Defence Force contribution to patrolling Australia's Ex ...
, and Trout Lake. Later, in January 1949, a 426 Squadron North Star made Canada's first coast-to-coast non-stop flight.
Korean War
During the
Korean War, between 1950 and 1952, the squadron transported supplies and troops to
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
in support of
United Nations operations. In July 1950, a few days after the start of the war, 426 Squadron was detached to
McChord Air Force Base in
Washington where it came under the operational control of the
Military Air Transport Service
The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy's Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force's ...
of the
United States. A typical Korean Air Lift route for 426 Squadron aeroplanes was a physically and mentally demanding fifty-hour round trip flight from McChord to Japan and back with stops at
Elmendorf Air Force Base (
Alaska),
Shemya (
Aleutian Islands), Handed and
Misawa Air Base (Japan).
Post-Korean War to present day
On September 1, 1959, the squadron was moved to
Trenton, Ontario. It was moved to
Saint-Hubert in January 1962. It was disbanded at Saint-Hubert on 1 September of that year. It reformed again as 426 Transport Training Squadron on May 3, 1971, at
Uplands
Upland or Uplands may refer to:
Geography
*Hill, an area of higher land, generally
*Highland, an area of higher land divided into low and high points
*Upland and lowland, conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level
*I ...
. The squadron moved to Trenton in August 1971 where it remains today, conducting training on the
CC-130 Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...
.
The squadron has carried out many tasks since the end of Korean War, including casualty evacuations, Royal tours and other VIP transport, and United Nations air lift operations. Thunderbird has worked in many places: the Arctic, the
Middle East and
Europe, the
Congo
Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa:
* Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...
and Japan.
Aircraft
Battle honours
The squadron has been awarded a number of
battle honours during its operational history:
*
English Channel and
North Sea 1943
* Baltic 1944–1945
*
Fortress Europe 1943–1944
* France and Germany 1944–1945
* Biscay Ports 1943–1944
* Ruhr 1943–1945
* Berlin 1943–1944
* German Ports 1943–1945
* Normandy 1944
* Rhine
* Biscay 1943
Activities related to the squadron
During one attack in
Belgium during the Second World War, one Halifax (serial LW682) crashed near
Geraardsbergen. The entire crew perished. The remains of only five airmen, four
Canadians and one
British were recovered by the German authorities; the corpses of three other crewmen could not be retrieved because it had crashed in the boggy ground near the
Dender river. In the late 1990s a group of Canadian and Belgian volunteers recovered the remains of the three Canadian airmen and brought them to Canada.
They were later interred with their crewmates in Geraardsbergen Communal Cemetery. A great deal of the recovered Halifax was smelted into ingots and have since been used for memorials, including the ceiling of the
Bomber Command Memorial
The Royal Air Force Bomber Command Memorial is a memorial in The Green Park, London, commemorating the crews of RAF Bomber Command who embarked on missions during the Second World War. The memorial, on the south side of Piccadilly, facing Hyd ...
in London, UK. Former members of the 426 Squadron have held biennial Thunderbird veteran reunions since the end of the Second World War.
In recognition of his bravery, a new building of
RAF Linton-on-Ouse was named after Flight Sergeant Frederick Stuart. The place was visited by relatives of the airman, amongst them, his daughter, whom he wasn't ever able to meet because he was shot down and killed in December 1943, one month before his child's birth.
Notes and references
;Notes
;Bibliography
* Halley, James J. ''The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force & Commonwealth 1918–1988''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1988. .
* Jefford, C.G. ''RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912''. Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1988 (second edition 2001). .
* Motiuk, Laurence. ''Thunderbirds at War: Diary of a Bomber Squadron''. Nepean, Ontario, Canada: Larmot Associates, 1998. .
* Moyes, Philip J.R. ''Bomber Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft''. London: Macdonald and Jane's (Publishers) Ltd., 1964 (2nd edition 1976). .
External links
426 Transport Training Squadron official website426 squadron on RCAF website
{{RCAF Squadrons
Military units and formations of Ontario
Military units and formations of Canada in World War II
Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons
Military units and formations established in 1942
RCAF training units
Military education and training in Canada
Canadian Armed Forces