433 Squadron is a unit of the Royal Canadian Air Force. It operates

CF-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet (official military designation CF-188) is a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) variant of the American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. In 1980, the F/A-18 was selected as the winner of the New ...

fighter jets Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

from CFB Bagotville in Quebec, Canada. Its Commanding Officer is Lieutenant Colonel Tom "''Banger''" Lawrence.

History

433SquadronRCAFMembersInTruckDecember1944

No. 433 Squadron formed at

RAF Skipton-on-Swale Royal Air Force station Skipton-on-Swale or more simply RAF Skipton-on-Swale is a former Royal Air Force station operated by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. The station was located at Skipton-on-Swale west of Thirsk (near the ...

on 25 September 1943, but was without aircraft for nearly two months. When these arrived they were the latest version of the Handley Page Halifax, the Mk III, and No. 433 worked up on them to begin operations on 2 January 1944. For the next year the squadron was continuously operational on Halifaxes over the Continent by night. In January 1945 the Halifaxes were replaced by

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 ...

Mk Is, and No. 433 used these for three months, by which time the war in Europe had come to an end. No. 433 was not disbanded but, as part of No. 1 Group, flew trooping flights from Germany and Italy, bringing back troops and POWs. This continued until 15 October 1945, when the squadron disbanded at Skipton-on-Swale. No. 433 Squadron reformed as an All-Weather (Fighter) unit at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, on 15 November 1954, and moved to CFB North Bay, Ontario, in October 1955, the squadron flew CF-100 Canuck aircraft on North American air defence until disbanded on 1 August 1961. Reformed post-unification No. 433 ''Escadrille tactique de combat'' was a French language squadron of Mobile Command based at CFB Bagotville, Quebec. No. 433 Escadrille flew the CF-5 Freedom Fighter in the tactical and reconnaissance role until conversion to the CF-188 Hornet

in 1984. The squadron was deactivated in 2005, and its assets and personnel amalgamated into

425 Tactical Fighter Squadron 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

. The squadron was reactivated on 9 June 2015.Royal Canadian Air Force news
/ref> The squadron celebrated its 75th anniversary on 15 September 2018. Monument_Freundstein_(68)_433th_Squadron.jpg, Monument dedicated to 433rd Squadron in Freudstein Ecusson_433th_Squadron.jpg, Pucelle du 433rd Squadron Liste_Victime_Freudstein_433th_Squadron.jpg, "On this mountainside of the Riesenkopf in the night of the 2nd and 3rd december 1944 crashed coming back from a mission in the Ruhr the bomber HALIFAX - MZ 807 from the 433rd Squadron "Porcupine""

References

External links

433 Tactical Fighter Squadron history
{{RCAF Squadrons Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons Canadian Forces aircraft squadrons Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Military units and formations established in 1968 Military units and formations disestablished in 2005