| 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron | |
|---|---|
| 409e Escadron d'appui tactique | |
 | |
| Active | 1941–1945, 1954–1991, 1993–1994, 2006–present |
| Country |  Canada |
| Branch |  Royal Canadian Air Force |
| Type | Tactical fighter |
| Size | Squadron |
| Part of | 4 Wing Cold Lake |
| Garrison/HQ | CFB Cold Lake |
| Motto | Media nox meridies noster (Latin for 'Midnight is our noon')[1] |
| Battle honours | |
| Website | www |
| Aircraft flown | |
| Fighter | CF-18 Hornet |
409 Tactical Fighter Squadron (French:409e Escadron d'appui tactique) is a unit of theRoyal Canadian Air Force. The squadron operates theCF-18 Hornet fromCFB Cold Lake in Alberta, Canada.
The cross-bow in front of the dark cloak represents a weapon used under cover of darkness to denote the squadron's original role as a night fighter squadron.[1] The badge was officially approved in March 1944.[1]
No. 409 Nighthawk Squadron was formed atRAF Digby[4] in June 1941 for night operations withBoulton-Paul Defiants, moving in July toRAF Coleby Grange,[4] where, in August,Beaufighter IIf aircraft arrived, allowing detachments to be maintained elsewhere. Two victories were claimed during the early days of the squadron's existence, but in June 1942 Beaufighter Mark VI aircraft were received, and a greater degree of success was achieved. In February 1943 a move was made to Acklington,[4] with detachments maintained in at least four other locations.[5] In December a return to Coleby Grange was made,[4] with the various detachments continuing their separate existences.
Little was seen during the year, but in March 1944 the squadron moved to Hunsdon,[4] converting to theMosquito Mk XII and joined No. 85 Group of theSecond Tactical Air Force. Intruder and offensive patrols commenced, and much action was seen over the Normandy beachhead in June; 11 victories were claimed during this month.[5] After some action againstV-1 Flying Bombs, operations over Europe recommenced, and late in August the unit moved to Carpiquet in France, the first night fighters to be based on the mainland. By mid-October, the squadron had settled in the Lille area, where it was to remain until April 1945. On 19 April, a move was made to the Rhine in Germany, and from here the unit was able to claim six victories in a single night. Shortly after this the war ended with the total victories at61+1⁄2 claimed. The squadron's code letters during this period wereKP.[5]
Re-established atRCAF Station Comox on 1 November 1954 providing air defence for Canada's west coast as part of NORAD. Initially equipped with the Canadian designedAvro CF-100 they converted to theCF-101 Voodoo in 1962. The squadron transferred toCFB Cold Lake in 1984 to convert to theCF-18 and then deployed toCFB Baden-Soellingen as part of Canada's NATO commitment. The squadron was then disbanded in 1991 with the withdrawal of Canadian Forces from Europe.[5]
The squadron was briefly reformed back at Comox as a Combat Support Squadron (without aircraft) but was disbanded again. 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron was re-formed from the consolidation of416 and441 Tactical Fighter Squadrons on 6 July 2006 at CFB Cold Lake.[5]
Between August and December 2017, the squadron was deployed to theMihail Kogălniceanu Air Base inRomania as part ofOperation Reassurance.[6] TheNATO enhanced Air Policing mission in the region is an assurance and deterrence measure taken in 2014 as a response toRussia's annexation of Crimea.[7]
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1Aircraft administered and serviced by the RCAF but crewed by theRoyal Canadian Artillery. 2 Non-standard code as unit using OW added L. Letters normally denoted parent Command, aircraft type (LLiberator transport, DDakota etc), unit, and individual aircraft. 3 VC .svg) XXA where VC was the civil code used by the RCAF replacing CF-, XX was the unit code and A was the aircraft ID letter4 XX nnn where XX was the unit code and nnn was the last 3 digits of the serial number. Unit code was replaced with "RCAF" in 1958 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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