| No. 401 Squadron RCAF | |
|---|---|
.png) Second World War variant of the squadron badge | |
| Active |
|
| Country | Canada |
| Branch | Royal Canadian Air Force |
| Role | Fighter, Helicopter and Training |
| Nickname(s) | City of Westmount, Ram |
| Motto(s) | Mors celerrima hostibus (Latin for 'Very swift death for the enemy') |
| Battle honours |
|
| Website | canada |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Lieutenant-Colonel Reid Surkan |
| Squadron CWO | Chief Warrant Officer Mark Riach |
| Insignia | |
| Squadron Badge heraldry | A Rocky Mountain sheep's head, caboshed[1] |
| Squadron Codes | YO (July/August 1940 – May 1945) |
No. 401 Tactical Fighter Squadron , a.k.a."City of Westmount" Squadron (originallyNo. 1 Squadron), is aRoyal Canadian Air Force squadron based atCFB Cold Lake. DuringWorld War II it was a fighter squadron and is notable for having fought in theBattle of Britain. Postwar, the squadron operated in Canada as an auxiliary squadron, reserve squadron and a helicopter and training squadron. In 2015 it was reactivated as a tactical fighter squadron, flying theMcDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet.
No. 1 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force was formed as a fighter unit atTrenton, Ontario, on 21 September 1937 withSiskin aircraft. The squadron was formed from the Fighter Flight ofNo. 3 (Bomber) Squadron. In August 1938, the squadron moved toCalgary, Alberta, and was re-equipped withHawker Hurricane aircraft in February 1939. While stationed in Calgary, the squadron was commanded by Squadron LeaderElmer Garfield Fullerton. It was mobilized atSaint-Hubert, Quebec, on 10 September 1939, and on 5 November 1939 it moved toDartmouth, Nova Scotia.[2]
The unit began as a permanent peacetime unit which, augmented by personnel from RCAF No. 115 Squadron (Auxiliary),[3][4] arrived at its first base in the UK,Middle Wallop, on 21 June 1940. It had brought its ownHurricanes from Canada, and as these were not fully up to UK standard, the squadron was non-operational until mid-August when it moved toRAF Northolt. At the time the squadron comprised 27 officers (21 pilots) and 314 airmen.[5] To gain experience of Fighter Command operations, Squadron Leader E.A. McNab, Commanding Officer, flew on operations attached to No. 111 Squadron, and claimed aHe 111 bomber destroyed on 11 August 1940.
The squadron was posted toRAF Middle Wallop in June 1940, before in July moving toRAF Croydon.
The squadron's début was inauspicious when twoBristol Blenheims ofRAF Coastal Command were accidentally shot down on 24 August, and three crewmen killed.
On its second patrol on 26 August 1940 it met with 25–30Dornier Do 215s and was credited with three destroyed and three damaged in the fight. However, three of the squadron's aircraft were shot down and one pilot (Flying OfficerR. L. Edwards[6]) was killed. The squadron experienced a fairly high aircraft loss rate during the end of August and into September as the squadron battled against the German formations over south London.
On 21 September the squadron participated in the first attempt at a wing formation operation by the Northholt-based squadrons, withNo. 229 Squadron RAF andNo. 303 (Polish), although no enemy aircraft were encountered. By 27 September, although downing seven bombers, only six aircraft were operational by the end of the day.
On 11 October the depleted squadron was moved toRAF Prestwick in Scotland and its operational activity was coastal patrol work over theClyde approaches.[7]
During the 53 days it participated in the battle the squadron claimed 30 enemy aircraft destroyed, probably destroyed eight, and damaged 35. It flew 1,694 sorties (1,569 operational hours and 1,201 non-operational), lost three pilots killed, thirteen wounded, 17 aircraft FB/Cat. 3 and 10 Cat. 2.[8] The most successful pilots were Flight LieutenantGordon McGregor (five kills), Squadron Leader E. A. McNab (four and one shared), Flying Officer B. D. 'Dal' Russel (four and one shared), Flying Officer J.W. Kerwin (three) and Flying Officer A.D. Nesbit (three).
ThreeDistinguished Flying Crosses were awarded.
The squadron was withdrawn toScotland during October 1940.
On 2 November McGregor took over as commanding officer from McNab.
Ross and Sydney Smither, of London, Ontario, were both pilots with No. 1 (401) Squadron. Ross, born in 1912, joined the RCAF in 1930 as a fitter, later training as an air gunner before applying for a pilots course, being commissioned and joining No. 1 squadron, which was the first to be posted to the UK, arriving in June 1940. Flying a Hurricane, he was shot down and killed on 15 September 1940.
His brother, Sydney, born in 1921, joined the RCAF and was commissioned into the same squadron, by then No. 401, and posted to the UK. Based atBiggin Hill, flying Spitfires, the squadron was on escort duties to a bomber raid over France on 5 June 1942 when he was shot down and killed. It was his 21st birthday. A further coincidence is that Ross, operating from Northolt, was shot down defending Biggin Hill on Battle of Britain day, the airfield that was Sydney's base when he, also, was shot down.[9]
The squadron moved south again in February 1941 when it arrived atRAF Digby. It was here on 1 March that No 1 Squadron RCAF was renumbered toNo. 401 Squadron.
The squadron had replaced its Hurricanes withSpitfires Mk IIs in September 1941, Mk Vs in late 1941 and in July 1942 some of the first examples of the new Mk IX. Operating from Digby with No 12 Group Fighter Command until October 1941, it saw little action, but it then moved south toRAF Biggin Hill and remained in11 Group carrying out offensive operations over Occupied Europe until January 1943.
On 21 October 401's first loss of this phase of operations was Flight Sergeant B.F. Whitson, takenprisoner after being shot down overSaint-Omer. On 27 October the squadron was operating as high cover to the Biggin Hill Wing, and were 'bounced' by I and IIIGruppe,JG 26, led by OberstAdolf Galland. Five Spitfires were lost, with Flying Officer C. A. B. Wallace, Pilot Officer J.A. Small and Sergeant S. L. Thompson killed, and Pilot OfficerWally Floody and Sergeant B. G. Hodgkinson both prisoner.[10] On 8 November 1941 on the last mass fighter sweep of the year the squadron was attacked by I. and III./JG 26, and Flying Officer J. C. Weir (prisoner of war) and Sergeant R. W. Gardner (killed) were lost overLe Touquet shot down byFw. Babenz andLeut. Uibacker of JG 26. A two-squadron sweep with No. 72 Squadron over France on 22 November saw claims for twoBf 109s and threeFw 190s destroyed (I./JG 26 lost one Bf 109 and a Fw 190 crash-landed) for Flying Officer H.A. Sprague (POW).
On 12 February 1942 following the 'Channel Dash' of theScharnhorst andGneisenau inOperation Donnerkeil, six Swordfish of No. 825 FAA Squadron were to meet with an escort from 64 and 411 Squadrons (Hornchurch) and 72, 124 and 401 Squadrons (Biggin Hill) over Manston at mid-day. The escort missed the rendezvous, however, although 401 later claimed two Bf 109s destroyed, for the loss of Sergeant Levesque, who was taken prisoner.
The Fw 190 fighter force continued to take toll of the Fighter Command squadrons, 401 being no exception. On 28 April Pilot Officer J. A. Ferguson: (POW) and Pilot Officer G. B. Whitney (killed) were lost although Pilot OfficerDon Blakeslee, an RCAF-enlisted American, claimed two 'probables'. On 1 May the squadron lost two more Spitfires toJG 2 over Le Havre while, on 1 June 1942, when a section of 401 intercepted and shot down twoHawker Typhoon fighters ofNo. 56 Squadron, one pilot was killed. In June the squadron received some of the first Mark IX Spitfires, capable of taking on the Focke Wulf Fw 190A on more or less equal terms. On 19 August duringOperation Jubilee two probables and three damaged were claimed. On 8 November Flight Lieutenant Don Morrison was shot down and badly wounded versus units of JG 26, losing a leg and being repatriated in 1943. Morrison's tally of 5.33 aircraft destroyed, four 'probables' and four damaged was 401's highest since the Battle of Britain.[11]
Moving toRAF Catterick in early 1943, the squadron was involved in training and coastal patrols for four months before returning to 11 Group in late May, where the squadron reverted to Spitfire Mk IX's and became part of No. 126 Wing, No 83 Group,2nd Tactical Air Force (2TAF). The unit resumed operational flying fromRAF Redhill in June, andRAF Staplehurst in August and Biggin Hill on October.
Operations prior toD-Day were flown fromRAF Tangmere. On 15 March fourJG 26 Fw 190s were claimed (three were actually lost).
On 7 June eight aircraft were claimed destroyed, and on 18 June the squadron moved to the B-4 airstrip atBeny-sur-Mer, France. Six more fighters were claimed downed on 28 June. No. 401 shot down three fighters ofJG 26 on 7 July. The squadron's 100th victory was notched up on 20 July, while seven more Bf 109s were shot down on 27 July overCaen.
The squadron increasingly operated in the fighter-bomber role, ground attack and armed reconnaissance operations, culminating in operations supporting operations overNijmegen and the ground fighting inArnhem in September. Squadron LeaderR. I. A. 'Rod' Smith, an experienced Malta 'ace', was posted from 412 Squadron and took command in September. On 29 September the squadron surprised some thirty Bf 109s attacking a Typhoon formation, and claimed at least nine destroyed for one loss.[5]
On 5 October, a five-strong squadron patrol encountered aMesserschmitt Me 262 jet ofKG 51 and shot it down, the pilot,Hpt. Hans-Christoph Buttmann, was killed. This was the first victory over this type credited to either the RAF or RCAF.[12]
During late 1944 the unit operated from 'B-80' airfield inVolkel and then 'B-88', nearHeesch, in the Netherlands.
In the course ofOperation Bodenplatte, the mass ground-attack of 1 January 1945 by the Luftwaffe, the unit claimed nine of the attackers shot down, making the tally since D-Day 76.5 aircraft destroyed, three probables and 37 damaged. The next day Squadron LeaderWilliam Klersy was appointed Commanding Officer. The squadron caught Fw 190s taking off fromTwente airfield on 14 January and five fighters of I./JG 1 shot down for one loss, Flight Lieutenant L. J. Mackay claiming three. On 23 January 401 claimed threeArado Ar 234 jet-bombers of III./KG 76 overAchmer airfield.
Operations were restricted in the early part of 1945 due to bad weather, but from the end of February it was heavily involved in the offensive until the end of the war. The squadron received a few Spitfire XIVs in May 1945, but Mk XVIs became standard equipment until the squadron disbanded atFaßberg in Germany on 3 July 1945.[13] 20 April saw No. 401 claim some eight Bf 109s spotted taking off from a grass airstrip near Schwerin, and another five claimed later in the day overHagenau aerodrome. On 3 May 401 attacked aircraft on the ground North West of Kiel, claiming 12Ju 52s, twoHe 111s and aJu 87 destroyed; the Squadron's last claims of the war.
The squadron ended the war as 2TAF's top scoring unit, claiming 112 aerial victories between 6 June 1944 and 5 May 1945.[14] Their total score for the war was 186.5 confirmed, 29 of which were claimed during 1940 when operating as No.1 RCAF Squadron.
The squadron was reactivated as an auxiliary fighter unit on 15 April 1946 atRCAF Station St. Hubert and in 1969 became 401 Air Reserve Squadron based in Montreal. In 1991, the squadron was renamed 401 Helicopter Operational Training Squadron.
No. 401 Squadron was disbanded on 23 June 1996.
The commander of1 Canadian Air Division, Major-General Dave Wheeler, along with the commander of4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta, Colonel Eric Kenny, participated in a ceremony to reactivate 401 Tactical Fighter Squadron on 30 June 2015.[15] Its first deployment was to Kuwait for offensive operations duringOperation Impact.
The squadron flies theCF-18 Hornet, Canada's primary and front-line jet fighter aircraft.
On 20 November 2018, 401 celebrated its 100th anniversary.[16]
No 401 Squadron was based at the following RAF Stations and locations:
| Station | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| RAF Middle Wallop | 21 June 1940 | July 1940 |
| RAF Croydon | July 1940 | Mid-August 1940 |
| RAF Northolt | Mid-August 1940 | 10 October 1940 |
| RAF Prestwick | 11 October 1940 | February 1941 |
| RAF Digby | February 1941 | October 1941 |
| RAF Biggin Hill | October 1941 | January 1943 |
| RAF Catterick | January 1943 | May 1943 |
| RAF Redhill | May 1943 | August 1943 |
| RAF Staplehurst | August 1943 | October 1943 |
| RAF Biggin Hill | October 1943 | April 1944 |
| RAF Tangmere | April 1944 | 18 June 1944 |
| France | 18 June 1944 | |
| Belgium/Netherlands | August 1944 | |
| Faßberg | 3 July 1945 (disbanded) | |
| RCAF Station St. Hubert | 15 April 1946 | 23 June 1996 |
| 4 Wing Cold Lake | 30 June 2015 | Present |
| Squadron numbers |
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| Squadron codes |
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1Aircraft administered and serviced by the RCAF but manned 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
