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No. 432 (Leaside) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force    No. 432 (Leaside) Squadron was the twelfth RCAF bomber squadron formed overseas at Skipton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, on 1st May 1943 with No. 6 (RCAF) Group of Bomber Command. Originally flying Wellingtons, later converting to Lancaster and Halifax. The squadron's first operation was on the night of the 23rd/24th May 1943 and by the end of the war in Europe, it had flew 3,100 sorties with the loss of 71 aircraft. Airfields at which 432 Squadron were based during the Second World War: Skipton-on-Swale. May to Sep 1943 East Moor. from Sep 1943 Currently Out of Stock A 60 minute DVD of the Memorial Service for 420, 424, 432 and 433 Squadrons held at the former RAF Skipton on Swale in June 2009 is now available for purchase. The service features a flypast by a Spitfire of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, music from the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment, readings and tributes set against views across the runways filmed from the usually inaccessible old control tower. Prices including postage UK Delivery 13.50 GBP International Delivery 15.50 GBP ?>   4th July 1943 432 Squadron Wellington lost 4th Jul 1943 Aircraft Damaged 16th Jul 1943 Aircraft Lost 20th Jul 1943 Aircraft Lost 15th Jan 1944 432 Squadron Lancaster lost 24th Mar 1944 Berlin Targeted 28th May 1944 432 Squadron Halifax lost 6th Jun 1944 Coastal Defences 6th Jun 1944 Supply Lines 8th Jun 1944 432 Squadron Halifax lost 8th August 1944 Ops Scrubbed 5th Jan 1945 Night Ops 2nd Feb 1945 Halifax Lost 13th Feb 1945 Night Ops 17th Feb 1945 Halifax Lost 20th Feb 1945 Halifax Lost 21st Feb 1945 Night Ops 21st Feb 1945 Aircraft Lost 23rd Feb 1945 Night Ops 27th Feb 1945 Night Ops 2nd Mar 1945 Night Ops 3rd Mar 1945 Night Ops 25th Mar 1945 Night Ops 8th Apr 1945 Night Ops 13th Apr 1945 Night Ops 18th Apr 1945 Night Ops 22nd Apr 1945 Night Ops If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Logbooks Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession? If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you. View Logbook entries Those known to have served with No. 432 (Leaside) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War 1939-1945. Augustine Albert Jacob. (d.10th Aug 1990) Blomeley William James. Burford Edward Charles. Sgt. Carruthers Orne Ross. WO. Carruthers Orne Ross. W.O. Cooper DFC/ John Herbert. F/Lt. Fones Frederick Ernest. Sgt. Fortin Jean-Claude. Gnius Mike. F/O. (d.20th Jan 1944) Grigg William Hamilton. Flt.Sgt. Higgs Joseph. Holmes John. Sgt. (d.4th July 1943) Horn Walter Wilfred. MWO1 (d.27th June 1943) King DFC. Alexander. W/O Lowle G. P.. WO.2 (d.2nd Dec 1943) Maguire John Goodwin. F/Lt. (d.21st Feb 1945) McLay John Milton. F/O. (d.28th Apr 1944) Narum Chester Russell. P/O (d.31st Mar 1944) Nielsen Marius Bendt. P/O. (d.6th March 1944) Piper William Thomas. Flt.Sgt. Quesnel DFM Joseph Herve Leon . Sgt. Sharko Manuel. Flt/Sgt. Smith James Henry. Tarr Charles Francis. Sergeant (d.14th Jan 1944) Waddell Walter William. LAC. Zacharuk MID Alexander Orest. WO1. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of No. 432 (Leaside) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. Announcements The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web. 22nd April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. 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Want to know more about No. 432 (Leaside) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force? There are:2027 items tagged No. 432 (Leaside) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. Sergeant Charles Francis Tarr RCAF 432 Squadron (d.14th Jan 1944) My Father, Sgt. Charles Francis Tarr, Service # 1068226, British born, and a member of the RAF. He was assigned to the 432 squadron RCAF, and lost his life on a raid in January 14, 1944. I was born later that year, and obviously have only emotional and brief family stories and no living memory of this great man. I am trying in my senior and retirement years to build a history of his service and death in action. Frank Tarr frank@no-rain.com Frank Tarr Add to this record. W.O. Orne Ross Carruthers 432 Squadron W.O. Orne Ross Carruthers, served with the 432 Squadron as a rear gunner based out of East Moor North Yorkshire. His crew flew several missions near the end of the war in the spring of 1945. There is evidence from the ORB's for the 432 that their aircraft was the last 432 Halifax bomber to lift off the runway at East Moor in anger to Wangerooge. This was the last mission of World War II. Glen Carruthers Add to this record. Albert Jacob Augustine 432 (Leaside) Squadron (d.10th Aug 1990) The following was shared with me by the son of my step-grandfather Albert Jacob Augustin), when I asked him for information regarding my grandfather's service in the war. My father joined the RCAF I believe in 1943 at Westdale High School in Hamilton. It operated as a school during the daytime and served as a training facility all night. At one time the school was the largest building in the British empire complete with rifle range in the basement. After his basic training he was selected for aircrew and became an air gunner. Next stop was Gimli, Manitoba, for air gunnery training before going overseas. He joined the 432 Squadron known as Leaside which was located at East Moor in England. It was part of the 6 Bomber Group and he flew as a tail gunner in a 4 engine Halifax bomber. He completed 36 missions with most being over industrial targets over Germany. His squadron flew night missions while the Americans flew during the daylight. He completed an extra 6 missions (30 was a normal tour) so he could return to Canada on leave in 1945. When he got to Toronto by train at Union Station in 1945 he heard the war in Europe was over. He was assigned to train on new Lincoln bombers for the war in Asia after his leave ended. Fortunately the war ended and he was mustered out. He and your grandmother went to England to attend the Bomber Group reunion at York, England, in the late 1980s. It was a highlight of the last years of his life. His 432 Squadron also had reunions in Toronto which he attended as he kept in touch with his fellow aircrew after the war ended. Evidently the casualty rate was 50% for bomber command aircrew, with the life expectancy of a tail gunner of 8 missions. Grumpy was a very fortunate to survive his extended tour of duty. Kelly Dunlop Add to this record. F/Lt. John Herbert "Coops" Cooper DFC/ 432 (Leaside) Squadron John Cooper was born in Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan on 29th of November 1918. He enlisted in the RCAF in 1940. After completing his extensive training, he finally completed his first sortie with 432 Squadron in January 1944. In total, Coops is credited with 26 sorties and over 138 hours in the air. He and his crew flew over some of the most heavily defended territory in Europe, with successful missions over Berlin (3), Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Paris among his accomplishments. On 18th of July 1944, the Halifax Bomber that he and his mates were in came under heavy flak after dropping their payload near Caen, in support of the Normandy campaign. Cooper tells of the plane's central area being engulfed in flames and, out of fear of the gas tanks exploding, he ordered the crew to jump at 9,000 feet. He accompanied the crew (all but one made it out - Sgt. R.E. Burton), and fell to the ground as the sun rose across the French countryside. He was promptly captured and sent to the now famous Stalag Luft 3 (site of the Great Escape in March 1944). He was transferred to two other POW camps before being liberated in May, 1945 by the British Second Army. Cooper was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his (and his crew's) heroic efforts during the first seven months of 1944. His recommendation for the award reads, in part, "Under a calm and quiet manner Cooper has always maintained a fine offensive spirit in action which inspired confidence in his crew and other crews in his flight." Cooper remained with the RCAF until 1968, occupying roles with NATO, AIRCENT and also working very closely with the USAF. He passed away in 2010 in Oakville, Ontario. Allan Singh Add to this record. P/O. Marius Bendt "Sonny" Nielsen 432 (Leaside) Squadron (d.6th March 1944) My uncle Pilot Officer, Air Gunner Marius Nielson together with the seven other crew, Royal Canadian Air Force airmen from 432 Squadron based at RAF Eastmoor in North Yorkshire, were killed on 6th of March 1945 in Halifax VII QO-L (RG-475) while returning from a raid over Chemnitz, Germany. They were shot down by British Coastal Defences. Seven of them are buried in Brookfield Military Cemetery in Surrey. David Kinton Add to this record. Flt/Sgt. Manuel "Tinker" Sharko 432 Squadron My father is Manuel Sharko. He enlisted with the RCAF at age 19 and completed 36 operational flights as a mid-­upper gunner on Halifax bombers with RCAF 432 Squadron. He completed a tour of duty at 30 “ops” but continued on through six more. All 36 ops were completed with a crew of NCOs and pilot F/S (later P/O) Robert Campbell DFC, who were all RCAF members except for the flight engineer. Another member of the crew was also decorated. F/S Stewart Cassels, the navigator, was awarded the DFM. Manuel was born in a log house on the family farm near Nisku, Alberta, just south of Edmonton, on February 21, 1925, and lived there until he enlisted in the air force at age 17 in 1943. After qualifying as an Air Gunner at No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School at MacDonald, Manitoba, when he was shipped overseas, Manuel was based with his squadron in England at East Moor, Yorkshire. Despite odds, Sgt. Sharko and all in his crew survived the war. He says his scariest and longest flight was a bombing run to Stuttgart when his Halifax was shot up and losing fuel but was able to land safely at an American base in England where the bomber was repaired, then flown back to East Moor. Wayne Sharko Add to this record. Sgt. Frederick Ernest Fones 426 Squadron Frederick Fones served with 426 Squadron and 432 Squadron. Brian Fones Add to this record. James Henry Smith 432 Squadron A 432 Squadron Wellington Bomber was shot out of the air over Germany, Jim Smith was the only one that survived. He landed in a farmer's field and the owners handed him over to the German soldiers. He was a POW for the rest of the war. Petra Smith Add to this record. Sgt. John Holmes 432 Squadron (d.4th July 1943) Sgt John Holmes was one of the crew of Halifax Mk X which crashed in the Henhurst area of Gravesend after being diverted to RAF West Malling. In poor weather conditions and low on fuel, the plane crashed on a house. Add to this record. WO1. Alexander Orest "Chiefy" Zacharuk MID Bomb Aimer 432 Squadron Alexander Zacharuk's citation reads: "Under a calm and quiet manner he has always maintained a fine offensive spirit in action which inspired confidence in his crew members and other crews in his flight. Eleven of his 26 operational sorties have been over heavily defended targets in Germany, such as Dusseldorf, Essen, Brunswick, Berlin (three times), Stuttgart and Frankfurt." Halifax NP706 (QO-J) took off at 0326 hours, on the 18th of July 1944 from East Moor to bomb fortified positions facing the Allied push towards Caen. The aircraft was shot down in flames by flak. This was a very experienced crew whose skipper had flown 31 operations. the crew consisted of: F/Sgt R E Burton (RCAF) was mortally wounded and is buried in Bretteville-sur-Laine Canadian War Cemetery. F/L J.H. Cooper (RCAF, POW), Sergeant S.D. Wright (RCAF, POW), Sergeant H.E. Oakeby (evader), F/O R.P. Dryden (RCAF, POW), WO2 A. Zacharuk (RCAF, evader), WO1 K.E. Elliott (RCAF, POW), F/L J.H. Cooper was interned in Camp L3, POW No.7607, F/O R.P. Dryden in Camp L1, POW No.5171, WO1 K.E. Elliott in Camp L7, POW No.452 Sergeant S.D. Wright, in Camp L7 POW No.500. Patrick Robinson Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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