No. 432 Squadron — Leaside

Group: 6 Group
Home station: RAF East Moor

About

No. 432 “Leaside” Squadron was formed at RAF Skipton-on-Swale in May 1943 and has the distinction of being the first bomber squadron raised directly into the Canadian No. 6 Group. It flew the Vickers Wellington at first, then moved to RAF East Moor and converted to the Avro Lancaster, before settling on the Handley Page Halifax for the rest of the war.

Under a Royal Canadian Air Force publicity scheme the squadron was adopted by the town of Leaside, Ontario, whose name it took. Its crest showed a cougar leaping beneath a full moon — a nod to its night work — above the motto Saeviter ad lucem, “ferociously towards the light”.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including History of War — No. 432 (Leaside) Squadron (RCAF) in the Second World War and Wikipedia: No. 432 Squadron RCAF. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

No service records linked to this squadron yet. Aircraft, crews and sorties will appear here soon.