No. 420 Squadron — Snowy Owl

No. 420 “Snowy Owl” Squadron was formed in December 1941 at RAF Waddington as a Royal Canadian Air Force bomber unit, and over the war flew a string of types including the Handley Page Hampden, the Vickers Wellington, the Handley Page Halifax and the Avro Lancaster. Through the summer and autumn of 1943 it served in North Africa, flying Wellingtons in support of the invasions of Sicily and Italy.

On the creation of the Canadian No. 6 Group in January 1943 it became one of its squadrons, and from December 1943 it operated from RAF Tholthorpe in Yorkshire for the rest of the war. Its motto, Pugnamus finitum, meant “we fight to the finish”.