No. 427 Squadron — Lion

No. 427 “Lion” Squadron was formed in November 1942 as a Royal Canadian Air Force bomber unit and joined the Canadian No. 6 Group at the start of 1943. Flying first the Vickers Wellington, it moved in May 1943 to RAF Leeming in Yorkshire — its home for the rest of the war — and there converted to the Handley Page Halifax, taking the Avro Lancaster in the final months.

The squadron owed its “Lion” name to an unusual sponsor: the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adopted it in 1943, lending its stars’ names to the aircraft and presenting a bronze lion. The squadron’s own badge paired a lion for England with a maple leaf for Canada, beneath the motto Ferte manus certas — “strike sure”.