English Channel & North Sea 1944-1945 Baltic 1944-1945 Fortress Europe 1944 France & Germany 1944-1945 Biscay Ports 1944 Ruhr 1944-1945 Berlin 1944 German Ports 1944-1945 Normandy 1944 Rhine Biscay 1944
No. 433 Squadron formed at RAF Skipton-on-Swale on 25 September 1943, but was without aircraft for nearly two months. When these arrived they were the latest version of the Handley Page Halifax, the Mk III, and No. 433 worked up on them to begin operations on 2 January 1944. For the next year the squadron was continuously operational on Halifaxes over the Continent by night. In January 1945 the Halifaxes were replaced by Avro Lancaster Mk Is, and No. 433 used these for three months, by which time the war in Europe had come to an end. No. 433 was not disbanded but, as part of No. 1 Group, flew trooping flights from Germany and Italy, bringing back troops and POWs. This continued until 15 October 1945, when the squadron disbanded at Skipton-on-Swale.[citation needed]
No. 433 Squadron reformed as an All-Weather (Fighter) unit at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, on 15 November 1954, and moved to CFB North Bay, Ontario, in October 1955, the squadron flew CF-100 Canuck aircraft on North American air defence until disbanded on 1 August 1961.[citation needed]
The squadron celebrated its 75th anniversary on 15 September 2018.
Monument dedicated to 433rd Squadron in Freudstein
Pucelle du 433rd Squadron
"On this mountainside of the Riesenkopf in the night of the 2nd and 3rd december 1944 crashed coming back from a mission in the Ruhr the bomber HALIFAX - MZ 807 from the 433rd Squadron "Porcupine""
2 Non-standard code as unit using OW added L. Letters normally denoted parent Command, aircraft type (L Liberator transport, D Dakota etc), unit, and individual aircraft.
3 VCXXA where VC was the civil code used by the RCAF replacing CF-, XX was the unit code and A was the aircraft ID letter
4 XXnnn 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