Friday, June 1, 1945 J6718 F/L W.I. Gordon has been posted to the Squadron from No 416 to take over the Flight Commander position, ‘A’ Flight. ‘Rocky’ is well known to the boys of the Squadron, and a welcome addition to our depleted strength. After nearly two weeks of practice formation flying, 403 is making… Read More
Tuesday, May 1, 1945 A fair flying day, with a little rain in the morning. The Squadron had a really big thrash at the Hun this morning with two enemy aircraft destroyed, on e probable destroyed and eight damaged. Victories as follows: J87255 F/O D. Leslie – 1 FW 190 Damaged; R176795 WO2 Neitz R.C…. Read More
Sunday, April 1, 1945 A dull cloudy day, some rain. Three operational trips carried out, patrols in the Emmerich, Xanten, Bocholt, Bochum, Ahaus, Coesfeld areas. 1st operation 12 sorties; 2nd operation – 12 sorties; 3rd operation – 4 sorties. Uneventful. The pilots are now well ‘dug in’ in their new surroundings, and seem to like… Read More
Thursday, February 1, 1945 Duff weather prevented us from doing any flying to day, so it was spent in the mess playing bridge and other card games. Some of the boys went into Brussels to the Turkish Baths in the afternoon. F/L’s Tosh and Todd proceeded on leave, Todd to England and Tosh to the… Read More
Friday, 1 December, 1944 All the boys are excited today. We are leaving for England to pick up our new kites and we are anxious to find out what they are like. It’s a pretty sure guess that we’ll be the first Canadian Fighter Squadron to be equipped with these brand new Spitters. Saturday, 2… Read More
Wednesday, 1 November, 1944 After getting nicely settled in to our billets, we hear that we will be moving again very shortly to a neighbouring airfield. So that means packing up and getting things organized again. Thursday, 2 November, 1944 We are really getting in some 3-ton truck time in these last days. Everything is… Read More
Tuesday, 1 August, 1944 The day started with very poor visibility. Consequently no show took place until about 1800 hours when we did a strafe in the Vir area, which was quite successful with about ten trucks damaged or destroyed. Wednesday, 2 August, 1944 The days work consisted of patrols from noon until dusk –… Read More
Thursday, 1 June, 1944 There was very little flying done today, mostly practice flying and air tests. The Squadron was released in the afternoon. Friday, 2 June, 1944 Readiness was the order for the day and ‘A’ Flight was up at 0430 hours. Pete Logan and Jim Wilcocks did a patrol. A talk on close… Read More
Monday, 1 May, 1944 The Squadron took off on a bombing show at about 1515 hours and, as the target was covered by cloud, a secondary target was selected. Later in the afternoon, six of the lads, led by Chuck Thornton, took off on a Ranger south of Paris. An airfield was attacked but all… Read More
Wednesday, 1 December, 1943 Slight wind – sunny and clear all day. The Squadron went on two sweeps today but no enemy aircraft were seen. There was one non-operational sortie on an aircraft test. Thursday, 2 December, 1943 There was much cloud in the morning, which broke around noon. One Section, comprising of four aircraft,… Read More
