No.
429 Squadron formed at East Moor in Yorkshire on 7 November
1942 and was equipped with Vickers Wellington Mk IIIs. It
began operations with this type in January 1943 as part of No.
6 Group, operating by night over Europe on bombing and mining
missions. In August 1943 it moved to Leeming where it
re-equipped with Handley Page Halifax Mk I, resuming
operations in September. Augmented by Mk Vs, these were flown
regularly night by night on bombing raids until March 1944,
when the more powerful Halifax Mk III replaced them. This
version bore the brunt of No. 429's war, putting in a full
year's operations during the very heavy raids which were the
culmination of Bomber Command's wartime attack on Germany. In
March 1945 No. 429 re-equipped with Avro Lancaster Mk Is and
Mk IIIs, and used these briefly on operations before the war
in Europe ended. Thereafter the squadron remained in Bomber
Command, flying POW repatriation duties and normal exercises
until disbanding at Leeming on 31 May 1946.
Reformed
as a Tactical Transport unit at RCAF Station St Hubert (Montreal), Quebec
on 21 August 1967, the squadron flew fifteen aircraft acquired
by the RCAF between 1965 and December 1968 for the
Canadian Forces Mobile Command. On 1 February 1968 was
integrated into the Canadian Armed Forces as the Air
Navigation and Instrument rating squadron of the Canadian
Forces. On September 1, 1970 the 429 Sq was disbanded with the
Buffalo's going to No. 440 Squadron and No. 424 Squadron, as
well, four Buffalo aircraft, on a rotational basis, were
assigned to No. 116 Air Transport Unit (452, 460, 461 and 463)
which operated from Ismailia, Egypt in support of UN
operations.
In August 1981 is was renamed 429 Transport
Squadron and soon after moved to CFB Winnipeg. In
1990 it moved to CFB Trenton where where it continued flying
the CC-130 until its deactivation in July of 2005.
In
2007 the Canadian Air Force announced the re-establishment of
429 Transport Squadron to fly the newly acquired C-17, the
squadron is based at 8 Wing / CFB Trenton.
