North Luffenham

439 Squadron Aerobatic Team

The last group of intrepid aviators to arrive at North Luffenham were the Tigers of 439 Squadron. They did so in style, flying 21 Sabre 2s across the Atlantic for the first time. Thanks to Mother Nature, it wasn't the smoothest of operations, taking the squadron over two weeks by the time they finally landed at North Luffenham on Sunday, June 15th, 1952. In a classy gesture, 441 Squadron scrambled five Sabres to intercept the weary travellers and escort them in to North Luffenham on the last leg of their journey.

Like their predecessors, it took 439 several months to get comfortable in their new surroundings. Since 410 and 441 Squadrons were by now both well ensconced in their NATO roles, the pressure was on 439 to catch up as quickly as possible. Although airshows were clearly of secondary importance at the time, it didn't take the squadron long to get into the public eye. World War II veteran, F/O Ken Cheesman, was given the honour of leading a four-ship of Tigers over Brighton on August 17th in a salute to the Canadian soldiers that had been billeted in the area prior to setting sail on the ill-fated Dieppe raid 10 years earlier. As for dedicated airshows however, the other two squadrons were eagerly lapping up all of the requests. Naturally, it wasn't fair for the other guys to be having all the fun - and getting all the publicity - so it was finally F/L Harry Wenz who instigated the formation of a 439 team. F/O Laurie Hamilton was eager to participate and flew right wing with the team recalls things as follows:

The 439 team was officially formed in August 1953 and remained in existence until May of 1954 when a composite wing demonstration team was formed. The 439 team consisted of F/L Harry Wenz (lead), F/O Laurie Hamilton (right wing), F/O Dick Wingate (left wing) and F/O Len Pappas (slot).

After a short but intensive workup, we performed at North Luffenham's Battle of Britain Open House on September 20th, 1953 and at a number of similar RAF and "Royal Air Forces" Association events. In October 1953 both Dick Wingate and Len Pappas were transferred andF/O Mac Gillies and F/O Jeb Kerr took their places. The English winter of 1954-1954 was one of the worst on record for snow, fog and frfeezing temperatures which secerely restricted a great deal of our flying activities. Consequently, between December 1953 and March 1954, we did very little formation aerobatics except for a few flights to maintain our skills.

We performed on April 23rd, 1954 for the newly appointed Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall CR Slemon. As it turned out, this was to be our final performance as in May of 1954, Harry Wenz and I were transferred back to Canada.

By early 1954, 1 Wing had been in operation for over two years and many of the "original" squadron pilots began to get posted to new assignments. This natural evolution necessitated a period of adjustment for all of the squadrons as new "sprogs" arrived fresh out of the OTU in Chatham, eager to take advantage of the superb flying (and apres flying) that a fighter tour in Europe had to offer. The loss of experience also began to have an effect on each of the three squadron aerobatic teams. Competition being what it was among the squadrons to be the best, in all facets of flying, led to the conclusion that the time was ripe for a new approach. This change of philosophy ushered in the era of the "Wing" aerobatic team.

Reprinted from "A Tradition of Excellence - Canada's Airshow Team Heritage" courtesy Dan Dempsey. - Web Site -