The Beginning of the End 

The Sabre Era

439 Squadron Shoulder Patch

Photo Source Unknown

New Year's Day 1963, brought with it the beginning of the scheduled change of aircraft in Air division, which called for the replacement of the now obsolete F-86 and the CF-100 aircraft by the new CF-104 Starfighters.

All four CF-100 All Weather Fighter Squadrons were officially disbanded on New Year's day, followed by No.'s 427 and 434 Sabre squadrons based at Zweibrucken, Germany.

This posed a tremendous manpower placement problem for Air Division, and it eas decided that all CF-100 pilots would return to Canada, except for a few who would be given jobs at headquarters in Metz. Since the Squadrons would be disbanded gradually from January until November. When the first two went, it was decided that  pilots would be shifted from squadron to squadron in an attempt to transfer pilots who had been serving overseas for three years, back to Canada, and replace them with pilots  who had been in Europe only for a short time.

No. 439 Squadron, which was to be the last to disband, was thus  destined to finish their operational role with a combination of pilots from every other squadron in Air Division.

 

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The Beginning of the End