The History of 427 Squadron - 1942-1970

This history was researched, edited and published by Doug Annis, a CF-104 pilot, in the late 60's. Doug at the time was Squadron Historian and L/Col Ray "Tappy" Carruthers, the CO, knowing of the looming retirement of the CF-104 and the Squadron, tasked Doug to come up with a history to document the Squadron activities to date, hence "The Green Book". Doug admits he had to make hard choices with the mass of information he had at his disposal but felt overall the book is a representative record. The introduction is signed and the project supported by L/Col Tom Reid who succeeded L/Col Carruthers as CO when he was posted. Those interested in cross referencing should also see Eddie Haskins WW II operation maps and casualties.

The pages of names just inside the front cover are a record of aircrew who served with the Squadron during the three different eras covered in the book. It is not infallible and a recent query about F/L O.D. Gorman, DFC found his name missing from this list. He was confirmed as having served with the Squadron for 30 operations using another database. The other anomaly is that recent research into casualties found that 427 WW II aircrew suffered 419 fatal casualties, yet the history in the "Green Book" states 492. There were a total of 557 427 Squadron aircrew shot down, of these 419 were fatal, 6 were internees, 14 evaded capture and 118 were POWs. The difference in fatal casualties has not been resolved at this time.

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