438 "City of Montreal" Tactical Helicopter Squadron (French: 438e Escadron tactique d'hélicoptères "Ville de Montréal") is a unit of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The squadron operates the Bell CH-146 Griffon tactical helicopter from the Hartland de Montarville Molson Hangar of CFB St. Hubert in Quebec, Canada.

[2] The formation of the Squadron is due to the sustained efforts of Adélard Raymond, Montreal businessman and veteran pilot of the First World War, and La Presse journalist Lionel Saint-Jean who was the president of the Quebec Aviation League.

[3] These men worked closely together from May 1934 onwards to formulate a formal request aimed at the formation of a reserve aviation squadron attached to the militia, like the already existing ones in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, but composed of francophones.

[2] The squadron was reequipped with Westland Lysanders and Blackburn Sharks[2] better suited to this new role which consisted of patrolling the coast for enemy naval activity and directing coastal artillery batteries when/if required.

[5] After nearly a year of coastal sweeps, the occasional patrol for convoys close inshore, dive-bombing exercises with army batteries and naval anti-aircraft gunners, air gunnery training and aerial photographic duties, the squadron was temporarily deactivated on 27 September 1940 pending redesignation and the arrival of more modern aircraft.

Many were put in temporary storage, the few others still leaving with the RAF were also test flown by 118 pilots prior to fitting to catapult equipped merchant vessels.

[2] Leaving their Kittyhawks behind, the 142 strong squadron crossed Canada by rail embarking on 2 November 1943 in Halifax for the sea voyage to the United Kingdom.

[2] After D-Day, its main task was close support to allied ground forces by dive-bombing and strafing enemy strong-points, bridges, rail and road traffic.

[3] This base was still well within the range of German artillery and on 15 July Flying Officer Ross Johnson, a 21 year old pilot was killed during a barrage directed at his motor transport.

[3] It is during this Armament Practice Camp that their latest CO, Squadron Leader James Easson Hogg[10] DFC, a seasoned veteran, failed to pull out of a dive and crashed into the channel dying instantly.

[3] While serving at Annette Island alongside his USAAF colleagues, Reid had noticed the many American military aircraft bearing such intricate designs.

[3] Reid received a letter from the Disney Studios dated March 30, 1944 containing the design below that was immediately adopted and painted on the side of the squadron's Typhoons with the addition of a maple leaf as a background.

[3] At the end of the war while at Flensburg, Germany awaiting repatriation, squadron members commissioned a unit pin from a local jeweler based on the Disney design (see photo below).

As a result, like in some other newly reformed auxiliary squadrons, a great percentage of the early post-war period pilots were some of the most highly decorated wartime members of the RCAF.

[2] The "T-birds" as they were commonly called by RCAF personnel, were retained until September 1958[2] and were used to train new pilots converting to jets, more precisely the Sabre which began arriving at the squadron in October 1956.

[4] With changing times causing increases in the cost of modern weapons, the complexity of their upkeep, technical advances and new air defence doctrines, Auxiliary squadrons were assigned to mostly secondary support roles.

[3] Now equipped with the Beechcraft Expeditor MK.III and relegated to light utility transport, most remaining fighter pilots simply left the service in protest giving the unit a completely new look with a membership of reserve air and ground crews mostly borne from the civilian airline and local aircraft industries.

[3] On May 5, 1961, the unit received its Squadron Standard for 25 years of service from the Queen's representative, the Honourable Gaspard Fauteux, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec.

[2] For a few years beginning in September 1960, it would share the load with the latest aircraft type assigned to the Wildcats, the sturdy Canadian designed and built de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter.

[2] To the utility transport role was added Search and Rescue with this new slow but stable platform that could operate from short fields and from bodies of water when fitted with floats.

[3] Tactical helicopters working in close relation with the Army, the squadron now mostly flew operations in support of the ground forces and as such, regularly trained with them in yearly brigade and divisional level exercises such as "Rendez-Vous" (RV) or "Noble Lion".

The aircraft maintenance echelon of 438 Squadron modified the twelve Griffons chosen for operations over Afghanistan during December 2008, prepared them for shipping, and loaded them on RCAF CC-177s for the long trip.

[3] When taking into consideration the relatively small size of the unit, it is worthy of mention that even with personnel on duty abroad and domestic operations[14] still running, that all deadlines were met.

On 25 June 2013, two 438 Squadron Griffons operating out of Eureka, Nunavut as part of Op Nevus, were diverted to assist in what would become one of the largest Arctic rescue missions in Canadian history.

[15] A CH-149 Cormorant helicopter from 103 Search and Rescue Squadron out of 9 Wing Gander Newfoundland began the trip North to assist with the extraction in the event that hoist capabilities were required.

[15] Seven hours after the initial call for help, the Hercules appeared over the group and dropped three 20-man covered life rafts, survival gear, and satellite phones from its tail gate, and its crew measured the size of the shrinking ice island.

[16] The weather cleared enough the next day for the Griffons to reach the two groups and extract all 31 people safely in multiple round trip flights to Arctic Bay.

[17] Following intense pre-deployment training in Canada, the advanced party of the initial rotation (Roto 0) arrived at their new base of operations in early November, Camp Taji just north of Baghdad, closely followed by the main body at the end of the same month.

Tactical air transport being the only safe means of travel between the multiple training areas, this Canadian asset was crucial to the initial phases and remained critical to the success of this multinational endeavor.