No. 39 Wing was established on 12 September 1942 as an "Army Cooperation" Wing at Leatherhead, Surrey, England.[1][2] It comprised No. 400 Squadron RCAF, No. 414 Squadron RCAF, and No. 430 Squadron RCAF. As a reconnaissance unit, its purpose was to gather photographic intelligence in support of allied ground operations.[1]
The Wing left the UK and moved to the European continent on 2 July 1944 at Sommervieu, France.[1] The Wing moved ever eastward following the front and finished the war at airfield B156 Luneburg, Germany where it was finally disbanded.[1]
^ abcdKostenuk, Samuel; Griffin, John (1977). RCAF Squadron Histories and Aircraft 1924–1968. Toronto: National Museum of Man Canada. p. 255. ISBN0-88866-577-6.
2 Non-standard code as unit using OW added L. Letters normally denoted parent Command, aircraft type (L Liberator transport, D Dakota etc), unit, and individual aircraft.
3 VCXXA where VC was the civil code used by the RCAF replacing CF-, XX was the unit code and A was the aircraft ID letter
4 XXnnn where XX was the unit code and nnn was the last 3 digits of the serial number. Unit code was replaced with "RCAF" in 1958