No. 428 Squadron RCAF
On 7 Nov 1942, he assumed command of No 428 (RCAF) Squadron, standing up the squadron in No. 4 Group. As the OC, it was noted that "Wing Commander Earle was a grand chap, one who can genuinely be called, 'One of Nature's Gentlemen'. He was well liked by the Canadians and sadly missed when he left on promotion to group captain in February 1943. He flew two operations from Dalton, occupying the astro-dome. He had previously been flying Fairey Gordons in the Middle East (Iraq), and found the Wellington difficult, partly due to his eyesight not liking the English skies, and partly as he was not a tall man." After only three months, he left 428 Bomber Squadron (RCAF) as an acting group captain on 7 Feb 1943, when he was assigned as the station commander of RAF Ridgewell and then RAF West Wickham, late in 1943, then as a temporary group captain. He ended the war as Air Officer Commanding No. 300 Group RAF (RAF Transport Command) in Australia.
424 Transport and Rescue Squadron
No. 424 Squadron RCAF was formed at RAF Topcliffe, North Yorkshire in on 15 October 1942, as the sixth RCAF Overseas bomber squadron, first being allocated to No. 4 Group RAF, initially equipped with the medium bomber Vickers Wellington Mk IIIs (later Mk Xs). It began operations on 15 January 1943, having joined No. 6 Group RCAF seeing moves to RAF Leeming, and then RAF Dalton. By the end of April 1943, 424 had bombed Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Bochum, Hamburg, Cologne, Essen, and took part in a third trip to Duisburg.