In its sixteen months of front line combat service from March 1944 to May 1945, 438 Squadron flew 4022 sorties, dropped 2070 tons of bombs and is credited with 430 rail cuts, 184 vehicles destroyed (+169 damaged), 12 tanks destroyed (+3 damaged), 5 locomotives destroyed (+73 damaged), 101 rail cars destroyed (+532 damaged), 1 barge sunk (+38 damaged), and 5 bridges destroyed. The cost for these successes was high, during the same timeframe, the squadron lost 38 aircraft, 31 pilots, of whom 17 were killed, 5 missing, 6 were captured by the enemy after bailing out and 3 successfully evaded capture after abandoning their aircraft.