Remembering Wings & Wheels 2, Southwestern Ontario's Biennial Air Show!
No Show in 2010 - Look For Us In 2011! - St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
From the beginning of hostilities it was recognized that one of Canada's major roles in the war would be as a training ground where instruction could carry on away from the actual battle area. Representatives from the united Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada met in Ottawa and signed an agreement in December 1939 to set up the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, converting Canada into what President Roosevelt later termed "the aerodrome of democracy".
The initial plan provided for Elementary Flying Training Schools, Service Flying Training Schools and Air Observer Schools. Supplementing these were units for recruiting, training maintenance and administration, totalling 74 schools, depots and other formations. Fully developed, the plan was required to produce 520 pilots monthly with elementary training, 544 pilots with service training, 340 air observers and 580 wireless operators-air gunners. The first schools opened in April 1940, and all were in operation by 1942. The responsibility of operating this complex plan was placed on the RCAF, which at the time had scarcely more than 4,000 officers and airmen.
Meeting the challenge meant that sites for dozens of aerodromes had to be selected , roads and runways built, hangers, barracks, and other buildings erected. Incredible quantities of equipment, ranging from thumb tacks to air planes had to be procured. Experts had to be recruited - doctors, dentists, chaplains, technicians, executives, mechanics, bookkeepers, cooks, teachers, flying instructors - to receive, examine, equip, instruct and train the thousands of young men clambering to enlist. The nucleus RCAF personnel developed a force of skilled men from all walks of life. Some of Canada's leading citizens, doctors, engineers, bush pilots, scientists and lawyers all helped. From the United States came a contingent of American commercial pilots eager to help in what they considered to be the common cause.
The BCATP reached its maximum expansion of 97 schools and 184 ancillary units at the close of 1943. Production averaged 3000 graduates a month, and in less than two years 82,000 trained aircrew were qualified. The reserve of aircrew was in excess of the immediate needs overseas and it was possible to begin reducing training in early 1944.
The BCATP was officially terminated in March 1945. It had done its job beyond all expectations. RAF W/C Fred H. Hitchens wrote: "If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, the historian of the Second World War may with some justification, record that the air battle of Europe was won on the fields of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan".
Copyright Paul Ozorak
(from the Spooner Memorial at 427
Wing, Air
Force Association of Canada)
