Commonwealth
Air Training Plan
1940 – 1945
The Most Costly Air Battle in Canadian History
The Great Canadian Air Battle
It is easy to forget certain things about the war. When we consider
Canada’s participation in the Second World War, we understandably
think about the ordeals of Hong Kong and Dieppe, the difficult battles
in Italy, the spectacular landing on 6 June 1944, and the long campaign
to reclaim Europe that followed. The contributions of Canadian pilots to
the Battle of Britain, and of the Royal Canadian Navy to the victory in the
Atlantic, are also remembered. However, all too often, we forget that the
war was also taking place on Canadian soil. In fact, during the early years
of the conflict, it was mostly in Canada that the war found its victims:
over 1,000 airmen had already lost their lives on Canadian bases
before the raid on Dieppe was launched in August 1942. From the
beginning of 1942 to the end of 1944, 831 fatal air accidents took
place in Canada – an average of 23 per month, or five every week.
Each week, at least a dozen airmen died in Canada, an enormous number…
During the first years of the war, Canada was
the most dangerous place a pilot could be…
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
and RCAF Fatalities During the Second World War
by Dr. Jean Martin
Canadian Military Journal, Spring 2002
http://www.journal.dnd.ca/vo3/no1/doc/65-69-eng.pdf
Photographs of Memorial
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
Middleton
Annapolis County
Nova Scotia
This BCATP memorial is located in the churchyard
at Old Holy Trinity Church, Middleton, Nova Scotia,
GPS location: 44°56’03″N 65°05’10″W
Google map
Photographed on 28 July 2003
South face (above) North face (below)
Photographed on 4 October 2002
Photographed at 6:11am on 13 June 2003
Photographed on 13 June 2003
Photographed on 13 June 2003
BCATP Pennant
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
Located in the Aviation Museum at CFB Greenwood
Greenwood Military Aviation Museum
Photographed on 2 June 2003
Photographed on 2 June 2003
CFB Greenwood was established in 1942 as a Royal Air Force Station
as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).
The BCATP was a plan to expand all Commonwealth air forces.
Greenwood was used as a training base during WW2.
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
In three consecutive issues, the National Post
used three full pages (no space taken for ads)
for excerpts from the recently re-published book
Behind The Glory: Canada’s Role in the Allied Air War
by Ted Barris
Clipping: Page A15, National Post, 28 December 2005
Introduction – first excerpt: Page A15, National Post, 28 December 2005
Introduction – second excerpt: Page A15, National Post, 29 December 2005
Introduction – third excerpt: Page A15, National Post, 30 December 2005
Clipping: Page A15, National Post, 29 December 2005
“Behind the Glory, Canada’s Role in the Allied Air War”, by Ted Barris
Reprinted 2005 by Thomas Allen Publishers, Toronto ISBN 0887622127
History of the BCATP Stanley Flying School 1941-1944
by Peter E. Lawson, 30 pages, 2006
I bought my copy at the convenience store in Scotch Village.
Links to Relevant Websites
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The Great Canadian Air Battle
From the beginning of 1942 to the end of 1944, 831 fatal air accidents
took place in Canada – an average of 23 per month, or five every week.
Each week, at least a dozen airmen died in Canada, an enormous number…
…Canada was…the most dangerous place a pilot could be…
http://www.journal.dnd.ca/vo3/no1/doc/65-69-eng.pdf
Stanley Airfield
Stanley airfield, 45°06’02″N 63°55’16″W, is near the village of
Stanley in Hants County, Nova Scotia. It was built by the RAF, and was
operated from March 17, 1941 until January 14, 1944 as part of the
Commonwealth Air Training Plan, as Elementary Flying Training School #17.
Pilots conducted their flight training in Fleet Finches and DeHaviland Tiger Moths.
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/BSC/stanhist.html
Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, begun in late 1939,
crews for the air forces of Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand
were trained at airfields scattered across Canada. By its finish in 1945,
the plan had trained 131,553 airmen, 55 per cent of them Canadian.
Historians J.L. Granatstein and Desmond Morton in Canada
and the Two World Wars, published in 2003, describe the British
Commonwealth Air Training Plan as “quite possibly Canada’s major
contribution” to World War Two.
— The Globe & Mail, 17 March 2005
Canada’s Yanks by Hugh A. Halliday, Legion magazine Jul-Aug 2006
…As more BCATP schools opened, the RCAF found itself short of trained pilots.
It began looking for experienced Americans to perform non-combat duties.
This led to the formation of the semi-secret Clayton Knight Committee,
the brainchild of aviation artist Clayton Knight and the RCAF’s Director of
Recruiting, Air Marshal Billy Bishop VC. The committee opened its first
office in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the spring of 1940; other bureaus
were established in Spokane, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Kansas City,
Cleveland, Atlanta, Memphis and San Antonio. Various devices were used to
create the fiction that the Clayton Knight Committee was a private advisory unit…
About 800 Americans were killed while serving with the RCAF, including 148 in
Canada itself…
http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/2006/07/canadas-yanks/
History of the BCATP Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
http://www.warplane.com/pages/ourstories_bcapt.html
The BCATP Veterans Affairs Canada
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/history/secondwar/bcatp
Fleet Air Arm & the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/RollofHonour/
TrainingCourses/BCATP_index.html
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum
http://www.airmuseum.ca/
Aircraft of the BCATP Bomber Command Museum of Canada
http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/aircraftbcatp.html
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Nanton Lancaster Society
http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/bcatp.html
Garden of Memories BCATP video
On June 6, 1999, the “Garden of Memories” memorial was unveiled in Winnipeg
as a permanent tribute to all those, both civilian and military alike, who trained, and
contributed to the success of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).
http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/v2/hst/page-eng.asp?id=532
743 Squadron BCATP Shearwater Aviation Museum
http://shearwateraviationmuseum.ns.ca/squadrons/743sqn.htm
Aircraft History: Avro Anson Shearwater Aviation Museum
http://shearwateraviationmuseum.ns.ca/aircraft/anson.htm
The Harvard 2777 Shearwater Aviation Museum
http://shearwateraviationmuseum.ns.ca/exhibits/harvard.htm
