Western Canada
During World War II
Reginald H. Roy
Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher of For King and Country: Alberta in the Second World War;)
The plan's large scale training commitments required a greatmany airfields, and clear skies, free from the threat of enemy airactivity. Training had to rake place within reasonable distance ofthe likeliest operational theatre, Western Europe, and in closeproximity to an industrial base with significant potential for expansion.1
The idea and practice of training RAP pilots in Canada was not new. During the Great War of 1914-1918, British authorities had conducted flying training schemes in Canada; but this time Canada, once the BCA TP was negotiated, insisted on far greater control over the entire operation.
It was to be a tremendous effort. At the outset of the war, the RCAF was straining all its resources to establish a programme to train some 125 pilots a year. Under the new plan it was now asked to produce 1,460 trained aircrew every four weeks, or roughly 18,000 a year. Western Canada, with its clear skies and open prairies, was to provide the largest number of bases for the pilot training portion of the Training Plan and somewhat less than half for other aircrew. There were Initial Training Schools, Service Training Flying Schools, Air Navigation Schools, Wireless Schools, Bombing and Gunnery Schools, and a host of others. Almost all of them had to be created from scratch; and in every case, there was great pressure to have the landing runways, hangars, barracks, classrooms, and other facilities completed in a great hurry for the thousands of Canadian, British, Australian, New Zealand, and other Allied forces who would use them. The German blitzkrieg victories of the spring and summer of 1940 put even more pressure on the training facilities. The RCAF official historian, for example, noted that
Course No. 53, ... which began training at Moose Jaw on 12 April 1942, included eighteen Norwegians, fourteen Canadians, eight Britons, four Americans, three Czechoslovakians, three Free French, one Pole and one Belgian.2
By the autumn in 1940, the skies over Western Canada were buzzing with aircraft of all sizes, ranging from Tiger Moths and Harvards to Ansons and Yales. The results of the BCATP were prodigious, far exceeding the expectations of those who had originated the scheme. By the end of the war, some 131,553 aircrew had been trained, of whom 72,835 were Canadians.
The German blitzkrieg in the spring of 1940 had met with great success. Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, and then France were overrun and occupied. The British were able to evacuate most of their forces from the Continent but lost massive quantities of warlike stores and material. Up to that time, during the so-called Phoney War, Canada had pursued its rearmament with vigour. Now there was a sense of urgency, and with it the realization that much more had to be done. For the first time conscription was imposed, initially for Home Defence only. Army enlistments jumped initially from a monthly average of about 6,000 in April and May 1940 to over 30,000 in June and July. In Western Canada this meant that the various district military camps had to be enlarged and new ones created; more weapons, equipment, and ammunition had to be manufactured and a more stringent war-time economy imposed.
Equally important, when Britain's fall seemed a possibility, was the initiation of secret and informal talks between Canadian and American senior military officers. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had to keep in mind the deep-rooted desire of the United States to remain neutral. However, the German victories and the growing concern about Britain's fate as the Battle of Britain was being fought led to a change in American opinion. In mid-August 1940, the Canadian Prime Minister and the American President met at Ogdensburg, New York. There they decided to create the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. This Board, which still functions, considered continental defence problems and made recommendations for their resolution to Ottawa and Washington. It was the first of several American-Canadian bodies and agencies formed to consider all aspects of joint measures for defence. Some of the Board's recommendations, most notably the one that launched the Alaska Highway, were to have considerable impact on Western Canada.
For over two years after war broke out, Western Canada provided bases where Canadians could be recruited and trained for service overseas. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, however, there was the possibility that British Columbia might be subjected to raids from the sea. In the province itself, there was considerable alarm not only over the possibility of Japanese attacks but also because of the very limited number of troops available to defend the coast. Intense political pressure was put on Ottawa for greater defence while at the same time British Columbians demanded the removal of some 23,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry from the coastal regions of the province. Although this process, which began in February 1942, has been condemned by a later generation, one must remember the fear of the coastal population at the time as Japan's military forces swept all before them as they reached toward the fringes of Australia and the borders of India.
With the United States now in the war, there was far greater liaison and cooperation between Canadian and American forces. The coastal defences of the Strait of Juan de Fuca were closely coordinated. Prince Rupert, which was to become a major supply base for American forces going to Alaska, was provided with two eight-inch railway guns from the United States to bolster its defences. A month or two later, Canadian army and air force units moved into the Alaskan Panhandle. Two RCAF fighter squadrons were sent to help defend the site against possible attack. The US naval commander in Seattle was told that Canadian naval vessels and port facilities in British Columbia would be placed at his disposal should the need arise. Should there be an attack on American territory, Canada would "provide every possible assistance". In May 1942, for example, American Intelligence learned about a Japanese attack on Midway with a subsidiary attack on Alaska. General De Witt, of the US Western Defence Command, asked for two RCAP squadrons to help meet this threat. Two squadrons were sent to an American air base on Yakutat, north of Juneau, and two more squadrons were made ready to reinforce them should they be needed.
Notes
1. W.A.B. Douglas, The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Vol 2 [Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986], p. 191.
2. Ibid., p. 236.