Additional Resources

Museums

Articles

• The Canadian Encyclopedia - British Commonwealth Air Training Plan

• National Defence and the Canadian Forces - David Earnest Hornell

• A Link to Victory by John and Jim Taylor, Vintage Wings of Canada

• We’ll Give All We Know - the Moe Fraser Story by Rob Kostecka, Vintage Wings of Canada

• The Squadron Dog by Dave O’Malley, Vintage Wings of Canada

• Busy Flying and Keeping Warm by Robert “Bob” Kirkpatrick, Vintage Wings of Canada

Videos

• The Eugene McGee Story: Port Albert Air Navigation Training School DVD. Kirk Scott (filmmaker), 2011. Running time: 20 mins.

McGee grew up on a farm next to one of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan sites during the Second World War – the No. 31 Air Navigation School in Port Albert. Over several decades, McGee amassed a vast number of clippings, photos, memorabilia and artefacts related to the air base.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 358.4150971 Sco. Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

Books

• Barris, Ted. Behind the Glory. 1992.

This is Ted Barris’s telling of the unique story of Canada's largest World War II expenditure -- $1.75 billion in a Commonwealth-wide training scheme, based in Canada that supplied the Allied air war with nearly a quarter of a million qualified airmen. Within its five-year life-span, the BCATP supplied a continuous flow of battle-ready pilots, navigators, wireless radio operators, air gunners, flight engineers, riggers and fitters or more commonly known as ground crew, principally for the RCAF and RAF as well as the USAAF.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 940.544971 Bar

• Canadian Department of National Defence. The Crucible of War 1939-1945: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Volume III, 1994.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number CDN 358.400971 Off v.3 Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• Davidson, Herbert. Airmans Dilemma, 2000.

A first-person account of the World War II British Commonwealth air Training Plan featuring the beginning of operations at #12 E.F.T.S. Sky Harbour, Airport, Goderich, Ontario.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 358.400971 Dav Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• Dunmore, Spencer. Wings for Victory: The Remarkable Story of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada, 1994.

The proportions of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan were huge. At its peak, the plan was graduating over 3,000 aircrew a month from 107 training schools across Canada. In total, graduates numbered more than 130,000. This enormous war effort made Canada WWII’s “aerodrome of democracy.” Full of personal anecdotes, Wings for Victory is the story of the BCATP and of the politicians who negotiated it into existence, of the officers and airmen of the RCAF and the RAF, and of the many civilians who made it work day by day. Above all, it is the story of the young men who entered the scheme as clerks and farmers, students and salesmen, and graduated as pilots, navigators, air gunners, air bombers, and flight engineers.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 358.4150971 Dun Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• Gray, Larry. Canada's World War II Aces: Heroic Pilots & Gunners of the Wartime Skies, 2006

The stories of Canada's top pilots of World War II continue to amaze and inspire us. From Dick Audet, the only Spitfire pilot to ever claim five kills in a single sortie to Russell Russ Bannock who shot down 19 V-1 rocket bombs in his Mosquito fighter-bomber.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 940.5440922 Gra

• Hatch, F. J. Aerodrome of Democracy: Canada & the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan 1939 – 1945, 1983. Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• Huron County Historical Society, Huron Historical Notes, 2000

A tribute to our 20th Century Military & Support Personnel, Huron County Historical Society with assistance from the Ontario Ministry of Culture, 2000. Available at the Huron County Library, periodicals

•Fydenchuk, W. Peter. Before the Battle: Life on a RCAF Station During World War II, 2005.

This book has been compiled from the recollections of former personnel who served No. 9 Service Flying Training School, Centralia. Life at No. 9 would be typical of other air training schools scattered across Canada. Together these facilities excelled in producing aircrew for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 358.4150971 Fyd

Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only) • Fydenchuk, W. Peter. Immigrants of War: Americans Serving with the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force During World War II, 2005. Available at the Huron County Library, call number 940.544971 Fyd

Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• Macaulay, HR. The military base at Clinton, Ontario: First radar school in North America, 2005.

The history of the military base just south of Clinton that became the centre of radar and communications training for the Canadian Armed Forces.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 358.410971 Mac Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• McCaffery, Dan. Battlefields in the Air: Canadians in the Allied Bomber Command, 1995.

Did the Allied bombing of Germany in World War Two needlessly brutalize and decimate a terrified civilian population? Or was it necessary to force the end of the most destructive conflict in history? Dan McCaffery seeks answers to these questions on both sides of the bombsights.

The importance of the bomber command to the Allied victory has always been hotly debated. In Battlefields in the Air, McCaffery sets out to examine the role that bomber command played and to decide if Arthur Harris's strategy of area bombing was central or incidental to the Allied victory.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 940.544941 McC

• McGee, Eugene. History of Port Albert, 1987.

“Over the years I have gathered much memorabilia of the air base from various places as well as clippings from papers, saved from those years. Piecing all this together in book form so that those day may not be lost in history forever.” --Eugene McGee

Available at the Huron County Library, call number 358.4150971 Available at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• Roberts, Leslie. Canada's War in the Air, 1943.

The story of the creation, organization and bringing into production of the British Commonwealth air training plan. Advertising section, including Memorandum of agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, relating to training of pilots and aircraft crew in Canada and their subsequent service.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number CDN 940.544 Rob

• Williams, James N. The Plan, 1984.

History of the thousands of the British and Commonwealth airmen who were trained to fly in Canada under the BCATP, as well as the instructors, ground staff, &c. "This book is not intended to be a historical document, but rather a collection of the thoughts, impressions, and memories of the men and women who were in some way involved with the BCATP.” – James Williams.

Available at the Huron County Library, call number CDN 358.4150971 Wil

• Veritas, Invino, illustrated by R. E. Rick Jones. The children of SAN: the story of their wanderings and tribulations in the land of KA-NA-DA, 1942. A brief personal history of No. 31 School of Air Navigation, RAF, in Canada. Available at the Huron County Library, call number CDN 971.322 Ver

Archival Material

available at the Archives at the Huron County Museum (reference only)

• A.D. (After Duty) No. 31 Air Navigation School base newspaper, 1943-1944

• Compass News No. 31 Air Navigation School newspaper, March 1941 - February 1942

• Recte Volare No. 31 Air Navigation School base newspaper, April 1942, October 1942

• The Tower Review No. 31 Royal Air Force Radio School/ No. 5 Royal Canadian Air Force Radio School base newspaper, 1942 - 1943

• Sky Harbour Taurus No. 12 Elementary Flying Training School newsletter, January 1944 - March 1944

• The Sky Harbour Wings No. 12 Elementary Flying Training School newsletter, March 1941 - April 1941

• Sky Harbour Research Files

• Edith Baker Collection No. 5/No. 31 Radio School

• Eugene McGee Collection No. 31 Air Navigation School