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The Royal Canadian Air Force

Its role Its significance Did the massive growth of the RCAF

obscure the wide variety of roles it played--and the many problems it faced?

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RCAF: created in 1924

pre-war role: fire fighting, aerial photography, coastal and customs surveillance

August 1939: 4061 all ranks 20 squadrons: 8 regular/12 reserve (all

understrength)

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17 December 1939: British Commonwealth Air Training

Plan

$1.6 billion

131,553 graduates (pilots, gunners, engineers)

72,835 Canadian graduates

“Aerodrome for Democracy”

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The Harvard Trainer‘The Yellow Peril’

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Wartime Roles

BCATP Fighter Command Ferry Command Coastal Command Transport Command Bomber Command

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1940: Canadians fly in the Battle of Britain

November 1939: 242 (Canadian Squadron) RAF formed with Canadian pilots and British groundcrew

February 1940: 110 (later 400 Squadron) RCAF formed with Canadian pilots flying Hurricanes

26 August 1940: First RCAF Unit in action

Will Canadians fly with the RAF, or RCAF?

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Hawker Hurricane (left) Supermarine Spitfire

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Fighter Command

Fighter Command/Tactical Air Force (Defence of Britain; raids over Europe; supporting the troops in Europe)

84 Group, RCAF. How effective were they?

The Typhoon

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Ferry Command

Problem? How to get aircraft to Europe? 1919-1939: Less than 100 successful

trans-Atlantic plane flights (50 failed attempts) November 1940: The first trans-Atlantic

ferry service begins By 1945: aircraft were dispatched across

the globe

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Transport Command

getting the goods there

435 and 436 Transport Squadrons (RCAF) flew in India and Burma

How Many Canadians in the RAF?

The Dakota Transport (or Dak) was firstused in 1943 and continued service in the CAF until 1988.

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Bomber Command

Fighting the air war over Germany; support of ground troops

Halifax Bomber

Lancaster

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The Debate

–Was it to win the war by itself?

–Was it to demoralize civilians?

–Was it to weaken the industrial war effort?

–Was it moral?

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A Reluctant Policy

to May 1940: RAF confined to attacks on German naval units at sea

15 May 1940: permission granted to bomb the Ruhr

Is precision bombing possible?

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June 1941

First mission for No. 405 (RCAF) Squadron

one crew did not take off; another returned

3 Canadian crews claimed they hit the target from 7500 to 10,000 feet

Many ‘guessed’ when they were over target

Results meagre

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July 1941

Bomber Command Directive I am to request that you will direct the

main effort of the bomber force, until further instructions, towards dislocating the German transportation system and to destroying the morale of the civil population as a whole, and of the industrial workers in particular.

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Butt Report, September 1941

Navigation so poor that aircrews not capable of finding target areas, let alone targets

Churchill’s response: “The only plan is to persevere.”

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1941-1942: The Bomber Offensive begins

The dilemmas of strategic bombing– daylight bombing: accurate but

defenseless

– nighttime bombing: safer, but far less accurate

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February 1942: The Gloves Come Off

Bomber Command directed to shift attacks to specific “industrial areas”

Churchill, March 1942 “The weight of the war is very heavy now, and I must expect it to get steadily worse for some time to come.”

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Canadianization

September 1941: 4500 Canadian aircrew overseas

Just 500 in RCAF squadrons

a promise to create 25 overseas RCAF squadrons

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‘Canadianizing’ the Air Force

January 1943: No. 6 Bomber Group (RCAF) becomes operational

Air Vice-Marshall G.E. Brookes, CO 13 squadrons (many quickly pulled

together) Many flying “old” Lancaster II aircraft Consequence: early problems: lack of

experience, high loss rates

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Canadianization: its Costs? January 1943: No. 6 Group (Bomber

Command) created in England– 13 Squadrons, many quickly pulled

together

High losses throughout the year– flying old aircraft, Wellingtons or Lancaster

II’s.

100 aircraft lost between March and June 1943

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Did efforts at Canadianization make sense?

Was No. 6 Group created for Strategic or Political Reasons?

1944: Canadian aircrew in RCAF overseas: 10,200

1944: Canadian aircrew in RAF overseas: 16,000

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Hamburg, July/August 1943

Operation Gomorrah

4 intensive raids intended to destroy the city and demoralize the population

Allies use Window to great effect

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Gomorrah

27/28 July 1943: 787 crews, 78 crews from No. 6 Group, RCAF

firestorms created 41,800 civilians died 900,000 homeless/1.7 million

population A Secret? “Hamburg Ceases to Exist” Kitchener

Daily Record, 31 July 1943

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Bomber Command

1942: 3 percent of built-up areas under attack were devastated.

1943: 38 percent December 1944: devastation at 42

percent–But German industrial production also

increased

Cost: one third of bombing crews could expect to survive a 30 sortie tour

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The Lancaster Bomber

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1944: Operation Pointblank (in support of the invasion of

Europe)

A diversion from the bombers’ true role?

In defence of the Allied invasion No. 6 Group: A Dramatic Reversal– January 1944: worst loss rate in Bomber

Command

–May 1944: best loss rate in Bomber Command

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Mynarski’s Lancaster

--Pilot Officer A.C. Mynarski, Victoria Cross – 419 Squadron

Attack over Cambrai, 12 June 1944Mynarski won the VC trying to free a crew member from his burning Lancaster. Mynarskidied from his burns, but the man he tried to save survived the plane’s crash to tell the story.

29Halifax Bombing a V-weapon site, 1944

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1945: Armageddon over Germany

560,000 dead/675,000 wounded By 1945, Bomber Command: 67

squadrons– -daily 3,000 heavy bombers/thousand

fighters a day

– --Monthly average of sorties:

– 5400 in 1943;

– 14,000 in 1944

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A Final Verdict?

"Although the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany did not begin to meet its objectives--the

progressive, if not sudden, decline in enemy war production and, later, civilian morale--until the last months of 1944, four full years after it began in earnest, it is also true that, bit by bit, bombing at least played some part in slowing the rate of expansion in the German war economy and so contributed to the Allies' already significant material superiority. Precisely by how much, however, is difficult to determine." Official RCAF History p. 866-867

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The Cost

RCAF/40 home defence squadrons/48 squadrons overseas

250,000 personnel 94,000 overseas 25% of RAF crews were Canadian 17,000 fatal Canadian casualties 10,000 in Bomber Command

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Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Cleve Germany

7654 graves, including 4,000 airmen

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Coastal Command

Coastal Command (War vs. the U-Boats)

Bridging the Atlantic in 1943

Short Sunderland Flying Boat