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The Royal Canadian Air Force

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?. RCAF: created in 1924. pre-war role: fire fighting, aerial photography, coastal and customs surveillance

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The Royal Canadian Air Force

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  1. 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?

  2. 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)

  3. 17 December 1939: British Commonwealth Air Training Plan • $1.6 billion • 131,553 graduates (pilots, gunners, engineers) • 72,835 Canadian graduates • “Aerodrome for Democracy”

  4. The Harvard Trainer‘The Yellow Peril’

  5. Wartime Roles • BCATP • Fighter Command • Ferry Command • Coastal Command • Transport Command • Bomber Command

  6. 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?

  7. Hawker Hurricane (left) • Supermarine Spitfire

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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 first used in 1943 and continued service in the CAF until 1988.

  11. Bomber Command • Fighting the air war over Germany; support of ground troops Halifax Bomber Lancaster

  12. 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?

  13. 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?

  14. 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

  15. 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.

  16. 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.”

  17. 1941-1942: The Bomber Offensive begins • The dilemmas of strategic bombing • daylight bombing: accurate but defenseless • nighttime bombing: safer, but far less accurate

  18. 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.”

  19. Canadianization • September 1941: 4500 Canadian aircrew overseas • Just 500 in RCAF squadrons • a promise to create 25 overseas RCAF squadrons

  20. ‘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

  21. 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

  22. 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

  23. Hamburg, July/August 1943 • Operation Gomorrah • 4 intensive raids intended to destroy the city and demoralize the population • Allies use Window to great effect

  24. 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

  25. 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

  26. The Lancaster Bomber

  27. 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

  28. Mynarski’s Lancaster • --Pilot Officer A.C. Mynarski, Victoria Cross • 419 Squadron Attack over Cambrai, 12 June 1944 Mynarski won the VC trying to free a crew member from his burning Lancaster. Mynarski died from his burns, but the man he tried to save survived the plane’s crash to tell the story.

  29. Halifax Bombing a V-weapon site, 1944

  30. 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

  31. 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 warproduction 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

  32. 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

  33. Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Cleve Germany 7654 graves, including 4,000 airmen

  34. Coastal Command • Coastal Command (War vs. the U-Boats) • Bridging the Atlantic in 1943 Short Sunderland Flying Boat

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