The Politics of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Base Selection

ISBN-13: 9783639141818 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 204 str.

Rachel Lea Heide

Opis

Between 1940 and 1945, Canada trained 131,533Commonwealth pilots and air crew under the BCATP forthe Allied war effort. To do so, the RCAF had toexpand its aerodrome infrastructure to accommodateover one hundred training schools and their auxiliaryfields. Few historians have considered the siteselection process, assuming that community lobbyingand political patronage determined where air baseswere built. To verify these hypotheses, the authorhas consulted the primary records (politicianspersonal papers, communities lobbying letters,official investigation reports, and final selectiondecisions), reconstructed the BCATP selectionprocess, and discovered that partisan politics playedno part. Experts from the Department of Transportand the RCAF evaluated and selected sites accordingto pre-determined, objective, and technical criteriathat ensured the timely and economical development ofaerodromes suitable for military air training. Thebook will be of value to anyone interested inCanadas air force, government policy, civil-militaryrelations, political activism, and the Westernprovinces during the Second World War.

O autorze

BA (Hons), MA. Studied history at Carleton
University. Researched Canadian air force professionalization,
training, leadership, morale, accident investigation, and
government policy between the First World War and the early Cold
War period. Defence Scientist/Strategic Analyst with Defence
Research and Development Canada.