After the devastation of the
First World War and the Great Depression, many Albertans
understood what the outbreak of the Second World War
would mean in September 1939. As in the First World War,
men and women from Alberta enlisted in significant
numbers to face the threat from Germany.
The Second World War was a different
experience than the First World War. The Canadian
government had secured an agreement with Britain that
Canada's main contribution to the war effort would be the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). The air
training plan saw the establishment of schools across
Canada, with Alberta receiving 18 schools for nearly all
classifications of aircrew training.
The plan brought the rapid
improvement of roads and runways, and the building of
entire schools with hard surface runways.
The status of
women changed significantly during the war. The
workforce expanded to include women,
as
many men went off to war to fight on the European
fronts, leaving jobs that needed to be filled. In 1941,
the Royal
Canadian Air Force Women’s Division was formed and many
women enlisted. Although women were not permitted to be
trained as fighters, they contributed in numerous ways,
including serving as ground crew at the air training
schools.
When Pearl Harbor was bombed by the
Japanese in December 1941, the United States entered the
war. The American government wanted to create a road to Alaska
because of the threat of Japanese invasion. The
Alaska Highway ran from Edmonton to Fairbanks, Alaska.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began work on the
highway in March 1942 and completed a rough road through
the wilderness eight months later.
Edmonton's Blatchford Field became
the busiest airport in North America as it became
host to large numbers of American aircraft in addition
to the air traffic from the local BCATP school. Edmonton
was the starting point for the Northwest Staging Route,
which was a series of air fields between Edmonton and
Fairbanks, Alaska. The series of air fields were used in
support of Alaska's defense and was used for the ferry
command transporting aircraft to Russia as a part of the
land-lease program, where American-built aircraft were
being supplied to Russia.
As in the First World War, the Second
World War brought great losses, with 1,600 of Alberta's
aircrew losing their lives in the war. But the war also
brought great changes. Alberta changed materially and in
the way its citizens, especially women, viewed their place in the world. It
was clear that they could build anything they wanted to
and be leaders in the world.
During the Second World War, the RCAF set up the British
Commonwealth Air Training Plan, or BCATP, to train pilots from all
over Europe and the British Commonwealth. With its open skies
and relatively low population, Alberta was seen as an ideal place to
set up air bases. Find out more about Alberta's contributions to the BCATP in this episode of CKUA's Heritage Trails radio series![Listen]
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
brought military personnel from all over the world to various towns
and cities across Alberta to train in wartime aviation. Many Alberta
municipalities quickly felt the economic impact that sparked as a
result of the BCATP presence in their backyards. Learn more about
this time in history in this episode of CKUA's Heritage Trails
radio series! [Listen]
Heritage Community Foundation Presents
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