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In this 60th Anniversary edition is Ted Barris' telling
of the unique story of Canada's largest World War Two 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.
While the story of so many men graduating from the most impressive
air training scheme in history is compelling enough, Ted Barris offers
the untold story of the instructors – the men behind the glory – who
taught those airmen the vital air force trades that ensure Allied
victory over Europe, North Africa and the Pacific. In Winston Churchill
swords, the BCATP proved "the decisive factor" in winning the Second
World War.
This 60th Anniversary edition arrives as Canada continues to
celebrate 2005 as the Year of the Veteran. Ted Barris interviewed more
than 200 instructors and using their anecdotes and viewpoints he
recounts the story of the flyers who coped with the dangers of training
missions and the frustration of fighting the war thousands of miles away
from the front without losing their enthusiasm for flying.
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