By Karen Richardson
To The Haldimand Press
In 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain approached the Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King with a proposal for Canada to be the site for a training program for Commonwealth airmen. Prime Minister King felt that a training program would keep Canadians at home, ward off demands for a large expeditionary force, and bury the politically divisive issue of overseas conscription. In 1940 the first of the 28 Service Flying Training Schools (SFTS) constructed under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan began opening in towns across Canada.
Two British flight training schools were located in Dunnville and Hagersville, while one bombing and gunnery school was located in Jarvis. These schools were responsible for teaching allied soldiers from around the world how to properly operate aircraft, guns, bombs, and similar weapons. There was also a relief field located at Kohler.
On November 25, 1940 Dunnville opened station No. 6. SFTS, a single-engine school for fighter pilots and the third such school to begin advanced flying training in Canada. After an eight-week course at Elementary Flying Training School, students spent an additional 12-16 weeks in Dunnville before earning their wings and proceeding to an Operational Training Unit or remaining on the home front as instructors. The station was situated on 415 acres of land between Dunnville and Port Maitland. The layout consisted of five steel-framed hangars, three double runways ranging from 1,800 to 3,200 feet, and a sprawling camp area consisting of some 50 H-huts (barracks) and numerous other buildings. Initially the school flew Harvards and Yales for training while Ansons were used for navigational exercices. Before the war’s end, No. 6 SFTS alone had graduated 2,447 pilots.
On January 24, 1942, 120 members of the Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (CWAAF) arrived in Dunnville. Although originally received with some apprehension by those who did not think that a woman could do a man’s job, the CWAAF members quickly earned the respect of those that they assisted in maintenance, stores, motor transport, parachute section, mess halls, canteen, accounting, equipment section, and administration.
In 1940, the first gunnery school in the British Empire was built southeast of Jarvis. It was called the No. 1 Bombing and Gunnery School and was used for training the British and Canadian Air Forces.
The location served its purpose well, as nearby Jarvis was a Canadian National Railway (CNR) junction on provincial highways 3 and 6. An emergency landing strip nearby, two major highways, and a railway line made access good and a nearby lake (Lake Erie) was ideal for bombing practice. The school was selected and constructed for the purpose of training Air Observers (or navigator-bomb aimers), Air Gunners, and Wireless Air Gunners for active service in Europe. It was one of the largest bases in the country to train air gunners, bomb aimers, navigators, etc.
A plane at the Jarvis school during WWII.
No. 16 SFTS in Hagersville officially opened on August 8, 1941. Avro-Ansons (a two engine aircraft) were used to train pilots at No. 16 SFTS, Hagersville from 1941 to 1945. Early in 1944, the Harvard (a single-engine aircraft) was brought in for training purposes. Graduates then had experience flying both bomber and fighter-type aircraft. A total of 1,783 young men received their Pilot’s Wings at the Hagersville School. As there was no married living quarters on the station during the time the Air Force was operating, married airmen were forced to find living accommodation in Hagersville. The renting out of rooms was welcomed by the town’s people, as a few dollars monthly rent was beneficial after the effects of the Great Depression.
After the war, the RCAF Station at Hagersville was taken over by the Army in order to house returned vehicles and equipment from overseas. Designated as No. 1 Vehicle Company, Central Mechanization Depot, the location was chosen due to its size (600 acres) and proximity to both road and railways.
A program for entertainment at the Hagersville flying school.
Karen Richardson is the curator of Haldimand County Museum and Archives.
