# Canadians with the RAF and RCAF in the Battle of Britain



## MarkOttawa (21 Aug 2020)

We are now in the 80th anniversary--excerpts from a major article at _Skies Magazine_:



> The forge of leadership: Canadians in the Battle of Britain
> ...
> With the Royal Canadian Air Force in the throes of expansion and training, no Canadian fighter unit would be dispatched to Europe for nearly nine months (after Sept. 1939). In order to show folks on the home front that Canadians were indeed fully engaged in the war, it was decided, as a public relations effort, to bring together Canadian pilots who were already serving in the RAF into one squadron — 242 (Canadian) Squadron. The squadron was formed in late October 1939, but only converted to Hawker Hurricane fighters in February of 1940. It would be in training or flying convoy patrols until the beginning of the Battle of France. A detachment from the squadron deployed briefly to France and Belgium in May, then returned to England in time to participate in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. At the beginning of June, the squadron was back in France where it suffered heavy losses before leaving in haste ahead of the advancing German army.
> 
> ...



242 Squadron--Bader in front middle:
http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/document-40.html

More on the Canadian aspect (Stan Turner):
http://acesofww2.com/can/aces/turner.htm

During the mid-50s Group Captain Turner was the RCAF air attaché in Moscow. My parents were with External Affairs at the embassy and I was a young boy in love with aircraft; the attaché noticed and gave me two "Jane's All the World's Aircraft" his office had from the latter 1940s. I have them still and remain forever grateful for the very kind act (he also gave me two "Jane's Fighting Ships"--don't know if he told the naval attaché (in fact Group Captain Turner may well have been the only attaché at the time:
http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vol12/no4/doc/Kilford-pages4451.pdf).

Mark
Ottawa


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## Old Sweat (21 Aug 2020)

I was still is school when "Reach for the Sky", the field adaptation of Paul Brickhill's biography of Douglas Bader was released. When it finally made its way to the boondocks of Ontario, my father took my brother and me to see it in the theatre in Fort Erie. This, of course, was in the mid-fifties and the memories of the war were still vivid, while most veterans were not yet in middle aged. 

The theatre was packed, and the audience really got into what was an exciting movie. There were cheers when 242 Squadron scrambled for the first time in the Battle of Britain, followed by groans and boos when a large formation of Luftwaffe bombers appeared, droning in tight formation across the English countryside. All at once Bader's squadron appeared, diving in formation on the enemy aircraft. Virtually the whole audience sprang to their feet, cheering and clapping like mad. Back then, everybody knew what "the Few" meant, and what they had accomplished.


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## Weinie (21 Aug 2020)

Great stories guys.


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## Blackadder1916 (21 Aug 2020)

In the early 1980s, I was fortunate to meet and get to know slightly one of the Canadians who flew with the RAF in the Battle of Britain (he transferred to the RCAF at the end of the war), though when he was introduced it was his connection to another wartime escapade that was highlighted.  Keith Ogilvie was one of the last out of the "Great Escape" tunnel.

http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Ogilvie.htm
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/595/Gunfight-over-WestminsterThe-Spitfire-Luck-of-Skeets-Ogilvie.aspx


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## exspy (21 Aug 2020)

The last serving Battle of Britain veteran in Canadian service was Beverley Evans Christmas who retired as a Colonel in 1973. He served with No. 1 (RCAF) Squadron during its tour in England in the summer of 1940.

http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Christmas.htm

Cheers,
Dan.


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## Eye In The Sky (21 Aug 2020)

Respect; absolute and for each and every one of them.


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