70th Anniversary of the BCATP, doing anything to celebrate?

[Tom H]

The 70th Anniversary of the signing of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan agreement is December 17th, (1939) making it the 70th Anniversary of the signing and the 70th Anniversary year of the BCATP.

Here at the Alberta Aviation Museum we are planning a series of events and programs themed right down to converting our flight simulators to an Tiger Moth, Anson and Harvard.

This was the largest training program in history training hundreds of thousands from countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada, The United States etc, but I am not hearing anyone else doing anything to celebrate this amazing accomplishment.

Is anyone else doing anything?

Tom

[Second Air Force]

Thank you for that reminder, Tom.

I'm a long way from y'all, but if the weather cooperates I plan to shoot some landings at Tulsa, Miami, and Muskogee (sadly, Hatbox is now closed ), Oklahoma, all airfields used by Spartan School of Aeronautics in the RAF training program. The BCATP was a wondrous program.

Scott

[Fleet16b]

Tom
During the summer CAF #8 Transport Wing at CFB Trenton Ontario
Held a w/end celebration to honour their anniversary, the 100th year of Flight in Canada and the 70th year since the BCATP
At the base there are a set of large iron gates . These are the BCATP Gates that were dedicated by the Queen after the war to commemorate all BCATP personnel
8 Wing held a rededication event the likes of which has not been seen since the golden years of the RCAF. The ground parade itself was 2 hrs long.
Then there was a fly over consisting of everything from Fleet Finches to F-18's
I flew my Finch i the fly-by.
My Dad was a BCATP instructor , so this was a very special show for me.

[Tom H]

Second Air Force

Good on ya, shoot a couple circuits for me....its -31C this morning so it just isn't gonna happen here.

Fleet16b

I had heard that Trenton had put on a good show last year and great to hear you were a part of it. I was really hoping to see more happening here and abroad to celebrate the BCATP though.

That said we shall press on regardless and plan on many events through 2010 including a tour of the 38 remaining BCATP main bases in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan...by biplane of course!

Tom

[Second Air Force]

We'll certainly try to get airborne on Thursday, Tom. I grew up in far northeast Nebraska and can definitely remember many subzero days!!

I'm really glad that you started this thread. I got my Airframe rating at Spartan many years ago and have always been interested in the wartime Spartan students, both aircrew and mechanics. Much of my schooling was done in the same hangars that accomodated those WWII maintenance students.

Here is a little website dedicated to 3 BFTS at Miami, Oklahoma.
http://www.neoam.cc.ok.us/~bfts/
I have some fairly recent photos of the WWII hangars that still survive. There was a large residential hall that was only recently torn down. In the Miami Cemetery are the graves of fifteen RAF airmen who were lost during their training. The resting place of these young men is carefully maintained by the locals.

I mentioned Muskogee Hatbox and Tulsa Municipal earlier--the RAF students spent a fairly small amount of time flying at Hatbox after the Army Air Corps selected Spartan to train American students. However, Darr Aviation had 6 BFTS at Ponca City, and the hangars are still in good shape there, along with the former Link Trainer building.

I'm quite fortunate to have so many former WWII training airfields within a stone-throw of our home. It somehow connects me to that history to be able to make 'circuits and bumps' at those fields and walk the grounds. A couple of years ago I was researching the outlying field at Edna, Kansas. Edna was Coffeyville Auxiliary #3 and 3 BFTS shared the field with the AAF. While walking along one of the runways I found a spent .303 round laying on the cement, likely one that fell out of a BFTS T-6 after a gunnery training flight.

Scott

Last edited by Second Air Force on Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Tom H]

Second Air force

Thanks for the links

Little is promoted about the Schools that were operated in the USA and its really a shame as its an important piece of history being lost.

Much like the hundred of Americans that came to Canada pre 1941 and joined the RCAF, something we are trying to repair now.

In general it seems like we forget just how important the training programs were.

Spitfires, Lancasters, Mustangs and B-17s are all pretty useless without a pilot!!!

I am actually a little surprised at how little is being done to celebrate the BCATP program. Depending on author, between 130,000 and 167,000 aircrew were training just in Canada under the BCATP and that doesn't count the airframe/engine/armourers and all the other trades that make them fly! Likely well in excess of 200,00 trained just in Canada! It was the largest training program in history and it is slipping from memory.

In Canada alone over 200 bases were created from "0' to fully operational in 2 years! Try that one today!

Again thanks for the response and the links....be sure to do a couple of touch and goes for me.

Tom H

[Tom H]

70 years ago today the BCATP came into being and led to a legacy that affects us even today.

We are having a press conference and unveiling a new exhibit dedicated to the BCATP that will run all year.

Merry Christmas to all and their families
and a
Happy New Year

Tom H

[Second Air Force]

I thought to start a new thread, but I believe this might be the best home for the photos I have to share.

In an earlier post I mentioned that there were numerous RAF airmen interred at a Miami, Oklahoma cemetery. Miami was home to 3 BFTS, operated by Spartan School of Aeronautics. Today we visited the resting place of these fifteen young men who lost their lives so far from home. First an overall view of the graves.

The first photo is looking north and the second looking south:




The stone at the foot of the flagpole:


The airmen:






























The final grave at the north end of the plot belongs to the local woman who tended the graves until 1982:


I'm not certain who has taken the responsibility for tending the graves of these men, but they are doing a fine job and I wanted to share it with the WIX family.

Scott

[kenair]

great post Scott.

[M-62A]

Yes, Tony, thanks for the informative post. You're more than welcome to download the images we took at the Cemetery. I'm P.M.ing you with some additional information.

On the subject of the PT-19s used at 3BFTS, Spartan was assigned the Fairchild trainers early on and used them for the training program at Tulsa, Miami and Hatbox. There were quite literally hundreds of PT-19s at the three Spartan School airfields. The Spartan maintenance students also were involved in the normal maintenance and inspection of the airplanes and a large Ranger overhaul facility was located in Tulsa for a good portion of the War.

Scott

Hi Scott,
Thank you for permitting me to download your Miami RAF grave pictures. I do not expect to have the opportunity to go there myself.

On the subject of the Spartan School of Aeronautics and the PT-19. Yes, Spartan was an important user of the type. Looking at the record cards of the first batch it is clear that the Tulsa school was the first to receive the new PT-19. Spartan also had 3 or 4 civil registered M-62As (not ex Air Corps PT-19s). These were used in the CAA Civilian Pilot Training program and possibly for their UK Refresher School contract.

The first two PT-19s were initially assigned to Wright Field for trials and the next three delivered to Spartan at Tulsa n May 1940.

Tony