The Aerodrome Of Democracy

 The question of volunteers versus conscription was one that lingered throughout the war years in Canada.

Canadians served in the air alongside British and other allies during the pivotal Battle of Britain.

The Link Trainer is a predecessor to flight simulators. It was one way to get novice pilots to learn before putting them up in the air.

This is one of them.

Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand formed the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in 1939. BCATP bases were established across the country, giving pilots a safe ground for learning how to fly for real. President Roosevelt, sympathetic to the Allied cause but contending with an isolationist sentiment at home prior to Pearl Harbor, called Canada the aerodrome of democracy.

With so many men joining the war effort directly, women went to work, including in the BCATP.

Actor James Cagney made a film, Captains Of The Clouds, about the organization. Canadian ace Billy Bishop, who had flown to glory during the First World War, was a consultant for the film.

There were a lot of bases across the country for this work.

Merchant mariners were part of the war effort, though not recognized as veterans until decades later. The effort to bring supplies to Europe started from the first day and lasted until the end of the war, and it was hazardous. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of the war.

The corvette was a class of escort ships used by the Canadian navy during the war. They saw a lot of use throughout.

This is a model of one of those corvettes, the H.M.C.S. Chamblay, which was in war service from 1940 through 1945.