The RCAF as Seen from the Ground (a Worm's-Eye View): Book One: The War Years, 1939-1945

Thomas S. Abler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and the author of A Canadian Indian Bibliography, 1960-1970.

Alexander Velleman was a sergeant in the Royal Canadian Artillery when the war broke out in 1939. His signals expertise led to his transfer to the Royal Canadian Air Force in December. After enduring shortages in supplies in the army, he then found himself in comparative luxury. Combining skills learned from life in the army with his air force experience, he made contributions to the war effort as well as to the comfort of himself and his fellows, as he moved from base to base in Canada for the duration of the war.

Velleman did not serve overseas during the war. Instead, his usual task was maintaining communications equipment, perpetually in short supply, on craft being used to train Commonwealth air crew for the European conflict. Velleman served at Rockcliffe and Clinton in Ontario; at Winnipeg, Macdonald, and Souris in Manitoba; and at Claresholm, Alberta. In addition to describing the routine and unusual events in his service, he provides an interesting view of the relations between civilian Canada and the service population which occupied nearby bases. As a married noncommissioned officer, Velleman and his wife usually rented quarters in an adjacent community.

A reader must soon develop a tolerance for service abbreviations. On a single page (p. 49), Velleman refers to AOC, ATCHQ, LAC, RCAF, BCATP, DAPS, NCOs, and a GD sergeant (this last is General Duties sergeant). Even his wife is presented to the reader as Es (for Estrecia). The glossary at the end of the text is indispensable.

Anyone interested in an anecdotal, somewhat light-hearted, view of military routine and civil — military relations at the personal level in Canada, during World War II, might turn to this book for profitable reading.