Sgt. Sargent's Trenton

Stafford Johnston was a freelance reviewer living in Mitchell, Ontario.

The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, 1940-1945, operated at 231 sites in Canada; but Trenton, which is still a major base for the Canadian armed forces, was the major centre for the plan. Almost half of all the aircrew who saw combat action in British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand air forces in World War II were trained in Canada under BCATP, and most of them, at some stage of their training, passed through the base that mushroomed at Trenton. Combat aircrew graduated by the plan numbered 131, 553; the ground organization for the plan numbered 104, 113. There should still be many people for whom this book can be nostalgic.

The author volunteered for aircrew early in the war, but partway through his training was categorized as medically unfit and transferred to ground duty. For the nest of the war he was art editor, and then editor, of the newspaper published at the Trenton base. Some of the content of this book of recollections is reprinted from his editorial work of 1941-1945; some of it amplifies and cx-plains. There is historical value in his recollections of the Norwegian, Czech, Belgian, and other volunteers who escaped from their own countries after the Nazi occupation and made their way to Canada for the training that enabled them to go back as combat aircrew to the war against Hitler. The author’s intent is to entertain, but his book is also useful reading.