416 Squadron History

Bryan Hayter worked as a marketing and communications co-ordinator for a consulting engineering firm; he lived in Elora, Ontario.

Not every reader would find a history of a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron to be compelling. On the other hand, all those ex-members of the 416 “City of Oshawa” Squadron, their friends and families, and the die-hard buffs who revel in details of military history will find it quite to their liking.

This is, after all, a scrapbook or yearbook of events, people, places, and flying machines. One finds within its covers the names of many who served, led, or died; tremendous photographs; and a sparse but intriguing chronological account of the Squadron’s more than 40 years of service, beginning in 1942.

However, he warned. The package does not include well-spun yarns that normally color accounts of military life. That’s all between the lines, left unsaid to be recalled and savored at Squadron reunions. This book represents the hard work of compiling and labelling, not interviewing and writing.

Like a yearbook, it records the facts, exhibits the group and candid photos, and dishes up statistics and official records.

As such, the book is a bit of a tease. Stories are often alluded to but never developed. The rather cold phrases of this flying officer’s death or that enemy fighter’s crash into the ground fairly beg for elaboration.

To be fair, this is a publication striving to do the same job as the above-mentioned yearbook or a community newspaper: include as many names and faces on the pages as possible. This it does well. Unfortunately, it results in a book with limited appeal in terms of the wider reading public. But there’s no doubt that those ex-members, friends, and families will be quick to grab their copies. Pure nostalgia has that effect.