Wings for Victory: The Remarkable Story of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada

Dean F. Oliver teaches history at York University.

The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) was, as Spencer
Dunmore writes, an “extraordinary achievement,” one of Canada’s
major contributions to the Allied war effort. Though its start was long
delayed—the discussions “must have set international records for
torpor”—the BCATP grew rapidly and graduated 131,553 badly needed
aircrew by 1945.

For the first several years of war, Allied victory was far from
certain, and the BCATP was under pressure to speed the flow of personnel
to combat units. Training times were repeatedly reduced, while shortages
of suitable facilities, qualified instructors, and modern aircraft
hindered progress. Occasionally criticized for training aircrew
inadequately, the BCATP improved steadily. Dunmore is vague on this
score (not mentioning, for example, the heavy casualty rates in Canadian
bomber squadrons), but he is probably right that by war’s end, BCATP
alumni compared favorably with those from other Allied training
programs. Nine hundred dead aircrew during the training period, however,
attests that the teething problems were all too real.

Wings for Victory is exceptionally well written. Dunmore’s mixture of
historical narrative with the recollections of participants is quite
effective, especially in the early chapters on actual training. There is
a fascinating account of the making of Captains of the Clouds, the
Hollywood propaganda epic featuring James Cagney and Billy Bishop, and
while, like most authorities, Dunmore concentrates on pilot training, he
is especially generous in his coverage of other trades. Many of the best
anecdotes, in fact, come from navigators and observers. He is hardly a
severe critic of the Royal Canadian Air Force or its policies, however,
and his sections on discipline, women in uniform, French-Canadian
personnel, and anglo-Canadian relations are less than riveting.

Wings for Victory will not displace F.J. Hatch’s Aerodrome of
Democracy (1983) as the essential source on this topic, but Dunmore’s
book excels in other areas, especially in telling the BCATP’s story in
the words of its participants. The book’s accessible style, numerous
photographs, and handsome format should commend it to a broad popular
audience.