Newsletter subscribers continue to move to full Membership!
Welcome yet again to more new CAHS National Members and Renewing current/former members alike!
Please keep sharing our newsletter with your aviation-minded friends and family – it is one of the factors keeping our Society healthy as we continue to graple with the unfolding variables of the pandemic.
As a Newsletter subscriber, you already see snippets of the content that CAHS National Members enjoy in our flagship publication, the CAHS Journal. Follow this link to take you from subscriber to member with just a few clicks. The Anywhere-Online membership offers instant access to all digital editions of the Journal through to the end of the year you join, for just $25 – that's 1000+ pages (and gowing) of richly illustrated, expertly written, Canadian aviation history at less than 3¢ a page!
The cost of Traditional Membership (which, in addition to full digital editions access, includes the print edition by mail) varies according to mailing destination, starting at $50 for residents of Canada. Anywhere-Online members can upgrade to Traditional at any time.
Terry Higgins, Creative Director, Website Administrator,
CAHS Journal Managing Editor and Graphics Director,
Canadian Aviation Historical Society
Journal Update
The latest print edition Journals, 57-1 and 57-2, have been landing in mail boxes since early June. The transit times from our mailing house has varied wildly coast to coast with no apparent rhyme or reason. However, Canada Post does continue to cite pandemic-induced problems on their website.
All CAHS National Members – Traditional and Anywhere-Online alike – are reminded that they can immediately and always access the digital editions of these and every other Journal published since 2010 on our website's members' only area.
For interested non-members, these two issues digital and print editions will soon be made available on our online shop as well.
In the Works
The work continues for Journals 57-3 and 57-4. The digital editions will be posted to the website individually on completion of the editorial process, while the print editions will follow as soon as possible (taking into consideration mailing house queues and potential Canada Post delays).
Select this link to check the website's Journal area for ongoing updates in between Newsletters. Instructions for logging in to the Members Only area are also provided (in red text) on that page.
Our promotional offer for the trio of Shirlee Smith Matheson books has now ended. Thank you to everyone who took us up on it. We've aggregated all orders and are awaiting delivery from the publisher; then everyone's order will be mailed in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, check out this month's fund-raising promotions…
We are very pleased to offer CAHS member and author Carl Vincent's book Canadian Aircraft of WWII (Aviaeology Publishing's bestseller), illustrated throughout with CAHS Journal editor Terry Higgins' profile artwork. The publisher's inventory is down to just a few fresh, unopened cases. Don't have yours yet? Click the "Buy Now" link below to learn more. (A sample section of this book is available as a PDF if you follow the link in the Stocky Edwards birthday item below.)
This CAHS fund-raiser will run until the end of July or while supplies last. Get yours for just $25.00 (GST included) plus $5.00 shipping per copy in Canada.
The publisher's retail price is $29.99 plus shipping and GST.
Interested in Arctic aviation or early Cold War RAF operations? We have a very small number of this interesting title remaining in stock. If you are a member of the Catalina Society, check out editor David Legg's review in your May newsletter. Or you can see our own review here…
Still just $27 (GST included) plus $5.00 shipping anywhere in Canada.
The publisher's retail price is $34 (CAD conversion) plus shipping from the USA.
A top-scoring fighter pilot in the Second World War with the RCAF, James Francis ‘Stocky’ Edwards, was born on June 5, 1921, on a farm in Saskatchewan, and this month he turned 100. Living in Comox, British Columbia, Stocky holds many accolades from a lifetime of flight. Serving nearly 32 years with the air force, he was known for his leadership and skill as a pilot. He has been both knighted by the French government and is an Order of Canada recipient and an Inductee in Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.
Canadian Aerospace Artists Association member and CAHS Journal contributing artist Peter Robichaud gives us a glimpse at his process in the execution of a piece of art with a personal connection.
Question One: What was the amount spent by the British Government during the time that the RFC/RAF training plan operated in Canada?
Source:
Dancing in The Sky, (Hunt) Page 289.
Question Two: Why did Western Air Command in late 1944 and into 1945 station 4 aircraft on Vancouver Island with orders to remain in a state of constant readiness?
Source:
Jericho Beach and the West Coast Flying Boat Stations, (Weicht) Page 182.
Question Three: What new approach aids were introduced late in the Second World War?
Source:
No Prouder Place, Pages 185.
The Answers Will Appear in the July Newsletter
Here are the answers to May's Canadian Aviation Moments:
QUESTION 1: The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service was created on September 5, 1918 to fulfill what need?
ANSWER: “The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service originated in the American and British need to have America’s Atlantic coast protected from Germany’s long-range submarines. These new weapons could range the Atlantic for three or more months at a time. They had already invaded the St. Lawrence, where their presence terrified the villagers. They had also sunk shipping both in the St. Lawrence and off the east coast of Canada. This led to the development of the convoy system with Sidney and Halifax becoming assembly points for eastward bound convoys. It was decided by the British and Americans that the best air-protection could be provided by building seaplane bases at Halifax and the north shore of Cape Breton. From these locations, they could provide much needed protection to the convoys; neither the British nor Canadian navies could adequately provide this protection.”
FromDancing In The Sky – Page 246
QUESTION 2: What was the first plan by the Japanese to launch a balloon filled with incendiary bombs?
ANSWER: “In March 1943, [the Japanese submarines] I-34 and I-35 were modified to enable them to launch 20-foot balloon 620 miles offshore of the North American continent. Below the balloon hung incendiary bombs to start forest fires on the coast of Canada and the United States. At the last moment, the plan was cancelled. The submarines were recalled for the Guadalcanal operation and the evacuation of troops from the Aleutians.”
From Jericho Beach and the West Coast Flying Stations – Page 181
QUESTION 3: What was the cost to the Allied countries in the air war against the European Axis countries?
ANSWER: “By the summer of 1943, Bomber Command had matured into a technologically and tactically sophisticated weapon, engaged in an all-out relentless campaign, night after night, against the European Axis countries. The mighty, cooperative effort known as the Combined Bomber Offensive would become one of the most focused and demanding prolonged campaigns in modern military history. As punishing as this massive air offensive was to the Germans and, to a lesser extent, the Italians, its cost for the Allies was great. Throughout the entire European air war, more than 18,000 Allied bomber aircraft were lost and 81,000 British, Commonwealth, American and Allied airmen forfeited their lives, including a significant number of aircrew, particularly those from Britain and the Dominions, who perished on operations prior to the commencement of the Combined Bomber Offensive. Bomber Command’s fatalities constituted the largest portion, with 56,000 of it aircrew making the supreme sacrifice. Between 1942 and 1945, the Command flew more than 300,000 operational sorties. At peak periods of the bomber offensive, such as the Second Battle of the Ruhr and the Berlin raids of 1943/1944, for every 100 airmen who joined an operational training unit, fifty- one were killed on combat operations, nine more were killed in non-operational accidents and twelve became prisoners of war. Three were wounded or injured badly enough to be removed from operations, and one successfully evaded capture in enemy territory. Only twenty-four of the original 100 emerged unscathed from these arduous periods of combat.”
From No Prouder Place – Pages 179-180
More Canadian Aviation Moments
– In the News and Around the Web –
Ontario airmen being laid to rest
Two Canadians among the crew of recently recovered Sterling BK716 wreckage
After more than seven decades at the bottom of a lake in the Netherlands, Ontario airmen who were shot down in a bombing raid in the Second World War will be laid to rest. The rescue of the BK 716 wreckage that was discovered in 2008, was performed between September and October of 2020. To read the full story, please click here.
(Veterans Affairs Canada Photo depicts the crew in front of a different Sterling bomber)
A Virtual Chapter Virtual Event!
First Annual Virtual Art Show
– Announced by the CAAA Chapter of the CAHS –
The CAAA will present a virtual art show on the theme Help From Above - Humanitarian Aviation, in August of this year. The show is open to all members of the Canadian Aerospace Artists Association and of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society. Organizers are accepting any media, including photography and digital. For more information, please click here.
"October Saviours" shown below, by CAAA Member Len Boyd, is a fine example of artwork within this theme.
Chapter News
Select a chapter to discover what they have been up to since the last newsletter.
Many of our Chapters remain very active on Zoom with presentations every bit as good as they would be if we did not have pandemic restrictions to deal with!
Special Thanks To Our Supporters
In addition to its members, contributors, and newsletter subscribers, the CAHS is thankful for the ongoing support of its Corporate Members, Museum Members, and Partner Organizations, as well as the many individuals and organizations whose financial donations are so generously given.
If you have changed your mailing or e-mail address, please get in touch to keep us up to date. Contact the Membership Administrator here. To enquire about membership payment records, contact the Treasurer here.