October 2023 CAHS e-Newsletter

CAHS Newsletter

While we wait for Journal 58-2 to arrive in mailboxes and 58-3 to go through final checks before being released to the proofreading team, I'd like to offer a little peek at a Special Edition, which has been in the works here for a while now.

The front cover design (above) celebrates a random sampling of aircraft types that have seen service in our national Air Force from year one onwards.

Inside, expert writers and researchers explore the themes of:

the value of organizational history (LCol. Paul Johnston (Ph.D.));
youth and the RCAF (Mr. Matthias Joost (Major, ret'd));
how museums and their artifacts contribute to the larger narrative (Dr. Mike Bechtold);
the role of individuals shaping the RCAF and senior leader leadership, (Dr. Richard Goette) and;
the evolution of the emblems that came to represent the force since its inception (Dr. Brittany Dunn).

With RCAF History and Heritage Director and Chief Historian Dr. Richard Mayne as guest editor, the package is set to bring us material that is not likely to be explored to this depth in any of the other RCAF Centennial publications presently in the works. This Special Edition will also be available to non-members via our website's e-shop once the membership distribution is completed.

ANSWER 3: “A great amount of technical, technological and tactical innovation was demonstrated by both sides during this campaign. Deliberate diversions and distractions by Bomber Command abounded, and increasingly indirect routes were employed. Concentration of force over the target was developed to an art form, until a force of 800 aircraft could be placed on the target within just a twenty-minute window. Collaterally, the length of the bomber stream, considered to be exceptionally vulnerable when it grew to 300 miles in length, was tightened up to a mere 70 miles, less than a quarter of its 1942 length. A specialist support organization in the form of 100 group had been added, and their contributions were highly significant. Older equipment, such as the Stirling and the Halifax II/V series., were retired from the Main Force, while new equipment in the form of the early series Halifax III was introduced. However, the initial results with this new aircraft did fall somewhat short of expectations, and these crews had a harder time of it, since. 'When the fighters struck and bomber pilots made for altitude, whatever their orders, the Halifax IIIs were now left at the lower altitudes (than the Lancasters) and the Germans found them first.' The later variants with greater wingspans and improved service ceilings fared much better.”

Source:

No Prouder Place,

pg. 309 (Bashow)