6 Group Bomber Command - Printer PDF Late alts 01-10-09.qxd
01/10/2009
09:57
CHAPTER ONE
A Narrative History The Seeds are Sown On the 31st of October 1939, negotiations began between representatives of the British and Canadian governments on the subject of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). Both sides approached the talks with entirely different perceptions and goals, and this would lead to protracted discussions and acrimonious relations over the following three years. The ‘Canadianisation’ of Royal Canadian Air Force personnel serving with the Royal Air Force was enshrined in Article XV of the BCATP agreement, which was signed on the 7th of January 1941, and originally called for the formation of twenty-five RCAF squadrons overseas. These were to be financed by Canada’s contribution to the Plan, still known to this day in the UK as the Empire Air Training Scheme, which was agreed at $350 million. From the outset the talks were dogged by the questions of control of the RCAF contingent and finance, and the Canadian negotiators found themselves being constantly out-manoeuvred by their British counterparts. Canada envisaged an independent air force operating alongside the RAF, much as the American 8th Air Force would from 1942. Britain, however, saw Canada as a source of manpower, and intended to integrate Canadian personnel into existing RAF Squadrons, or at least, to place the RCAF squadrons within RAF Groups. Canada expressed itself unwilling to finance RCAF personnel over whom it had no control, and after much wrangling, a compromise was eventually reached, which would allow all RCAF squadrons to operate from stations within close proximity to one another, and under the same RAF Group. All such units were to be numbered in the 400–450 series. Once sufficient squadrons had been formed, a RCAF Group would come into existence. By the time 1
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