Remembering Blatchford Field’s role in war effort
Travellers were starting to choose a noisy, drafty bush plane over a dog team or a riverboat trip when, in 1929, Edmonton’s Blatchford Field became Canada’s first licensed airfield.
Within a decade, Blatchford Field — today mostly remembered as Edmonton Municipal Airport — was to become an integral part of what U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “The Aerodrome of Democracy.”
“The Nazi Blitzkrieg had stormed through Europe to take France in 1940, and only by a supreme effort had the British RAF kept the numerically stronger German Luftwaffe air force from dominating the skies as a prelude to invading the U.K.,” says Bart West, an Alberta Aviation Museum board member.
In December 1939, British representatives had met with their Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts in Ottawa and made plans to create the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).
“It was only 10 days ago we celebrated the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe day,” said West. “It’s well worth remembering the part so many of the aircrew who trained in Edmonton played in bringing that about. And the so many who gave their lives.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King believed the training agreement was an opportunity for his government to make a significant commitment to the Allied Second World War effort without repeating the dark legacies of the First World War, such as stalemated trench warfare and its unprecedented casualties.
“Canada was chosen as the primary location for ‘The Plan’ because of its ideal weather; wide-open spaces suitable for flight and navigation training; ample supplies of fuel and industrial facilities for the production of trainer aircraft, parts and supplies,” said West.
“There was also the lack of any threat from either the Luftwaffe or Japanese fighter aircraft and its relative proximity to both the European and Pacific theatres.”
Blatchford Field became known as RCAF Edmonton between 1940 and 1944 when Canada and the U.S. created the Northwest Staging Route and flew military aircraft to Fairbanks, Alaska, en route to helping Russia.
From 1942, an increasing number of aircraft traversed the route from the U.S. through Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake and Whitehorse.
“The skies over Edmonton were black with planes at times,” the late dentist Don Mcintyre once told me.
“I went to Blatchford Field regularly, fascinated by the number of bomber, fighter and transport aircraft bound for Russia coming in to refuel and the many Canadian, British, Australian and New Zealand pilots flying overhead on training flights.”
The 1939 Allied agreement called for the building across Canada of flying and air observer schools, bombing and gunnery schools, and air navigation and wireless schools.
A year later, Edmonton had an Air Observer School operated by Canadian Airways and Canadian Pacific Airlines. The Edmonton Flying Club then established an elementary training school.
The legendary Wilfrid (Wop) May volunteered for the BCATP and served as general manager of Edmonton’s Air Observer School while supervising all such schools in Western Canada.
First World War flying ace
May was pursued by Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron, before the German ace was shot down on the Western Front in 1918.
May drew international newspaper attention in 1929 when he flew his open-cockpit biplane in winter some 965 kilometres to Fort Vermilion with medication following a diphtheria outbreak in nearby Little Red River. In 1932, he helped police follow snow tracks near the Yukonnwt border to locate Albert Johnson, dubbed The Mad Trapper of Rat River, who had shot two police officers.
The BCATP built more than 100 aerodromes and emergency landing fields in Canada and trained 131,533 Allied pilots, 72,835 of whom were Canadian. Others were mainly from the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. Most went on to fly with Britain’s Royal Air Force.
In the late 1930s, Canada was ill-prepared for conflict. Mobilization efforts were launched in 1940 when the Canadian and the then-neutral American government created the Permanent Joint Board on Defence to co-ordinate North American defences.
The board recommended the development of a northwest staging route to expedite flights to Alaska through Alberta, B.C. and the Yukon.
In February 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and, afraid the country might fall without Allied aid, the British and American governments agreed on a military Lend-lease program that would authorize large shipments of war materials, including aircraft, to the Soviets.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7, 1941, brought urgency to the Alaskan flight route plans. But the Soviets, not wanting American warplane crews flying on to Siberia, collected aircraft in Alaska.
“Edmonton became a critical staging point, and Blatchford Field facilities were expanded,” says West. “Aircraft Repair Limited (later Northwest Industries) repaired aircraft at Blatchford and modified many to operate in extreme weather conditions from rudimentary Soviet airfields.”
In 1942, only 198 aircraft were flown to Fairbanks and on to Siberia, but this increased to 2,662 in 1943 and 3,164 in 1944.
Of the 14,000-plus aircraft delivered by the U.S. to the Soviet Union, more than 7,900 flew the Northwest Staging Route.
Soviet wartime leader Josef Stalin said without the Lendlease program, his country would have lost the war.