The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a large-scale multinational military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during the Second World War.Hayter, Steven. "History of the Creation of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan." British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Retrieved: 18 October 2010. The BCATP remains one of the single largest aviation training programs in history and was responsible for training nearly half the pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, air gunners, wireless operators and flight engineers who served with the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the war.Dunmore 1994, pp. 45, 345.
Trainees from many other countries attended schools under the Plan, including Rhodesia, Argentina, Belgium, Ceylon, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, Fiji, Free France, Greece, the Netherlands, Newfoundland, Norway, Poland, and the United States.Barris 2005, p. 316.
Canada was chosen as the primary location for the BCATP's training operations.Hallowell 2004, p. 88.
Relationship to other British aircrew training programs The BCATP was one of many wartime training programs undertaken for and by the RAF and FAA. Such training occurred throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth and even extended into the United States.
In some texts, the name British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is erroneously used to denote these worldwide training efforts. The totality of British aircrew training efforts is correctly referred to as the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) or Joint Aircrew Training Program (JATP). The use of "British Commonwealth Air Training Plan" to denote the Canadian program and "Empire Air Training Scheme" to denote the totality of British worldwide aircrew training programs is consistent with the way these terms were used in the wartime London Times. Canadian Prime Minister King coined the expression "British Commonwealth Air Training Plan" to describe the BCATP in his speech of December 17, 1939. In the same speech, he refers to "joint training," "joint air training plan," American air training plans, and prewar British-Canadian air training programs.
Genesis of the Plan and first steps Negotiations regarding joint aircrew training between the four governments took place in Ottawa during the first few months of the war. The W.L.M. King government saw involvement in the BCATP as a means of keeping Canadians at home, but more importantly, it eased demands for a large expeditionary force and buried the politically divisive issue of overseas conscription.Hatch 1983, p. 15. Negotiating the agreement was difficult. Canada agreed to accept most of the costs of the plan but in return insisted on a British pronouncement that air training would be Canada's primary war effort. Another sticking point was the British expectation that the RAF would absorb Canadian air training graduates without restrictions, as in the First World War, and distribute them across the RAF. King demanded that Canadian airmen be identified as members of the RCAF with distinct uniforms and shoulder badges.Hatch 1983, p. 22. On 17 December 1939, the four nations concluded the Air Training Agreement – often called the "Riverdale Agreement", after the UK representative at the negotiations, Lord Riverdale.Smith 1941, p. 5.
The agreement stated that the training was to be styled after that of the RAF: three initial training schools, 13 elementary flying training schools, 16 service flying training schools, 10 air observer schools, 10 bombing and gunnery schools, two air navigation schools and four wireless schools were to be created.Hatch 1983, p. 18.
The agreement called for the training of nearly 50,000 aircrew each year, for as long as necessary: 22,000 aircrew from Great Britain, 13,000 from Canada, 11,000 from Australia and 3,300 from New Zealand. Under the agreement, air crews received elementary training in their home country before travelling to Canada for advanced courses.Smith 1941, pp. 7–9. Training costs were to be divided among the four governments.Bryce 2005, pp. 47–51.
Article XV of the agreement stipulated that graduates belonging to Dominion air forces, where they were assigned to service with the RAF, should be placed in new squadrons identified with the RAAF, RCAF and RNZAF. These units later became known as "Article XV squadrons". Articles XVI and XVII stipulated that the UK government would be wholly responsible for the pay and entitlements of graduates, once they were placed with RAF or Article XV units. Some pre-war/regular RAAF and RCAF squadrons also served under RAF operational control, while New Zealand and Rhodesian personnel were frequently assigned to RAF squadrons with the honorifics of "(NEW ZEALAND)" and "(RHODESIA)" in their names. However, in practice – and technically in contravention of Article XV – most personnel from other Commonwealth countries, while they were under RAF operational control, were assigned to British units.Clark, Chris. "The Empire Air Training Scheme" (conference presentation). Australian War Memorial 2003 History Conference: Air War Europe (Canberra) via Australian War Memorial. Retrieved: 13 November 2010.At the time of the Second World War, all persons born within the British Empire shared the same citizenship, that of being British subjects. Most of the Dominions and other territories did not award their own separate citizenship until after the war, in Canada's case 1946, with 1948 for Australia, and 1949 for New Zealand.
On 29 April 1940, the first Canadian training course officially commenced, with 166 recruits, at No. 1 Initial Training School in Toronto. From this intake, 34 received their wings as pilots on 5 November 1940 and remained in Canada to serve in the BCATP as instructors or staff pilots. The first BCATP graduates sent to the United Kingdom were 37 Canadian observers, who received their wings at RCAF Trenton on 26 October 1940. The first BCATP-trained pilots posted overseas as a group were 37 RAAF personnel who graduated on 22 November 1940 from No. 2 Service Flying Training School.Hatch 1983, p.47, pp.54-56.Douglas gives a detailed discussion of the negotiations in Ottawa on pp. 208-219.
Canadian operations
Canada was chosen as the primary location for "The Plan" because of its suitable weather; wide open spaces ideal for extensive flight and navigation training; closeness to the United States' industrial centres and supplies of fuel; the lack of any threat from enemy aircraft; and its proximity to the European theatre of war.
The RCAF ran the plan in Canada, but to satisfy RAF concerns, Robert Leckie, a senior RAF commander (at the time in charge of RAF squadrons in Malta) and a Canadian, was posted to Ottawa as Director of Training. From 1940 he directed BCATP training.Hatch 1983, p. 39.
A wide range of American and British aircraft designs were used. Pilots might have done their initial flight training on the Canadian-produced examples of the British Tiger Moth, the American Boeing Stearman, or the Canadian designed and built Fleet Finch biplane.
At the plan's peak of activity in late 1943, the BCATP comprised over 100,000 administrative personnel operating 107 schools and 184 other supporting units at 231 locations all across Canada.
Infrastructure development including erecting "some 8,300 buildings of which 700 were hangars or of hangar-type construction." Fuel storage totalling more than was installed along with of water mains and a similar length of sewer mains laid, involving of excavation. A total of 100 sewage treatment and disposal plants and 120 water pumping stations were completed; and more than of main power lines and of underground electrical cable placed, servicing a total connected electrical power load of over .
In early 1944, the Air Ministry announced the winding-up of the plan, since the Commonwealth air forces had developed a surplus of air crews. The program terminated on March 31, 1945; by then, 131,553 trainees, including 49,808 pilots, had graduated. Over half (72,835) of the graduates were Canadians. The majority of the graduates served in the RAF.
Assistance by the United States By mid-1940, Canadian flying instructors were in extremely short supply and the RCAF began to recruit American pilots to fill this role. Air Marshal W.A. Bishop was instrumental in setting up a clandestine recruiting organization in the then still-neutral United States. In addition, other Americans began crossing the border to enlist at RCAF recruiting centres. In the spring of 1941, President Roosevelt stated that Americans could accept employment and volunteer for service with the British Commonwealth.Hatch 1983 pp. 88-92. After Pearl Harbor, RCAF recruiting in the United States was suspended and 1,759 American members of the RCAF transferred to the armed forces of the United States. Later on, another 2,000 transferred to US forces while 5,000 or so completed their service with the RCAF.
American assistance also included financial support that enabled the Canadian government to purchase aircraft, aircraft engines and other equipment for the BCATP in the US while maintaining an adequate supply of US dollars.Hatch 1983, pp. 84-85.
Host to the Royal Norwegian Air Force training program In 1940, refugee Norwegian airmen established an aircrew training school in Toronto called Little Norway. It was similar to an Elementary Flying Training School in the BCATP. Graduates of Little Norway received advanced training in BCATP schools.Hatch 1983, pp. 189-191.
Host to independent Royal Air Force training units In 1940, the RAF began to move aircrew training schools from the United Kingdom to Canada. The schools were run by the RAF independently of the RCAF's BCATP operations. Twenty-six RAF independent aircrew training schools were set up in Canada, plus No. 31 RDF (Radio Direction Finding) School and No. 31 Personnel Depot. In the summer of 1942, these RAF units were folded into the BCATP as part of the renegotiation and reorganization of the Plan.Hatch 1983, pp. 63-69.
Australia's role
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is referred to as the Empire Air Training Scheme in Australia.
Prior to the war, the RAAF trained only about 50 pilots per year. Under the BCATP, Australia undertook to provide 28,000 aircrew over three years, representing 36% of the total number trained by the BCATP. By 1945, more than 37,500 Australian aircrew had been trained in Australia; a majority of these, over 27,300, had also graduated from schools in Australia.
During 1940, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) schools were established across Australia to support EATS in Initial Training, Elementary Flying Training, Service Flying Training, Air Navigation, Air Observer, Bombing and Gunnery and Wireless Air Gunnery. The first flying course started on 29 April 1940. Keith Chisholm (who later became an ace and served with No. 452 Squadron RAAF over Europe and the Pacific) was the first Australian to be trained under EATS."Biographical cuttings on Keith Bruce Chisholm, first Australian airman trained under the Empire Air Training Scheme." NLA Catalogue. Retrieved: 12 September 2009.
For a period, most RAAF aircrews received advanced training in Canada. During mid-1940, however, some RAAF trainees began to receive advanced training at RAF facilities in Southern Rhodesia.
On 14 November 1940, the first contingent to graduate from advanced training in Canada embarked for Britain.