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First Hand Impressions

"We all loved Canada, especially after war torn and rationed Britain," says Kenneth Ibbs, who trained at schools in Bowden, Penhold and Pearce Alberta. Well, perhaps not all—one medical officer acquainted to John Rhodes compared his home away from home Medicine Hat to an unpleasant medical condition—perhaps not an unpredictable opinion given the extreme weather and isolation of the Canadian prairies. Rhodes describes Alberta as "a land of extreme cold in the winter during which I have experienced 80 degrees of frost with the temperature showing minus 48 F, and it may go up to nearly 100 degrees or more in the summer, when devastating thunderstorms with enormous hail stones which flatten crops and smash greenhouses, occur. Outside the mess one day I picked up seven hailstones which filled my half pint beer mug to overflowing. After drinking the beer, of course!"

Even the cold couldn’t get the best of most of the Brits, though. Many found it perfectly bearable, thanks to the wonders of North American technology. Explains Rhodes, "it was cold at first to us British but easier to take than the English cold because we could always get inside to the warmth of central heating, and it only remained to learn to wrap up in thick clothes and keep our noses and ears covered up". Rhodes also  appreciated the Chinook winds: "I have been into a cinema with three feet of snow outside and a temperature of zero F and came out three hours later to find no snow at all."

RAF pupils were also taken aback by Canadian bar culture, regulated by what Rhodes describes as "archaic Canadian liquor laws". A. H. McGrady, faced with the sexually segregated bars at the Paliser Hotel, decided instead to have cases of beer sent up to his room, as did many other students.

The dimensions of the country were hard to fathom for those hailing from the small-ish British Isles. "The utter vastness of the country was soon evident when upon boarding the train [in Eastern Canada] we spent four days and nights before eventually arriving at Calgary, Alberta. The apparent desolation as we traveled to the north of Lake Superior and then miles and ever increasing miles of flat Prairie land. The sheer distances involved were awesome to one to whom an overnight train to Scotland appeared as a long journey," says Patrick W. Shaw.

The food in the BCATP schools was a step up from the bland British fare back home (made worse by strict rationing). Upon arriving at De Winton Elementary Flying Training School, Shaw found "food served by civilians with seemingly unlimited rations [and] prepared by excellent cooks. Cereal with cream, unlimited amounts of eggs, bacon and sausages (sausages made with real meat), steaks two or three times a week and unbelievable deserts. That first day we must have consumed two weeks of English rations and with a clear conscience. Were we ever pampered!"

In terms of flying, Geoff Holly found the Alberta landscape to be particularly enjoyable. "There were those striking views of the Rockies and the vast flat prairie land really made map reading easy. Roads north and south or east-west. One railway line and towns quite a distance apart…and names on the [grain] elevators. What a complete change it was having to get used to flying in England on return."