Canada’s Air Force

Book excerpt: The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was founded in 1924 as a sort of federal air service, carrying out civilian-type operations for Ottawa. In the Second World War, the RCAF grew to more than 200,000 personnel in overseas squadrons and performed virtually every type of mission, including bombing and hunting submarines. Over the decades since, the RCAF has tried valiantly to carry out its mission of defending Canada, even when starved of funds by the federal government. Today, it is once again on the verge of becoming a modern, well-equipped air force. In Canada’s Air Force, historian David J. Bercuson shares the history of the first one hundred years of the Royal Canadian Air Force, from its inception in 1924 to its centennial in 2024. Drawing on memoirs, diaries, unpublished histories, archival sources, interview transcripts, and standard reference works such as The Bomber Command War Diaries, Bercuson traces the history of the RCAF as not only a fighting force but also a human institution. Canada’s Air Force analyses the first century of the RCAF through the clear-eyed perspective of a Canadian historian who has closely scrutinized one hundred years of the RCAF’s story.