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Aircraft Identity Corps | |
---|---|
Active | 1940–1945 |
Country | Canada |
Branch | Royal Canadian Air Force |
Type | Civil defence organisation. |
Role | Aircraft recognition and reporting (1940–1943) |
Size | 1945 - circa 30,000 personnel |
Engagements | World War II |
The Aircraft Identity Corps was a Canadian civil defence organization operating between 1940 and 1945. The corps' mission was to report suspicious aircraft and guard against German, Japanese, and Italian attack. The use of observers was deemed important because radar was not yet in widespread use. It was rebuilt as the Long Range Air Raid Warning System in 1950.
The Aircraft Identity Corps was formed in 1940 by Air Vice Marshal George Croil for service during World War II. By the war's end in 1945 it had over 30,000 members.
Among the corps' responsibilities was a system of 266 observation posts extending from the Sault Ste. Marie locks in northern Michigan to Hudson Bay, to protect the strategically important locks against a possible long-range German air attack. The joint US and Canadian defence of these locks was coordinated by the US Army's Central Defense Command. [1]
In the then-separate Dominion of Newfoundland, there was an Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland. At the behest of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the Commissioner of Defence for Newfoundland, L. E. Emerson, amalgamated the Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland with the Canadian Aircraft Detection Corps. On March 15, 1942, Emerson circulated a communiqué stating the "Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland" would be organized by the RCAF as a unit of the Canadian Aircraft Identity Corps. One of the letter's recipients was Newfoundland public figure P. W. Crummey, an Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland volunteer. Attached to the communique was a letter from Flight Lieutenant H. H. Graham, commanding officer of Torbay Airport, No. 1 Group RCAF, St. John's; glossaries of airplanes and ships; an identity card; and procedural instructions.
At war's end, Aircraft Identity Corps volunteers in Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland received a brass Volunteer Aircraft Observer button and certificate of thanks from Canada's Department of National Defence. Some Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland volunteers qualified for the United Kingdom's Defence Medal. [2]
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, during the Second World War. 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.
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St. John's International Airport is in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is located 3 nautical miles northwest of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and serves the St. John's metropolitan area and the Avalon Peninsula. The airport is part of the National Airports System, and is operated by St. John's International Airport Authority Inc.
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Pleaman Wellington Crummey JP (1891–1960) was a public figure in the Dominion of Newfoundland and the Province of Newfoundland. He was born at Western Bay, Conception Bay.
The Ground Observer Corps (GOC), sometimes erroneously referred to as the Ground Observation Corps, was the name of two American civil defense organizations during the middle 20th century.
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When the Second World War broke-out, the Dominion of Newfoundland was a Dominion governed directly from the United Kingdom via the Commission of Government. As Newfoundland was being administered by the Commission of Government, and had no functioning parliament, the British declaration of war on Germany automatically brought Newfoundland into a state of war with Germany on 3 September 1939.
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