Paris District High School - Yearbook (Paris, Ontario Canada)

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PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK 21 the Croix de Guerre. Roy Brown, of Brantford, brought down Germany's air ace in a dog-fight in France. These are only two of the renowned avia- tors of 1914-18. After the Great War was over, Canada saw the need of an Air Force of her own. The Air Board Act of nineteen hundred and nineteen was passed and the R.C.A.F. came into being. Although started on a small scale, Canada's Air Force is being slowly but surely built up. The total strength of the R.C.A.F. on December the thirty-first, nineteen hundred and thirty- two, was ninety-eight officers and five hundred and ninety-two airmen. Now let us look to the future of our Air Force. Great prospects are held for the young aviators of to-morrow. Aeroplanes will be used much more commercially than ever before in the history of Canada. It is probable that transport planes will be making weekly or even daily flights to the United Kingdom. Until now the Navy has been the most important factor in the fighting forces. Now the R.C.A.F. is doing its best to wrest the proud title, The Silent Service, from its naval comrades. The first time the Canadian fighter squadron went into action they were successful in bringing down two Dornier bombers, since then, with pride and joy, we have read of their continued success and know that these are only the forerunners of an extremely large number of enemy machines that will never return to their bases. As in the last war Canadian airmen are the masters of any problem the enemy may set them. We are again producing airmen better trained, in fact superior in every way to anything that the Nazis can send against us. When the Prime Minister of Great Britain said in the House of Commons, Never in the field of human conflict was so rnuch owed by so many to so few, he not only paid a tribute and a nation's thanks to a service of heroes, but set a standard to which future airmen will aspire. We know that even this standard will be beaten, as these men fully understand that, as the rep- resentatives of the democracies, they stand for all the aims and ambitions of their forefathers who in many cases fought and died to create this Empire which is ours. The man whose good fortune it has been to be selected as a member of any of the Empire's Air Forces, realizes it is a great honour. Into his hands, at the moment, has been placed a large portion of the defence of our freedom and we all know that, as the days go by, he will rise to full manhood with his laurels won and our Empire still free. The Canadian airman is, without doubt, superior to any and only one result is possible:- It is Victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Vic- tory, however long and hard the road may be. For without Victory, there is no survival. Eva Scott.

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20 PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK The Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air-arm of Canada's great part in the present conflict. Canada's brave airmen have been fighting with the British airmen since the beginning of the war but they have now been form- ed into Canadian squadrons-hence the Royal Canadian Air Force. As soon as the Motherland suggested that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand train the necessary pilots, navigators and crews to beat the Germans, Canada at once put her vast territorial area, her natural and financial resources at the Motherland's disposal. This was the beginning of the Empire Training Scheme. - Canada is putting her shoulder to the wheel for aerial warfare more than any other Dominion. The R.C.A.F. now numbers twenty-tive thousand. Our men are doing patrol and convoy work at home as well as actual war- fare abroad. As well as the navy the Air Force keeps a ceaseless watch over Canada's Atlantic coast. If the occasion arises the 'planes circle low to sig- nal surface patrol boats. The Empire Training Plan is costing Canada two hundred and sixty million dollars for this year alone. There are one hundred odd schools for Air Force recruits scattered through Canada with the nerve centre at Tren- ton. Its job is to train instructors for Britain. Trenton Air Station consists of four separate schools-School of Administration, Central Flying School, Air Navigation School and Air Armament School. Each day starts impres- sively with parade. The whole station parades on Thursdays and each unit in turn on other days. The finishing school at Mossbank, Saskatchewan, is being feverishly rushed to conclusion. Work previously planned to take two years is being compressed into three months. If selected as a pilot, the young recruit first goes to the Elementary Fly- ing Training School for eight weeks. From here he goes to a Service Flying Training School for sixteen weeks. Another eight weeks are spent in an in- termediate training squadron, six weeks in an advanced training squadron, and two weeks in a Bombing and Gunnery School. The complete training of a pilot takes twenty-eight weeks. The R.C.A.F. is composed of the Permanent Active Air Force, the Non- Permanent Active Air Force, and a Reserve of Officers. What did Canada do in the last war? The Canadians fought under the Royal Air Force. They had their own particular squadron and Canada was noted for possessing more air aces than any other country. One of the chief of these was Colonel Billy Bishop, now Air Marshall of the R.C.A.F., who shot down seventy-two enemy planes, and cn whose chest are the ribbons of the V.C., D.S.O. and bar, D.F.C., and

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22 PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK Our War Guests When on June 19, 1940, the British Government announced their inten- tion of sending 10,000 refugee children to Canada as soon as transportation was possible, Canada was ready. Many people in the Dominion of Canada who have relatives in Great Britain are taking their relatives' children for the duration of the war. Children without relatives here are being taken in groups to large houses and others privately to small homes. Some of the older boys and girls are being placed in boarding schools. In each province the Child's Welfare Or- ganization is looking after the distribution of the children to the homes. This transportation of refugees has brought the high and low classes of England closer together. Nobility and common people have the same pri- vileges. An example of this is that the two Princesses, Elizabeth and Mar- garet Rose, are staying in England sharing the same dangers as the thou- sands of other children unable to come to safety. The purpose of transporting the children is to remove them from the horrors and ravages of war so that they may be fitted and educated to carry on the work of the next generation wisely and peaceably. A great responsi- bility will rest on their shoulders to rebuild the country after this awful war is over. The British children are in every way desirable guests. They are highly intelligent and have had physical examinations before leaving England and on entering Canada. They are courageous and cheerful and do not seem to mind being taken from their homes and set in different surroundings be- cause they know it is for the good of their country and themselves. Never- theless they deserve our sympathy because of the strain imposed upon them, knowing that their parents are in danger. During the journey across the Atlantic and especially aboard the two ships torpedoed, the children showed cheerfulness, courage and obedience. On the second ship torpedoed sixty-three children lost their lives. The peo- ple of Canada extend their sincerest sympathy to the parents of these young children. When the children finally arrive in Canada they are distributed to homes and boarding schools. Among our more distinguished guests who we are especially proud to welcome are Crown Princess Juliana of Holland with her daughters Beatrice and Irene, and the daughter of the Earl and Countess of Athlone with her children. The hospitality of the Canadian people is wonderfully represented in their whole-hearted welcome of the British children. When the project was Hrst announced people poured to meetings and stated their decisions to take children even although they had some of their own or could not rightly af-