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Bill, wish you would clarify something for me. Earlier in this thread you were comparing Mustang sorties, losses and kills with Jugs and P38s. Said something like their kills were mostly German. Are you saying that some of those awarded kills were not German, perhaps japanese? The reason I ask is that the sortie numbers and loss numbers jibe exactly with mine but I am under the impression those sortie numbers were all in the ETO.
I agree that most of the RAF Squadrons were cosmopolitan but if you look at the RCAF and RAAF (unsure about RNZAF) squadrons they were made up of mostly nationals. I am reading about one RCAF guy who had to sign over to the RAF so he could join a RAF squadron . The RCAF and RAAF were paid much better then the RAF and it caused grief if some were paid better then others of the same rank and same squadron. The RCAF also pushed for commissioned ranks for aircrew as the crews were pissed that they couldn't eat or hang together becauxe some were NCO's and others commissionedJust a thought but the RAF all Commonwealth air forces were very eclectic my Uncles Wellington had two Canadians and an Australian in its crew so I think they were really an amalgamated commonwealth air force, so IMO it makes it quite hard to separate the RCAF, the RAF the RAAF
would be interested in seeing that as I believe we paid our own way if not more . But I have been wrong before. If I am correct the UK paid of its last war debts to Canada on 12/29/06 the same time they finished with USThe RCAF, RAAF and RSAAF could be considered as part of the RAF as they were paid for and equipped by Britain. Something I only picked up a few weeks ago.
I agree that most of the RAF Squadrons were cosmopolitan but if you look at the RCAF and RAAF (unsure about RNZAF) squadrons they were made up of mostly nationals. I am reading about one RCAF guy who had to sign over to the RAF so he could join a RAF squadron . The RCAF and RAAF were paid much better then the RAF and it caused grief if some were paid better then others of the same rank and same squadron. The RCAF also pushed for commissioned ranks for aircrew as the crews were pissed that they couldn't eat or hang together becauxe some were NCO's and others commissioned
Flight engineer I'm going to guess we were short of them initially. I worked with 429 for about 2 yearsSorry PB for the confusion although it appears the way I put it that my uncle was in the RAF, he was actually in 429 Bison Squadron of the RCAF.
Just a thought but the RAF all Commonwealth air forces were very eclectic my Uncles Wellington had two Canadians and an Australian in its crew so I think they were really an amalgamated commonwealth air force, so IMO it makes it quite hard to separate the RCAF, the RAF the RAAF
Flight engineer I'm going to guess we were short of them initially. I worked with 429 for about 2 years
I voted for the RCAF.
A country with less than 12 million people, ended up with the fourth largest airforce in the world by 1945. 200,000 aircrew, (not including those in RAF service), 48 squadrons overseas, and Canada trained an additional 80 operational squadrons through BCATP. In fact they trained so many pilots, they were told to stop it already!
There are very good reasons to choose some of the other airforces as the best, but...at the end of the day...which airforce had the best hockey team? I think we all know who I'm talking about..... lol
We've always been a believer of quality rather then quantity and if you check out some of your better ETO pilots you would see they were trained by the RCAFAnd it was such a distant 4th to the AAF, it didnt even count.
The USN had an even larger naval air corps than Canada did.