Thousands Joined the New RCAF Women’s Division in WWII

“We serve that men may fly.” The promotional poster words encouraged young Canadian women, aged 21 to 41 to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. Notice, though, that the women were not joining to be piloting the planes, they were enlisting to be support.

The Canadian government committed to train thousands of new airmen in 1941, from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, to enhance the air services required in WWII. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan began on a shoestring, with not nearly enough men to staff the few training centres available. Following the British model, women were called to join, first as the Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. (CWAAF)

British Women Officers

The first group of women was to be trained in Toronto’s Havergal College as Air Force officers and NCOs. The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force already firmly established in Britain, Wing Officer L. M. Crowther and Squadron Officer E. C. Bather arrived to organize the CWAAF, plus several Canadian women were recruited to initiate the new division. Head of the Ottawa Red Cross Motor Transport Group, Kathleen Walker signed on as the first policy officer of CWAAF. In 1942, she was promoted to Senior Officer of the RCAF Women’s Division. Carefully choosing 150 women for the senior posts, the military insisted that “good family background and connections” were essential for the first female officers, said Jean Bruce in her book, Back the Attack, along with good health and education. After training, the new officers and NCOs were posted across the country to train the squadrons of airwomen required for the newly-open jobs.

In the beginning of CWAAC in 1941, only eight trades were available to women:

• Clerk
• Cook
• Equipment Assistant
• Fabric Worker
• Hospital Assistant
• Motor Transport Driver
• Telephone Operator
• General.Duty

A year later, over 50 trades opened to the women and the age was extended to 45. Initial basic training included endless drills on the Parade Square, learning the techniques of marching and saluting. It was not easy. “New recruits,” noted Mary Ziegler in We Serve That Men May Fly, seemed unsure of which was their left or right foot and could not seem to react instantly to the words of command barked at them.” Some women were devastated by the harsh learning process.

Canadian Airwomen Were Accepted

In February 1942, the women were no longer called CWAACs. The group was integrated into the Royal Canadian Air Force as the RCAF Women’s Division. They were Airwomen and they were appreciated. Air Marshal L. S. Breadner, Chief of the Air Staff in October 1942 said in Back the Attack, “You are a novelty to the Service no longer, and soon we shall wonder how we got along without you.”

The airwomen were posted at RCAF bases from coast to coast across Canada and also sent overseas to Europe. One woman travelling on the ship Aquitania to England said in Back the Attack, “There was no convoy, and we were chased all over the Atlantic, down to the Azores and practically to Iceland” by enemy boats.

Some women remained in the service after WW2, with careers such as RCAF ‘photographer with a Dakota maintenance crew, 23 March 1954.’ Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3584917.

Over 17,000 Courageous Women Joined

By the end of WWII, 17,038 women had enlisted in the RCAF Women’s Division. The vista of trades available had expanded to 65 and encompassed photography and meteorology to airframe maintenance, parachute packers to aero engine mechanics and teachers of wireless operators/air gunners. Their participation as full support was a resounding success, allowing more Airmen to do their duty at the front. Though some women were already experienced pilots in their own right, they were not allowed to take part as Air Force flyers. No women were trained or permitted to participate as pilots.

On July 13, 1945, according to Veterans Affairs Canada, three Airwomen of the RCAF WD and eleven Airmen were killed in the unfortunate crash of an aircraft during a mission to familiarize the flight crew with British Columbia airfields.

The Women’s Division was disbanded after the War on December 11, 1946, noted Juno Beach Centre. Women were allowed re-entry back into the RCAF in 1951. Permitted as military pilots in the RCAF in 1980, Canada was the first western country to sit women as licenced pilots in the seats of fighter jets in 1988. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan schools trained the tremendous number of 131,552 airmen from 1941 to 1945, cited RCAF.com.

Books:

Back the Attack! Canadian Women During the Second World War – At Home and Abroad, by Jean Bruce, published by Macmillan of Canada, Toronto Ontario, 1985.

We Serve That Men May Fly: The Story of the Women’s Division, Royal Canadian Air Force, Mary Ziegler, published by RCAF (WD) Association, 1973.

Skaarup, Harold, RCAF Women’s Division (RCAF WD), Military History Books. Retrieved from https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/rcaf-womens-division-rcaf-wd