were the basis for the Allied forces air corps. The British Commonwealth Training Plan (BLATP) was the program started in a joint effort by the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The agreement was signed in 1939 to form what Roosevelt would call, “the aerodrome of democracy.” In April of 1940 the first air school opened in Canada. The task of opening this school fell to four thousand aircrew that needed to form dozens of schools to train airmen. The original school was able to produce 520 pilots with elementary education in air combat. Out of every hundred pilots that graduated from the school anywhere between sixty and sixty-five were Canadian.ii When the program ended at the conclusion of the war they had opened a total of ninety-seven schools and had successfully trained 82,000 airmen in three years. The Canadian trained pilots were the backbone of the Allied offensive battles and defensive support of World War II. The defense of Canada fell under the command of two division of the RCAF, the Eastern Air Command and the Western Air Command. The purpose of the Eastern Air Command was to defend the Canadian and American coasts against German U-Boat. The first 18 months of the war were relatively quiet, but from the spring of 1941, the resources of EAC were taxed to their utmost limits in the grim Battle of the Atlantic. Enemy U-boats were sighted and attacked in Canadian coastal waters. The enemy even penetrated into the St. Lawrence River to sink vessels. The most critical period was in 1942 and the first six months of 1943 when submarine activity in the North Atlantic reached its peak. Then the tide turned, and although the introduction of the acoustic torpedo and later the "Schnorkel" breathing-tube presented new serious defense problems, the sea and air forces of Britain, US and Canada retained the upper hand until the last U-boats surrendered in May 1945. Aircraft of EAC sank six submarines. ...
