R.A.F. Can.—Flying Duty of Machines.
A word about local conditions will not be amiss. The country was, of course, deep in snow, and the winter period in its most trying phase. Recruiting, for which methods had still to be formulated, was complicated by the fact that no Military Service Act was in force in Canada, and the country had been apparently combed bare of those who desired to enlist voluntarily. It is true that the Royal Naval Air Service had for months been drawing excellent material from Canada, but this unit offered the inducement of a commission on enlistment, while the R.F.C. held no commissions in its outstretched hands, but merely the promise of months of arduous work before qualifying for the distinction. That the Corps was authorized to recruit in Canada was due to an Order in Council passed by the Canadian Government. Application was also made to the Department of Militia and Defence that the unit might be rationed, clothed and medically attended to by that Department.
An excerpt taken from an early report on Canadian conditions to the Air Board notes that the Royal Flying Corps, Canada, was an Imperial unit, paid for by the Imperial Treasury and wholly independent of local military command. Also that instructions in the first instance were very indefinite regarding a host of important details, but that this fact was in the long run a blessing in disguise.
A credit of four millions sterling had been established with the Imperial Munitions Board for the purposes of the wing, and it now remained to take action as quickly as possible.
That no time was lost may be gathered from the fact that the large C.E.F. Camp at Borden, some seventy miles north of Toronto, was inspected on January 26th, and on the following day a contract was let under supervision of the Aviation Department of the Board for the construction of the first Canadian aerodrome on an outlying portion of this area. It was to comprise fifteen flight sheds, with all necessary buildings and equipment. Simultaneously, recruiting got under way. Ground was also provided by the Department of Militia and Defence at Long Branch, some nine miles west of Toronto, where was formed the first flying unit of the Royal Flying Corps, Canada.
During the last week of the month, a contract was let for the construction of a large factory for the Canadian Aeroplanes Limited, supplies of engines and machines were secured from the Curtiss Manufacturing Company at Buffalo, and sites for additional groups of squadrons were selected at Leaside, three miles north of Toronto; Armour Heights, four miles still farther north; Rathbun and Mohawk, 130 miles east of Toronto.
Such was the record for nine days’ work. Thus the first of February found the unit with all major features of its programme settled, and on the threshold of a development which, as it progressed, was destined to realize every anticipation.