Category: Books

The story of the 408 Squadron, RCAF during its time in Ottawa at RCAF Station Rockcliffe has never been told in its entirety. Such an omission, perhaps understandable given the other events that took place at the same time, has denied the public a knowledge of the great achievements this Squadron accomplished for Canada, namely completion of the photography used for the first complete and accurate maps of the country; maps that in some of Canada’s remote regions replaced those originating in the Mid-1840s with the Franklin Expedition or the…

After 25 years of research and over a year to compile we are proud to announce the release of ‘Station Of Nations The History of RAF Balderton 1941-1954’, written by Newark Air Museum trustee and the Research Groups own Colin Savill. Colin is the author of two previous books RAF Winthorpe the Story of an Airfield 1939 -1959 and Preservation Pioneers, Newark Air Museum 1963-2015 The book is entitled Station of Nations – The History of RAF Balderton and it is the story of the airfield from its beginnings to its demise…

Michele Sabad takes us on one Canadian Army brat’s life journey with stories about a childhood in Calgary, Germany, Labrador, and Saskatchewan; becoming a young Air Force wife and Hockey Mom in Edmonton, Kingston, Winnipeg, and Cold Lake; building a career in Information Technology; and finally, settling in a new culture and life in Ottawa and Aylmer, Quebec. Michele’s story will interest, inspire, and enlighten both those who grew up in “the life” and those curious to peek at how this kind of life turned out. “A base brat life,…

Go For Shakedown follows my experiences through Afghanistan. It is a fictionalized dialogue between characters based on true events. It aims to capture the human side of war from the absurd situations to the complexity of actual helicopter missions; all through the development of about a dozen characters and their interactions and reactions both on the ground and in the air. Shakedown is a call-sign for the helicopter. The helicopter is a civilian pattern helicopter that was converted into escort gunships by Canada in order to “get the job done.”…

Charley Goes to War is an account of the Second World War told through the experiences of an RCAF airman from Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Glen Hancock takes us from the streets of Wolfville on September 4, 1939, to Canada’s training camps, and from there to his first operation out of No. 408 Goose Squadron until the final defeat of Nazi Germany and his return to Canada in 1945. Hancock’s memoir maintains a refreshing balance between the headline events of the war and daily life in training and on air force…

    Title:  408 Squadron History ISBN:  0-920002-32-3 Publisher:  Canada’s Wings Year of Publication:  1984 Author:  Hardcover:  Yes Dimensions:  10.5″ w x 8.5″ h Pages:  108 Comments:  1941 to 1984. Covers operations overseas in WWII on the Hampden, Halifax, Lancaster. Post War on the Lancaster, C-119, C-130, T-33, Huey and Kiowa. Many period photos, mainly B & W, of squadron personnel and aircraft.

Letter to a New Grandson: The Story of a Ww2 Lancaster Pilot Paperback – Jun 8 2014 by Wally Kasper (Author) Letter to a New Grandson, The Story of a WW2 Lancaster pilot depicts the fears, the tactics, the dramas encountered by those brave men of Bomber Command. Wally’s unique voice will take you along with his crew on missions fraught with danger. The story of a young couple in war torn England will touch the heart and bring to mind the realities of war. It is a story suitable…

Been There, Done That: Through Treacherous Skies Paperback – Jan 25 2006 by Ron Butcher DFC CD (Ret’d) (Author) It is the gripping life story of a decorated Air Navigator who, with his crew in a Lancaster, did a tour of operations in a Canadian squadron of RAF Bomber Command in WWII, spending nine months in the front lines. There are tales of night raids to Southeast Germany and 6 raids to Berlin. This milieu had up to 1 million personnel, 20,625 guns, 6,680 searchlights and about 400 fighters, a…