#BookReview – On the Wings of War and Peace

Reviewed by Dr Ross Mahoney

Randall Wakelam, William March and Peter Rayls (eds.), On the Wings of War and Peace: The RCAF during the Early Cold War. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2023. Glossary. Appendices. Index. xix + 438 pp.

The early years of the Cold War, particularly the 1950s, have been described as the ‘Golden Years’ of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). After demobilisation at the end of the Second World War, the RCAF grew to 41 squadrons, roughly 50,000 personnel, and took the lion’s share of the Canadian defence budget. However, in 1968, the RCAF was unified with the other Canadian services and was already shrinking. For example, the RCAF’s major contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the 1 Canadian Air Division (CAD), based in France and Germany, went from 12 squadrons in the 1950s to just three in 1970, when the Division was renamed the 1 Canadian Air Group.

This volume, edited by Randall Wakelam, William March and Peter Rayls, tells the story of the RCAF during this period of growth and decline. As the editors note in the preface to the book, the raison d’être for producing this volume was because it seemed that the planned fourth volume of the RCAF official history, commissioned in 2015, which would deal with this period, was unlikely to appear by 2024, the centenary of the Air Force (p. xiv). Indeed, the editors have assembled a highly qualified group of authors who are well-versed in their respective subjects. Many of them have earned PhDs and written monographs about their chapters. For example, Ray Stouffer, who wrote the chapter on 1 CAD (pp. 38-59), completed his 2005 PhD at the Royal Military College of Canada on the development of the Division that became the basis for his 2015 book on the same subject, Swords, Clunks & Widowmakers. Similarly, Richard Geotte, who contributes a chapter on the relationship between the RCAF and the United States Air Force and continental air defence before the formation of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) (pp. 60-81), completed a PhD on the same subject in 2009. This became the basis for his 2018 monograph, Sovereignty and Command in Canada-US Continental Air Defence, 1940-1957.

The book itself comprises 16 chapters split into 3 sections. Each section focuses on a key area of the RCAF’s history and begins with an introduction from one of the editors, followed by the chapters. The first section comprises four chapters that deal with aspects of national security policy and strategy. In addition to the aforementioned chapters on 1 CAD and the pre-history of NORAD, the section includes two chapters on the expansion and contraction of the RCAF during this period, as well as on NORAD’s history after its formation in 1957. Each of these chapters ably sets the scene for the chapters that follow. As Bertram Frandsen and Rayls argue in their opening chapter on the RCAF, the rise and fall of the Air Force lies in the relationship between their policy and broader Canadian government policy (p. 31). In the early part of the period under question, the RCAF managed to synchronise its policy with that of the government; however, when government policy changed in the late 1950s and 1960s, the Air Force was either unable or unwilling to adapt to the new operating environment. The need for all military services to reflect on their role not only within a country’s national security framework but also in broader domestic and foreign policies remains important.

The second section addresses the people and resources required to implement the RCAF’s policy and strategy. This section comprises six chapters covering subjects such as the cancellation of the Avro CF-105 Arrow and air power education. The history of the Arrow is a well-trodden subject, with many popular published histories and numerous conspiracy theories. Conversely, Russell Isinger and Donald Story offer a much more balanced account of the project. As they argue, by solely focusing on the aeroplane, the RCAF displayed a level of hubris that was out of step and ‘signalled the end of the RCAF’s pre-eminent role in the formation and implementation of Canadian defence policy’ (p. 123). Indeed, in many respects, this case study into the Arrow highlights the argument made by Frandsen and Rayls earlier in the volume regarding the synchronisation between service and government policy. Wakelam’s chapter on education makes a worthy contribution to the growing literature on professional military education in air forces. It should be read alongside Goette’s chapter on the RCAF Staff College in this period in the edited volume Educating Air Forces (2020). Noted air power specialist Allan English provides a chapter on a little-noted subject, women in the RCAF. This is an important subject, and it is pleasing to see the editor has included it in the volume. As English concludes, at least 10,000 women served in the RCAF between 1952 and 1962, and ‘they made a vital contribution to the RCAF during its rapid Cold War expansion’ and that story should not be erased from the history books (p. 223).

The final section of the book, comprising six chapters, deals with specific roles and functions of the RCAF during the early Cold War. Subjects range from the RCAF involvement in early space-based operations, search and rescue, humanitarian operations, maritime air power, air support for the Canadian Army and air mobility. These roles are among the less fashionable undertaken by air forces and receive less attention than the more fashionable offensive roles, such as air defence. Indeed, as James Pierotti’s chapter on the development of the RCAF’s SAR capability illustrates, in the mid-1950s the Air Force’s fixation on the 1 CAD meant SAR was not a priority (p. 288). Moreover, many of the challenges associated with the development of SAR were not resolved until after unification in 1968 (p. 295). Nonetheless, as March notes in his introduction to this section, the chapters help fill in ‘some of the historiographical blanks’ present in the literature of the RCAF in this era (p. 253).

Given that the fourth volume of the RCAF’s official history is yet to appear, this edited volume is a worthwhile and important addition to the literature. Despite the scope of the subject, readers will find links between the subjects that go beyond a mere examination of the RCAF’s rise and fall during this period. Indeed, the volume goes beyond the typical literature focused on operations, especially on fashionable subjects, and the editors are to be commended for bringing it to fruition.  

Dr Ross Mahoney is an independent scholar specialising in the history of war with particular reference to the use of air power and the history of air warfare. He is currently the Senior Historian within the Heritage Policy team at Brisbane City Council in Australia. He has nearly 20 years of experience in the education, museum and heritage sectors in Australia and the United Kingdom. Between 2013 and 2017, he was the inaugural Historian at the Royal Air Force Museum in the UK. In Australia, he has worked as a Historian for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and taught at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at The Australian National University based at the Australian War College. His research interests are focused on the history of war, specifically on the history of air power and air warfare, military leadership and command, military culture, and the history and development of professional military education. He also maintains an interest in transport history. He has published numerous articles, chapters and encyclopedia entries, edited two books, and delivered papers on three continents.

Header image: The unveiling of the Avro CF-105 Arrow, 4 October 1957. The pilots are Ron Hodge on the left and  Ed Wright on the right. (Source: Library and Archives Canada)