Britain was a mess

Heroes Remember

Britain was a mess

Transcript

No, this, this is an area that I think is a little, well... it's not an area, a grandstand area, by any chance. It's not somebody flying and bombing something, but it was still, to me, without the air training plan here, there wouldn't have been a lot happen other places. It, it... this had to happen first, you know, didn't it? They had to be trained. See there were, there were people here from Norway. Now, Toronto Island was called Little Norway, and there were Norwegian people trained, trained in Toronto Island. There were some RAF stations, one at Port Albert up near Goderich, and there was another one up near Hamilton, Port, Mount Hope. They were RAF people sent over here to be trained here because, as you know, Britain was a mess and what could they do there. The aircraft engines that, that were in Spitfires and Lancs, they were Rolls Royce Merlins. They were made by Rolls Royce. But things got so bad over there that they had to, they were shipped to the States and Packard made them in the States. They were called Packard Rolls and of course, the pilots never thought they were as good as the other ones. Whether it was up here or not, I can't tell you, but that was the, the thought anyway, at the time, but there just got that there wasn't much they could do there.

Description

Mr. MacKenzie discusses the value of so much aircraft training in Canada

Grant MacKenzie

Grant Mackenzie was born in Harriston, Ontario, in 1923. He finished school and went to work at a local auto dealer. He attempted to serve overseas as a pilot or electronics technician, but colour blindness prevented him from doing so. Instead, Mr. Mackenzie joined 6 Repair Depot in Trenton, Ontario, where he was an aero engine mechanic. He was also a member of one of the teams tasked with recovering parts from aircraft which crashed during training exercises. Upon completion of his military service, Mr. Mackenzie rejoined the automotive industry.

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