'The guardian angels of this flying business': RCAF ground crew in 6 Group

This thesis examines the experience of Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) ground crew in 6 Group during the Second World War. It traces the military career of ground crew members from their recruitment, through their initial and trade training, to service overseas with 6 Group. It explores the means by which the small pre-war RCAF was expanded to encompass both an overseas contribution to the war and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), a scheme by which Commonwealth aircrew would receive their flight training in Canada. Both the overseas squadrons and the BCATP demanded a ground crew contribution far larger than that which the pre-war RCAF could provide.;The history of the ground crew is a field that remains largely unexplored. A majority of scholarly works focus their attention on high policy and the exploits of the aircrew. Nevertheless, without the ground crew, bomber operations would have been impossible. Their history is one which deserves examination. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).