Talk:British Commonwealth Air Training Plan

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A good start. Some matters of detail:

  • I'd have to look it up to be sure, but wasn't it the "Empire Air Training Scheme"?
  • As I recall, it had branches all over the Empire. I think the Canadian one was the biggest, the Australian one was vey large also, and I seem to remember that South Africa was significant too. Probably there were others. Tannin

Correction: Canada, Australia, Rhodesia, and New Zealand, according to the quick Google search I just did. It might be a good idea, rather than balkanise too much, to edit this up into a brioader Empire Air Training Scheme article with appropriate sub-headings. Tannin

The Canadian contribution was overwhelmingly larger than that of any other country, including Britain, and the BCATP article has been edited to include numbers confirming this fact. Cheers, Madmagic 11:20, Oct 16, 2004 (UTC)

It appears EATS was in Aus/NZ only. Not to belittle the effort, it appears CATS was resonsible for about four times the number of personel. I will add a mention of EATS however.

BCATP is clearly better known name, but it looks to me like EATS was the original name for the whole thing. e.g.: "31 March {1945} The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), also known as the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS), prior to June 1942, officially ends. By 30 September 1944, EATS/BCATP had generated a total of 168,662 aircrew in training schools located in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Southern Rhodesia. Of this total, 75,152 were pilots, 40,452 navigators, 15,148 air bombers and 37,190 belonged to other aircrew categories. Although South Africa was not part of EATS/BCATP, under a parallel agreement, Royal Air Force aircrew were trained in South African Air Force Air Schools."[1] On that basis I'll redirect the blank EATS page to the BCATP one.Grant65 (Talk) 06:37, May 24, 2004 (UTC) EATS developed into CATP - quote from Ted Dunford, who instructed for 3 years prior to going back to the UK to fly Mosquitoes: 'I did some instructing in England and I was then posted overseas to South Africa and Rhodesia as an instructor in what was then called the Empire Air Training Scheme, later to become the Commonwealth Air Training Plan.'