harrym
Appreciate you comments oj sll things Canadian--including their trains!!!
My course at 23EFTS Yorkton Sask.was named "The last of the Many " when we graduated on Aug 31 1945.For reasons unknown we were the only course there allowed to continue after VJ Day Aug 15th.At that time Yorkton with Cornells and an SFTS in Calary with Harvards were all that had remained of pilot training.There were few if any RAF instructors or ground crew left.
On the navigator side I think only Summerside PEI, Gimli and Portage in Manitoba were still alive in Aug 45
We had followed the same Heaton, Liverpool, Halifax, Moncton route as many before us--at sea on the Athlone Castle on VE day.Around the same time I think some went to US schools via Camp Kilmer in NJ..
Recollection is that at that time the route to Montreal from Moncton went across the North part of Maine.
After graduation we were given travel warrants and told to be back in Moncton in 3 weeks.:
Many of us dropped off at Toronto and hitch hiked via Niagara to NYC and up the East Coast to New Brunswick.
After a few weeks in Moncton it was back to the UK on the Ile de France .
But there was no Harrogate hotels for us !----u/t, aircrew from all over were sent to Docking and Bircham Newton to be reclassified and trained in a ground trade or elect to continue training providing they would "sign on" after graduation.I have only sketchy information on how this turned out.I know one pilot who refused to sign on after getting his "wings" and commission and was demobbed in the normal fashion.But I understood that some navigators were refused their brevet when they reneged