Little Norway
Little Norway | |
---|---|
Toronto Island Airport, later Muskoka Airport | |
Type | Air Force training camp |
Site information | |
Controlled by | Norwegian Army Air Service / Royal Norwegian Air Force |
Site history | |
Built | 1940 |
In use | November 1940 – February 1945 |
Garrison information | |
Past commanders | Maj. Gen. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen (Nov. 1940-New Year 1941) Major Ole Reistad (1941–1945) |
Little Norway (Norwegian: Lille Norge), officially Flyvåpnenets Treningsleir (FTL, "Air Force Training Camp"), was a Norwegian Army Air Service/Royal Norwegian Air Force training camp in southern Ontario during the Second World War.
Origins
When Nazi Germany attacked Norway on 9 April 1940, with only a small number of modern aircraft, the Norwegian Army Air Service and Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service were unable to mount a sustained defence. Following the defeat of the Norwegian forces, the King, key members of the government and military left Norway in June 1940 aboard HMS Devonshire.
After arriving in England, the Norwegian government-in-exile began the process of setting up a new base of operations. A decision was swiftly made to keep the existing Norwegian pilots that had escaped to the United Kingdom as an independent unit. Consequently, none were allowed to participate in the
In 1939, Bernt Balchen, a Norwegian aviator enlisted with the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service, made his way to the United States on a crucial mission to negotiate "matters pertaining to aircraft ordnance and ammunition with the question of the Norwegian Government's possible purchase of such materials in the United States of America."[1] With his status of holding dual Norwegian and U.S. citizenship and his extensive contacts in the aviation industry, his instruction from the Norwegian Government-in-exile in London changed to a new directive: to set up a training camp and school for expatriate Norwegian airmen and soldiers in Canada.[2] Balchen negotiated directly with Canadian government officials to obtain an agreement to use available airport facilities at the Toronto Island airport on Lake Ontario known as "Little Norway".[1]
Training
After construction of new facilities had started, other Norwegian military staff took over with Col. Oscar Klingenberg chosen to head the training schools and Georg Unger Vetlesen and Thor Solberg able to deal with US aircraft manufacturers handling the procurement orders for military equipment.
The earliest considerations for Norwegian pilots were to have a separate air force operating out of England, but by late 1940, the Norwegian government-in-exile mandated that all the "Little Norway" student pilots were ultimately destined for Norwegian-staffed RAF squadrons.
A new home
With the Norwegian Navy and Army pilot training operating as individual courses, there were inevitable commonalities and for the benefit of efficiency, the Norwegian government-in-exile consolidated both services into a unified force, renamed as the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The official declaration was made on 11 November 1944, although combined training operations were already taking place. In May 1942, the training camp was moved to a 430-acre (1.7 km2) site at Muskoka Airport, about 79 miles (127 km) north of Toronto. Under the auspices of a Lend-Lease agreement, an additional order of 50 Fairchild PT-26/PT-26B Cornells was placed with the first deliveries being received by 1942. The training continued at Muskoka until February 1945, when the camp was moved to the air base at Winkleigh in Devon, England.[9]
Further moves
After the move to England, the "Norwegian Training Base" as it was then known, was reconstituted under
Accidents and incidents
During flight training, there were several accidents with the loss of students and instructors.
On 20 June 1941, while taking off, a Northrop N-3PB collided with the ferry Sam McBride in Port Race, Toronto Harbour, killing both the student pilot, Tron Harsvik, and instructor, Lt. Finn Strand Kjos. The Toronto Star newspaper wrote that it was "a matter of time before one of the Norwegian aircraft crashes in the city itself." This fear, along with it being impractical to have flight training in the same place as the current civil aviation operations, precipitated a move to a new camp in Muskoka. At the new location, both ab-initio and advanced level training could take place, while advanced flight training continued at Island Airport.[11]
The first fatal accident in Muskoka, and the last one recorded by the FTL in Canada, took place August 1944 when a Fairchild PT-19 Cornell trainer with pilot and student aboard lost its wing and crashed into the ground, south of Gravenhurst; both on board died. The bodies were recovered from the dense undergrowth and a wing section was found, but no wreckage was recovered. Not long after, another Fairchild crashed for the same reason, but both occupants escaped by parachute. Fairchild aircraft were temporarily grounded, but after the cause of the accidents were determined and other aircraft repaired, Fairchilds were again in service.[12]
The FTL lost three N-3PBs in Canada in fatal crashes, two near Vancouver (Jericho Beach and Patricia Bay), when the harbour in Toronto was frozen, along with the aircraft involved in the ferry boat accident. Other training accidents included fatal crashes in the Curtiss P-36s, one near Toronto in April 1941, another near Port Credit in July 1941 and a final loss into Lake Ontario in January 1942. In all, 23 people at the Air Force training camp died in flying accidents, in addition to the seven who died of disease, car accidents or by drowning.[13]
Legacy
In total during the war, over 2,500 Norwegian airmen of all categories (pilots, navigators and mechanics) were trained in the various bases of "Little Norway".[10]
In 1986 the city of Toronto established Little Norway Park where the people of Norway have erected a plaque "Little Norway: Lille Norge" to commemorate the site of the original camp.[14] In 2007 the governments of Norway and Canada made a memorial inside the Muskoka Airport terminal building to commemorate the Muskoka site.
Aircraft used in "Little Norway"
Army
- Fairchild M-62/ PT-19 and PT-26 Cornell
- Douglas 8A-5/A-33
- Curtiss Hawk 75-A8
Navy
- Noorduyn Norseman
- Stinson SR-9 Reliant
- Northrop N-3PB
References
- Notes
- ^ a b Glines 1999, p. 127.
- ^ "Bernt Balchen". National Aviation Hall of Fame. Retrieved: 9 September 2010.
- ^ Glines 1999, p. 128.
- ^ a b c d Wiig 2009, p. 54.
- ^ a b Baugher, Joe. "Hawk 75A-6/75A-8 for Norway." Archived 2009-02-03 at the Wayback Machine /USAF Fighter and Pursuit Aircraft, 16 August 2001. Retrieved: 4 October 2009.
- ^ Wiig 2009, pp. 55–56.
- ^ Wiig 2009, p. 55.
- ^ Baugher, Joe. " Douglas 8A-5 for Norway, A-33." Archived 2008-07-26 at the Wayback Machine USAAC/USAAF Attack Aircraft, 8 July 2000. Retrieved: 4 October 2009.
- ^ "Little Norway" (in Norwegian). Archived 2011-05-25 at the Wayback Machine NorgesLexi.com. Retrieved: 24 September 2009.
- ^ a b Wiig 2009, p. 57.
- ^ Hansen 1985, pp. 65, 67.
- ^ "Lake Muskoka" Aircraft Crashes." servinghistory.com. Retrieved: 9 September 2010.
- ^ Henriksen 1996, pp. 91, 683–684.
- ^ Miler, Richard E. "Little Norway/Lille Norge." HMdb.org. The Historical Marker database, 21 July 2009. Retrieved: 4 October 2009.
- Bibliography
- Glines, Carroll V. Bernt Balchen: Polar Aviator. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 1999. ISBN 1-56098-906-8.
- Hansen, Per Conradi. Little Norway: A Message of Liberty to the Hills of Home. Oslo, Norway: Military Historical Foundation of Eastern Norway, 2007, First edition 1985. ISBN 978-82-997663-0-2.
- Henriksen, Vera. Luftforsvarets historie bind 2 (in Norwegian) Oslo: Aschehoug, 1996. ISBN 82-03-22070-3.
- Little Norway in Pictures: With Supplement, Norway – Yesterday and Today (Also on cover, R.N.A.F. in Canada). Toronto: S. J. R. Saunders, 1944.
- Wiig, Erling. "Message of Liberty." Flypast, No. 338, September 2009.
43°38′05.9″N 79°23′57.0″W / 43.634972°N 79.399167°W