RCAF Station High River
General Information
Base / Station: High River
Province: Alberta
Dates of Operation or Period of Information: 1921-44
Units:
- Air Board
- Air Board aircraft and pers
- no unit designation
- Aircraft Flown:
- DH-4
- No.2 Ops Sqn
- formed July 1925
- the units roles were:
- photography
- mapping and
- forestry patrols;
- placed on care & maintenance status on 1 April 1931 and not reformed
- Aircraft Flown:
- DH-4,
- Avro 522,
- Avro 504
- No.5 Elementary Flying Training School
- Moved from Lethbridge, Alberta – 28 June 1941
- Reformed as part of the “Shadow Organization (Reserve)” – 31 March 1945
- Aircraft Flown
- Tiger Moth,
- Cornell
- Pigeons (?)
- Relief Landing Field – Frank Lake
Commanding Officers:
- Major Croil 1921-23
- Squadron Leader Cuffe 1923-27
- Flight Lieutenant Collis 1927-28
- Flight Lieutenant Walsh 1928-31
- **airfield closed until 1941**
Financial Impact:
Date / Reason for Closure:
- 1 April 1931, placed on care & Maintenance status for budgetary reasons
- 15 December 1944 reduced requirement for aircrew
Current Status: unknown, probably abandoned
Image from the
RCAF Pilots Manual of Aerodromes and Seaplane Bases
circa 1942.
Location – Google Map
Photo Gallery
Thank you to Mike Anglin for sharing this photo with me (National Defence Image)
Station Magazine
“”
School Daily Diary – Links – No. 5 Elementary Flying Training School
School was moved from Lethbridge, Alberta effective 28 June 1941.
Fatalities
This list was compiled from the entries in the Daily diaries of No. 5 Elementary Flying Training School and other sources. The list may not include all fatalities of personnel who died while stationed at RCAF Station High River. With input from various sources, so far there were 16 deaths of service personnel that were stationed at High River.
9 July 1941
- LAC James Wiley Daly
- Sgt John Arnold Malin
18 July 1941
- LAC Frederick Fernaley Saunders Oldham
4 November 1941
- Sgt Harvey Graham Hayes
29 December 1941
- LAC Kenneth Keith McLaughlin
12 Feb 1942
- Sgt George Hollands Campbell
- LAC Donald James Dawson
19 Feb 1942
- LAC Michael Huculak
13 May 1942
- Sgt Philip Hayne Chapman
10 October 1942
- LAC Robert Edward Wilson Redwood
6 April 1943
- LAC Edward William Roberts Bolton
12 June 1943
- P/O George Sinclair
- LAC George William Lindsay
3 August 1943
- F/O Edward Willis Davidson
- LAC Kenneth Arthur Ing
3 April 1944
- P/O James Oliver Christie, DFC
Aircraft List
Notable Alumni
Course List
No 5 Elementary Flying Training School
For More information – External Links
- Wikipedia
- MilitaryBruce.com – Canadian Military History by Bruce Forsyth
- Aerodrome Disposal File:
- Site Plans:
- Bomber Command Museum of Canada Archives – High River
For More information – Published References
Hello,
My father J.W. Hughes (1803474) went to No.5 EFTS in High River, No.10 SFTS in Dauphin, No.5 B & G in Dafoe and No.1 CNS in Rivers.
I am currently digitalising my late father’s flying log books and photo album of his ‘Canadian holiday’ Would you be interested in having copies of the log books or photos?
Kind regards,
I would absolutely be interested in seeing your father’s documents and photos… If you are on Facebook I would also encourage you to share them in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada group. I am a little backlogged on data entry but I would love to figure out what course numbers you father participated on. I am starting to document course nominal roles and other data to help others figure out their family histories. Have you requested your father’s service file from the library and archives of Canada? It is a great resource to track your father’s RCAF roles. Thank you for reaching out.
Nathan
I would also love to see any photographic material from High River, I have very little (yet) to go against the research I am doing on Cyril Devaux that attended course 98 between 17 January and 24 March, 1944.
Re High River, please see:
https://www.bombercommandmuseumarchives.ca/book_airforcehighriver.pdf
Hi: Here’s a book about the RCAF at High River
https://www.bombercommandmuseumarchives.ca/book_airforcehighriver.pdf