One of the most talked about shows currently available is Masters of the Air. A program detailing the lives of American bomber crews serving in the US Army Air Force during WW2. In today’s episode, I bring on a past guest of CCH, historian Alex Fitzgerald-Black, to talk about the Canadian version of Masters of the Air. While the Americans bombed during the day, at night Canadian crews also took the bomber war to Germany and Axis powers. In today’s discussion we trace the beginning of the Canadian bomber fleet, the formation of No. 6 Bomber Group (one of Canada’s largest national formations of the entire war), the various operations that Canadian bomber crews participated in and finally we talk about the legacy of the Canadian bomber contribution and spend a bit of time sharing our own thoughts on Masters of the Air.
Alex Fitzgerald-Black is the Executive Director at the Juno Beach Centre Association, the Canadian charity that owns and operates Canada’s Second World War Museum on the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, France. He holds a Master of Arts in military history (University of New Brunswick) and a Master of Arts in public history (Western University). His first book, Eagles over Husky: The Allied Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign, 14 May to 17 August 1943, was published in 2018. He has co-written multiple exhibitions at the Juno Beach Centre, including most recently Rising to the Challenge: The Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.
The Juno Beach Centre is preparing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in summer 2024. Veterans Affairs Canada will be organizing the Canadian overseas ceremony on Juno Beach outside the Centre. For more information about the anniversary and to access further resources, please visit www.juno80.ca and junobeach.org.
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S5E6 Optical Aleutians – The Liberation of Kiska Island
S5E5 A Murder in the Desert – The Canadian Airborne Regiment and the Somalia Scandal
S5E4 Amherst’s VIP Prisoner: Trotsky in the Maritimes
S5E3 The Buffalo Alliance – Poundmaker and Crowfoot
S5E2 The Pirate Queen of Canada – Maria Lindsay Cobham
S5E1 Canada’s Forgotten Battle – The Battle of the Medak Pocket
*Special Bonus Episode* The Voices of D-Day
*Special Episode* D-Day 75
S4E17 Subordinate No More! Canada’s Inter-War Move to Independence
S4E16 The Chatham Coloured All-Stars
S4E15 Separate Spheres Turned Upside Down – French Women and the Survival of New France
S4E14 A Search for Asylum – Sitting Bull in Canada
S4E12 “The Riot Heard ‘Round the World” – Vancouver’s 1907 Anti-Asian Riot
S4E11 Thérèse Casgrain
S4E10 Eugenics in Alberta
S4E9 ‘Kill the Indian, Save the Child’ – Residential Schools in Canada
S4E8 Montreal’s Poet Laureate: The Life and Music of Leonard Cohen
S4E7 The Assassination of D’Arcy McGee
S4E6 Canadians on the Bridge Part Two: James Doohan
S4E5 The First World War Remembered
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