It was Canada’s largest WWII expenditure. Between 1940 and 1945, the RCAF and the federal government invested $1.75 billion to organize and administer  the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The BCATP supplied the Allied air war with nearly a quarter of a million qualified airmen. Within its five-year life-span, the BCATP supplied a continuous flow of battle-ready pilots, navigators, wireless radio operators, air gunners, flight engineers, riggers and fitters.

On Tuesday, April 29, 2025, historian Ted Barris returns to the Barrie Legion, Branch 147, to offer stories from his bestselling book Behind the Glory: Canada’s Role in the Allied Air War.

While the story of so many men graduating from the most impressive air training scheme in history is compelling enough, Ted Barris offers the untold story of the instructors – the men behind the glory – who taught those airmen the vital air force trades that ensured Allied victory. In Winston Churchill’s words, the BCATP proved “the decisive factor” in winning the war.

Ted Barris has published 22 non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. His book The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the 2014 Libris Award as Best Non-Fiction Book in Canada. His book Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany received the 2018 NORAD Trophy from the RCAF Association. And his book Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire was long-listed for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada. And his book Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory was published in 2022. His latest book Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour was a bestseller in the fall of 2024; and in October 2024, Barris was appointed Member of the Order of Canada.