Each year in November the Askennonia Centre in Midland, Ontario, hosts a luncheon in honour of veterans in the community. For most of the past decade, Ted Barris has brought the keynote presentation. This year, on Friday, Nov. 17, novelist Malcolm Kelly joins him as the two bring stories of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to light for the luncheon. Ted draws stories from his book Behind the Glory and Malcolm from his book Sprog: A Novel of Bomber Command.

The BCATP was Canada’s largest WWII expenditure – $1.75 billion and it 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. In Winston Churchill’s words, the BCATP proved “the decisive factor” in winning the war.