Happy New Year all, and a reminder we have our first speaker of the year coming to talk to us about the Battle of Britain on this coming Wednesday, January 8th. Dinner at 6:30 and Speaker at 7PM.
We hope you can all make it and feel free to bring a guest.
The speaker Ted Barris is a Member of the Order of Canada, a renown journalist as well as a published author of 22 best selling books.
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” are Winston Churchill’s words that set the 113 days of the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 as the greatest aerial battle in history. As the German Luftwaffe sought to destroy the Royal Air Force, gain air superiority, and invade the British Isles, Commonwealth fighter pilots scrambled from U.K. airfields day after day and flew Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft to thwart Hitler’s plan. The RAF’s had 2,937 aircrew with over 100 Canadians pilots and 200 ground crew (aka erks).
Ted Barris, in his 22nd book, Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour, has assembled unknown stories of Canadian airmen, ground crew, as well as engineers, aeronautical designers, medical officers and civilians who answered the call and turned back the very real threat of Nazi invasion. You know the outcome of the Battle of Britain, but now you’ll meet the Canadians who helped secure victory in this WWII life-and-death struggle.
BFC member Phil Lightstone attended Ted’s presentation at the Canadian Aviation Historical Society’s December 2024 meeting and reports: “Ted’s books are extremely detailed and well researched. His presentation is delivered in a fireside chat style with Ted’s enthusiasm bubbling over and full of images. Ted’s extreme knowledge combined with his story telling expertise delivers an experience for the audience transporting you back to the early days of WWII and the Battle of Britian.”
About Ted Barris
Ted Barris is an award-winning journalist, author, and broadcaster. His writing has regularly appeared in the national press and magazines as diverse as Air Force, esprit de corps and Zoomer. He has also worked as host/contributor for many CBC Radio network programs, NPR in the U.S. and has appeared on TV Ontario. He taught journalism at Toronto’s Centennial College for 18 years and is the author of 22 bestselling, non-fiction books, including a series on wartime Canada.
In 2011, he was one of nineteen civilians presented with the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs Commendation. In 2012, the Air Force Association of Canada selected Ted Barris to receive the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Ted Barris has received the Member of the Order of Canada, “for advancing our
understanding of Canadian military history as an acclaimed historical author, journalist and broadcaster."
Location:
This is a hybrid meeting, on Zoom and in person. If you cannot attend in person, check your BFC-News email for the Zoom link!
The in-person session will be held at the SMS Training Facility at 75 Tiverton Court. This is just off Allstate Parkway just short of the old Nav Can tower on the southwest side of the field. Google Maps link.
Come North up from Hwy 7 on Allstate Parkway just past the sign that says No Exit after the 2nd or 3rd stop sign, and Tiverton is on the left. Follow it west to the end (only 100 meters or so) and go to the Toshiba Building, #75. Go left into the parking area (you may recognize a number of Ambulances parked there). The door for the Training Center is at the basement area on the South side of the building. The door is normally closed but we will have someone letting people in. Call Dave Sprague if you need assistance -- his cell phone number is posted in the BFC-News announcement of this meeting. Or, ask in the WhatsApp group.
