Canada's Air Heritage

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These are scans of the front cover, award page, forward, Per ardua ad astra & back. Inside there are 4 articles about WW1 Aces. Meant to be - and probably were - inspirational to the new pilots.

Billy Bishop  Billy Barker  Ray Collishaw  Alan McLeod

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"To the Scarrow family - Clyde."

CANADA'S Air HERITAGE

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Presented to C. R. Scollan on the occasion of his Qualification as a service pilot. December the sixteenth nineteen hundred and forty
_______ Group Captain Commanding No. 31 S.F.T.S. Kingston, Ontario

THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE is the youngest of Canada's fighting Services. Yet this new weapon of war and servant of peace is rich in tradition. Throughout the First Great War, thousands of Canadians served with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service and brought fame and distinc­tion to themselves and their country. In the last year of that war, these two services were joined to form the Royal Air Force. The Royal Canadian Air Force came into being in 1924.
Today we are at war again — and once more Cana­dians are in the front rank of airmen. Our country is, moreover, a great training ground for airmen from all over the Empire.
Thus Canada's air traditions, nobly begun, are being carried on. This booklet tells of some of the great figures of the last war. In the air today and in our train­ing schools are their successors. This booklet is therefore at once a guide to the past and a signpost to the future. As was said recently by the Acting Deputy Minister of National Defence for Air: "There is something in the mental mould and physical frame of our Canadian youth . . ."
It gives me deep satisfaction to dedicate this booklet to the men of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

L S Breadner, Air Vice-Marshal, Chief of the Air Staff, Royal Canadian Air Force.
Ottawa, November, 1940.

Per ardua ad astra

IN this little book you have read of the exploits of but four of the thousands of Canadians who served with distinction in the Royal Air Force in the Great War of 1914-1918. There was a great company of others who fought superbly and with devastating effect against the enemy. Volumes could be filled with their deeds.
Today another generation of Canadians has taken their place and is writing its deeds in the skies over England and Europe. Some may have opportunities for spectacular flying, some may ride with a kindlier Fate than others. There will be the unsung heroes; the regular duty men flying from dawn to dawn; the thousands of loyal men whose work is on the ground, who give untiring and ungrudging service in order to make possible the achievements that are being written into the imperishable records of our Service.
To them all, to the Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Men of the Royal Canadian Air Force, this booklet is commended.

Grateful acknowledgment is made here by the R.C.A.F. to Lt.-Col. George A. Drew, author of "Canada's Fighting Airmen" on which much of the text of this booklet is based and to the publishers, the Maclean Publishing Company of Toronto.

Issued under authority of The Minister of National Defence for Air Ottawa, Canada

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