Page 19 - Demo

19 Some indication of the early contribution made by, largely volunteer, aircrew from the countries of the old Empire can be seen in Battle of Britain manpower. New Zealand made the largest with 126, 94 of whom were pilots, followed by Canada, Australia and South Africa/Rhodesia in that order. Nine Irishmen and eleven Americans also took part but they, of course, were not from the Empire. As far as formed groups are concerned, you will later hear brief mention of The Eagle Squadrons but units of exiled Greeks and Yugoslavs were also formed into nationally identifiable squadrons. The embryo Indian Air Force %u2013 and at that this stage we are talking of course about %u2018undivided India%u2019 %u2013 will not be considered further because it was essentially not independent but formed, trained, equipped and deployed on operations under the overall leadership of the RAF. Although the adventures of the myriad of individuals who found their way into the RAF, its reserves and auxiliaries would doubtless make a series of fascinating vignettes, I need to move on to the main thrust of this paper. It will be appreciated that many of the Commonwealth countries were themselves close to war zones or directly affected by enemy activity. They, therefore, retained the forces necessary to defend themselves or to participate within their own %u2018national%u2019 air forces on operations in such places as the South West Pacific or the eastern most reaches of what is now Indonesia. I must perforce ignore that contribution to %u2013 let us call it %u2013 %u2018local operations and home defence%u2019 %u2013 although it is worth keeping it in mind as I outline the direct contributions made to the motherland. You will find in a later paper, the training arrangements, including the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The BCATP was the outcome of the Riverdale Agreement of 1939 which would eventually lead to more than 100,000 aircrew being trained in Canada, most of whom would serve with the RAF. Article XV of the Riverdale Agreement, dealt with the employment of the aircrews trained under the plan and subsequent bi8lateral agreements between the UK Government and the participating Dominion countries, covered the individual detail and variations. South Africa was not a party to the agreement but it also participated in a way which contributed significant resources to the