The Cold War and the Birth of NATO

The threat of Communism posed by the Soviet Union was taken seriously by Canada's Prime Minister, W. L. Mackenzie King, who told the National Liberal Federation on January 20, 1948 that: 

"So long as Communism remains a menace to the free world, it is vital to the defence of freedom to maintain a preponderance of military strength on the side of freedom, and to ensure the degree of unity among the nations which will ensure that they cannot be defeated one by one." 

A similar sentiment was made in an address to the Canadian House of Commons in April of the same year as External Affairs Minister Louis St-Laurent argued that:

"The spread of aggressive communist despotism over western Europe would ultimately almost certainly mean for us war, and war on most unfavourable terms. It is in our national interest to see to it that the flood of communist expansion is held back." The belief that collective security was the only way forward led Canada to become one of the founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. 

Canada had hoped to avoid sending troops to Europe and believed that providing weapons, equipment and aircrew training (in Canada) would be a sufficient contribution to NATO. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 and the subsequent involvement of communist China changed everything. After much debate, Canada eventually agreed to send an air division of 12 fighter squadrons and an Army brigade group to be based on the European continent. 

This would prove to be very challenging as military forces at the end of the Second World War were quickly demobilized and numbers were substantially reduced. The RCAF went from a war-time high of 215,000 personnel (including approximately 17,000 in the separate Women's Division) to a total strength of roughly 11,569. The lack of defined career policies for the post-war RCAF and the availability of quality civilian jobs led many of the most highly desired personnel to leave. Pay rates were unfavourable in comparison to even the lowest civilian jobs. For example, an untrained Aircraftman made $50 monthly if living in quarters or $95 if living off base compared to $147/month for an untrained labourer in Vancouver.

The situation with aircraft was just as bad. Wartime aircraft were unsuitable for Canadian defence needs due mainly to their extensive usage during the war and the fact that they had become technologically obsolete. The RCAF only had 124 of the 676 aircraft they wanted in 1946, the majority of which could only be used for training and transport duties. With shifting economic priorities, the government was not willing to spend any money on new aircraft, however the government was able to obtain 183 deHavilland Vampire jets from Britain as partial payment of their wartime debt to Canada. There was no fighter or bomber capability at all until Vampires were received in 1948. Unfortunately, these single engine aircraft did not have the range, speed or firepower needed to protect Canadian airspace and they soon became obsolete. 

This situation would soon change though as Canadian companies answered the call to build jet fighters to outfit the air division. Canadair Limited of Montreal produced the F-86 Sabre under licence from North American Aviation while Avro designed and built the CF-100 Canuck. As the Cold War progressed, these aircraft would be replaced in 1962-63 by the Canadair built CF-104 Starfighter (again under licence).

The best Sabre ever built was the Mk 6 version with the Orenda 14 engine. Canadair built 655 of them between November 1954 and October 1958, 390 of which went to the RCAF. Again, the majority of these went to No. 1 Air Division via the OFU. According to Larry Milberry's 1986 classic, "The Canadair Sabre", in their three years of operation between February 1954 and June 1957, the OFU safely transported more than 800 Sabre and T-33 Silver Star aircraft to the Air Division.

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