My husband (and production partner) Tim and I knew we wanted to do something special to mark the recent 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, and the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Tim’s dad was a Wellington, then Lancaster pilot for six years of WWII — the only member of his original squadron to survive the war. Even among Hollywood portrayals of pilots like Pete Peters, who beat the odds (I’m thinking Memphis Bell, Masters of the Air and others), Pete was a unicorn. All these years later, with Pete gone for decades and a resurgence in fascination with the sacrifices of this greatest generation, it’s still hard to glimpse any true sense of what Pete and others like him went through. In this episode, we try to do just that — in two parts — beginning with a firsthand glimpse into the world of those RCAF pilots in the last great war and then exploring the astounding contributions on the home front that kept all the Allied pilots in the air en route to victory. Listen in… 

To learn more about the powerful and emotional story of the RCAF, visit CPAC Documentaries to watch Wings of Honour, a feature-length documentary from Canadian Geographic Films, which showcases compelling stories from past and present RCAF members from across Canada.

Special thanks to James Gray for our theme song music. 

These publicity photos of “Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl” (aka Veronica Foster) rallied women Canada-wide to join home-front manufacturing efforts—crucial to the eventual Allied victory. This Canadian poster girl for wartime women workers went viral two years before America’s “Rosie the Riveter.”