A Unique History and Fascinating Potential Inside Hangar No. 6

On a day that Canadians take time to reflect and appreciate past and present members of the armed forces, Swift Current continues to hold a very surreal connection to the nation's military past.

The tie for the largest military establishment in southwest Saskatchewan was born during the Second World War when a Royal Air Force (RAF) Base was constructed at the site that now houses Swift Current's airport.

While Canada entered the war in 1939, it wasn’t until December of 1941 that the No. 39 Service Flying Training School began operation in Swift Current. The school featured a 16-week program that around 1,900 Royal Air Force troops graduated from by the end of the war.

"Because Canada was removed from the theatre of battle, it seemed logical that to him (Canada's Prime Minister) and to his ministers that Canada could offer a place for training," Lloyd Begley, the director of the Swift Current Museum, said. "Out of that, Canada offered to
train pilots under what became known as the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan."

The plan, a joint enterprise by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, created over 100 similar bases across Canada.

When the facility in Swift Current was built, the airport had six runways. Given the constraints around air traffic and the large number of trainees on-site, a pair of relief landing fields were also established in St. Aldwyn and Wymark. Both of those relief areas had three landing fields, allowing more pilots to be trained more quickly.

"They trained initially on Harvard's," Begley said. "Which were fighter aircraft and then secondarily to that they sent the Harvard's to Calgary. And it became a bomber command training base."

The school was a large part of Swift Current's community; according to the 1941 Canadian census, Swift Current was home to 5,515 people, some of whom worked at the No. 39 Service Flying Training School.

"It provided jobs for people in the community who served as non-commissioned officers and as in listed people or in the RAF they received the commission," Begley explained. "But more importantly they received employment. So those support staff in terms of maintenance crews
and drivers that sort of thing all were locally generated."

The school not only helped with local employment but also played a role in stimulating the economy. Around 900 full-time personnel lived at the base.

"The RAF depended heavily upon the citizens of Swift Current for camaraderie," he said. "They attended local dances and Central Ave. There was an operation attached to the base that called themselves the host's hut... they were also sent to local farms and districts to spend the weekend."

While the RAF Base made a major impact on Swift Current and the surrounding area for the short duration it was open, its time was cut short in March of 1943, as the No. 39 Service Flying Training School went out of session. The base then was used as a surplus distribution centre for the Canadian military until March of 1944.

Since the closure of the base roughly 75 years ago, several buildings and structures have been disassembled or moved to other locations.

"Well over the course of the post-war period, buildings were sold and some became apartment complexes, some reused in other communities for storage," Begley remarked.

Ashley Park Community Hall, the West Wing Art Gallery, and the Swift Current Shrine Club are some of the former buildings that were erected at the RAF Base and later moved to their current locations within Swift Current.

Only a few remains from the original school still stand - some cement pads from previous hangers and H huts, a huge cement structure referred to as the '25-yard firing range', and one original hangar.

Hangar number six currently sits a few hundred feet east of the airport's main building and is owned by Hildor Braun.

"I think it's been about 15 years (I've had it)," Braun said. "My brother had it before that. He was in real estate and the original owner wanted to sell it, so my brother tried to sell it and nobody was interested. He phoned me and at that time I couldn't do it because you can't borrow any money because it's on lease land, so you've got to have some other equity to make this work and I said 'I can't'. He phoned me back and said 'I've decided that's a good deal, I'm going to buy it myself'. So he had it for many years."

Since acquiring the hangar from his brother, Braun has spent a lot of his own time restoring the building to its original specs, including re-installing exterior windows just a few years ago.

"A couple of my grandkids came and helped me for a few days and it was fun," Braun said. "I put in over 1,000 panes of glass. A lot of those windows had to be rebuilt."

The hangar is also recognized as a municipal heritage property, an application process that Braun and Begley worked on together.

"I'm trying to phase out of here," Braun said regarding the ownership of the hangar. "I've restored as much as I've hoped to. I've talked to the city about it. But I'd like to move out of it in the next few years. There are also some private people that are interested, so we'll see what
happens."

Both Braun and Begley hope that someday the hangar is turned into an aviation museum, but that plan may have to be fast-tracked depending on how long Braun will hold onto its ownership.

"We're working with the current owner in terms of establishing an exhibition space in the hangar," Begley said. "There needs to be some repair done before we can begin building a cocoon that would house the collection."

According to Begley, museum officials have done some archaeology testing at the site already, but the COVID-19 pandemic stopped them from going ahead with public archaeology this past summer.

"We're looking at next summer to unearth more artifacts from the airfield," Begley said. "So the idea was that those items will go on display and will tell the story of the Air Force base and not only that, but the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and aviation in the southwest part
of Saskatchewan as well."

In past years, museum and airport staff alike have worked to salvage two planes in the RM of Swift Current that was used at the RAF Base. The plan is to have both restored for the aviation museum in the future.

The live stream for today's Remembrance Day events will begin at 10:45.