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That's the Expl World War interview.

Today I'm joined by Ted Barris, the author of Battle of Britain, Canadian Airmen,

in their finest hour.

Hello, Ted. How's it going today? I am great, West. Nice to talk to you.

Excellent. So we're here today to talk about the Battle of Britain and Canadian Airmen, obviously,

by the title of the book. And I know that the support of Canada was invaluable to the overall success of Britain during the war,

particularly during the early years of the conflict before the entry of the United States.

And one of the very valuable services that it rendered was the training of pilots.

Could you talk a little bit about why so many pilots came to be trained in Canada?

At the beginning of the Second World War, and for Canadians, that's September the 10th, 1939.

Of course, Britain had declared war a week earlier against Germany, and the United States

comes into the war, as you know well, after December of 1941, and really becomes a major player in 1942.

For Canadians, for all members of the Commonwealth, the war begins in 1939.

And our prime minister of that period, a man named William Lyon Mackenzie King,

recognized that one of the great demands of the Allied war effort,

or then the Commonwealth War effort against the Nazis, was in air power. And he being,

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