The Empire Air Training Scheme: Identity, Empire and Memory

AbstractThis thesis charts the change in images surrounding the institution of theEmpire Air Training Scheme (EATS) in both the Australian national narrative andindividual accounts. Formed in response to the demands of aerial warfare in 1939,EATS was embedded in a cultural environment of Australian Empire relationships,masculinity and the technology of flight. In the collective narrative of the early waryears EATS was proclaimed as the greatest sign of unity and Empire loyalty, yet in thedecades following the end of the war it is difficult to discover any mention of theScheme, and in the twenty-first century it no longer holds a place in Australiancollective memory.The purpose of this thesis is twofold. The first purpose is to providereasons for the marginalization of EATS in the national narrative. While numerousnegative aspects emerged to diminish recognition of the Scheme, I argue, two majorinfluences worked to delete EATS from the Australian story namely, the decline of theposition of Empire within the Australian context where EATS became anuncomfortable reminder of previous subservience to Britain, and, the redefining of theAnzac myth, as a central theme in Australian nationalism, which would not allowinclusion of the image of the elite airmanEntwined with the collective image is the second purpose of this thesis. This isto consider the response of individuals to their experiences in EATS and the ongoingchange in the surrounding cultural influences as the individual aviator negotiatesshattered lines of identity. Individual stories, I maintain, evoke responses not only tothe national narrative but also, to the emotional challenges faced in initial combat astheir trust in the concepts of Empire, masculinity and the romance of flight, wasquestioned. The testaments of veterans reveal individual solutions as they negotiate thechallenges and in a tormented journey achieving a new identity that offers explanationfor their experience in a rapidly changing world.I propose, while it is important to study the institution of EATS and the lives ofthe aviators in their own right, in following the reshaping of images of EATS a varietyof perspectives emerge, adding to the understanding and importance of the selectiveiii