The Empire Air Training Scheme: Identity, Empire and Memory

transcendent calling. 4 In the age that embraced the potential of modernity Wohl’sstated, ‘No other machine seemed to represent as fully, human kind’s determination toescape from age-old limitations, to defy the power of gravity, and to obliterate thetyranny of time and space.’ 5 The universal cultural response celebrating the technologyof flight was well established in Australia, as it offered solutions to communications inthe vast interiors and the position of isolation in the world. While the world celebratedthe achievements of Charles Lindbergh, Australia produced its own aviator heroes,Ross and Keith Smith, Bert Hinkler, Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm. Themedia portrayed each of these men and their aerial accomplishments as theembodiment of the idealised hero flourishing in the 1930s as Australia marched tonationhood. The spirit of flight, representing adventure, freedom and escape, wasepitomized by the MacRobertson Air Race, from England to Melbourne in 1934.When interviewing Boz Pasons he recalled how, with his school friends, they plottedevery step of the race and followed all other air expeditions. 6 Such representationswould give inspiration to young Australian men as they volunteered for EATSgrasping their chance to become knights of the air. While embracing the concepts offlight, society and the individual were unprepared for all the advances it brought toaerial war. The reality of using technology in war was far from the idealized images ofthe aviator warrior that young recruits held. As the far darker side of aerial war and itspotential became recognized this would end the romantic dream that flourished aroundflight. 7 The technological transformation created a new form of combat heralding theimportance of air power of World War II. It was the need for the co-ordination oftechnology on a vast scale that led to the creation of EATS. The new aerial technologyalso shaped the unique physical environment of combat that each aviator wouldexperience. The aura surrounding the belief in the dominance of airpower and as thesymbol of a new age, a means of liberation, would be shattered as the reality of the4 Robert Wohl, The Spectacle of Flight Aviation and the Western Imagination 1920-1950, 25 Robert Wohl, The Spectacle of Flight Aviation and the Western Imagination 1920-1950, 2.6 Interview Boz Parsons. Parsons remembered how he and his school friends plotted every part of therace, and followed all other air expeditions. He was to be a pilot with Bomber Command and wasawarded a D.F.C.7 Robert Wohl, The Spectacle of Flight Aviation and the Western Imagination 1920-1950, 213.26