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THE KEITH
BEEDIE STORY
A Hawker Hurricane at one
of the RCAF’s training units
during WW II, 1942.
PART 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 3: HOME AND AWAY
MANNING M DEPOT
During D the war years, RCAF training started at one of the fi ve Manning
Depots, located in Toronto, Brandon, Edmonton, Quebec City and
Lachine. It was a vital fi rst step in the process of taking raw recruits
and turning them into skilled, confi dent, competent airmen. The depots
took recruits to a basic level of physical and mental fi tness that would
enable them to serve overseas. It would be clear to those in charge of
the exercises and drills who was holding up under the pressure of life
at the Manning Depots and who was not going to go the distance.
When recruits arrived, arrived they absorbed
rigorous military discipline and learned the basics of aviation. They were
taught regulations and Air Force history, and learned the skills and tools required for plane navigation. When
they weren’t learning about fl ying, they were put through military drills and taught about weaponry. There
were marches to be endured and inoculations to be tolerated. It was a quick way to make men out of boys who
were coming straight from their mothers’ kitchens.
Photo: Library and Archives Canada, PA-145309.
Poster: Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University Library, WP2.R14.F3.
what nice-tasting stuff it was. I don’t know how much I had, but it
didn’t take much. I don’t remember a hell of a lot about the rest of the
wait. Th ere were no berths so I passed out sleeping upright in my seat.
I may have gotten a better sleep because of it.”
Th e following day the train got underway again. Keith fi nally arrived
late Friday evening at the Edmonton Manning Depot, housed in the
stadium where the Edmonton Eskimos had played football before the
war and would play again at the war’s conclusion. Keith was assigned
to Flight 109 and told where he would be sleeping for the next six
weeks. He was housed in a hut with 30 to 40 other men, but there
wasn’t much time for sleeping. Keith and his fellow prospective pilots
were put through the wringer, spending sun-up to sundown in training
exercises, conditioning, drills and weapons lessons. Keith kept an eye
out for his friend from the recruitment offi ce and discovered that he
had been assigned to Flight 108. At the end of his six weeks at Manning
Depot, Keith was given the rank of Aircraft man Second Class (AC2).
“I was burning to get stationed to a fl ight training school. I knew I had
something to off er. I’d done well on the exercises, the shooting drills.
I knew planes inside and out. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be a
pilot, but they didn’t need any. But maybe an air gunner? I just wanted
to get overseas, for heaven’s sake,” says Keith.
Word came down that Flight 109 was to double up at
Manning Depot, which meant Keith wasn’t heading
to fl ight training any time soon, if at all. “Another
six weeks of doing the same thing in Edmonton!
Th en we heard that Edmonton was closing down,
so I got a third set of six weeks in Toronto. I was
upset,” Keith recalls. It didn’t help him get over his
disappointment to hear that Flight 108 had already
been posted to training school. Had he been on the
fi rst section of the train leaving Vancouver, it would
have been him heading off to learn to fl y.
Adding insult to injury, a rash of sickness struck the troop train that
Keith took from Edmonton to Toronto. “Th e guys in our car had all
eaten something that gave us diarrhea. Th ere were only two toilets and
that just wasn’t enough. Guys were left with no other option but to pull
down their pants, open the window and let it go.” Th e train didn’t stop
at any stations on the journey, and an unfortunate incident occurred as
they sped through one on their way. “We fl ew past a platform that had
“I was burning to get
stationed to a fl ight training
school. I knew I had
something to offer.”
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