No. 34 Elementary Flying Training School / No. 25 Elementary Flying Training School:

by Bruce Forsyth (www.militarybruce.com), with permission

Originally opened by the Royal Air Force on 11 February 1942, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, near the town of Assiniboia (Section 13, Range 9, Township 30, West 2nd). A Relief Landing Field was constructed near the Lethburn school.

No. 34 EFTS closed on 30 January 1944. The aerodrome was taken over by the RCAF and No. 25 EFTS stood up in its place. No. 25 EFTS had a brief existence though, and by the time it closed on 28 July 1944, 2560 student pilots had graduated.

In August 1944, two new units stood up at the aerodrome: No. 41 Pre-Aircrew Training School, whose mandate was to provide academic training, and No. 403 Aircraft Holding Unit, whose function was the storage of surplus aircraft. Both units closed in 1945.

Very little remains of the old school today, with only the airfield, hangar pads and the gunnery backstop remaining. All the buildings were either torn down or moved off site. Two hangars were moved to Regina and the drill hall to Moose Jaw. The hospital, recreation hall, workshop, officers’ barracks and the dental building were moved to Assiniboia itself.

The airfield is now the Assiniboia Airport. a cairn was constructed on the property to pay tribute to the personnel who served at No 34 & No. 25 EFTS.

Source Material: “Wings For Victory” by Spencer Dunmore, information supplied by Sherri Spagrud, Clerk, Town of Assinioia (2004), information provided by Vintage Wings – www.vintagewings.ca, observations of James Forsyth (2008) & the Winnipeg Flying Club web site – www.wfc.mb.ca.

The following perished while serving at No. 34 EFTS:  AW Davey, JH Evans, KP Hill, SWG Hill, JR Holmes, NH King, TJ Kvaplik, WC Lockhart, WW Martindale, JR Mason, AJF Mortimer, CK Popple, NE Russell, CW Taylor, PP Tye, RJ Vizor and LA Wilson.