My mom gave me a book the other day, one rescued from the dustbin for which it was destined. A History of Canadian Naval Aviation, this book's demise seems analogous to its subject. As a nation, we seem to have collectively forgotten what we were once capable of.
The book was published in 1965. At that time we operated one aircraft carrier, the HCMS Bonaventure. She had been under construction during the Second World War, and sat unfinished for over a decade until we bought it from the Brits in 1957 to replace the HMCS Magnificent, our previous aircraft carrier.
While not a big carrier compared to its contemporaries, the USS Forrestal class of supercarriers, Bonaventure put to sea with an air arm of 34 aircraft. That included Banshee fighters and Tracker anti-submarine planes, fitting in its primary anti-submarine role. It also kept a squadron of H-19 Chickasaw helicopters. Most interestingly, in the 1960s the Bonaventure eventually operated our then-brand new Sea King antisubmarine helicopters - the very same ones we are still flying today.
The Bonaventure went in for an extensive retrofit in 1966, only to have the new prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, order the ship be decommissioned and scrapped early in his mandate. The ship had been in operation for only 13 years by that point (although, admittedly, she was laid down in 1943). American aircraft carriers have been known to operate in excess of 40 or even 50 years.
Although published in 1965, the book ends in the summer of 1962, and thus there is no explanation of the ship's role during the Cuban missile crisis later that year. That's a little sad, since it would have been nice to compare its role to the crises we are dealing with today.
The book made some fanciful predictions. "Looking ahead it seems probable by the end of the century atomic-powered merchant ships, capable of submerging, will be protected by warships of the same kind, all travelling at high speeds under the ocean. The United States Navy plans to have, by 1968, a total of 86 nuclear-powered submarines in commission; these will eventually become the capital ships of her fleet. Inevitably Canada will have to first acquire her own conventional submarines and then move on to atomic-powered ones. The matter is given urgency now that submarines can remain under the polar ice for long periods and thus operate off her long northern coastline. It is in these waters, mainly neglected in the past, that future sea battles may be fought."
We never did see the nuclear submarine merchantman, nor will this ever likely happen. But we did see a fulfillment of other nations' nuclear submarines operating in the north, and Canada's impotent response, over the last 49 years. We have no nuclear submarines (considered by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.) We have no armed icebreakers (promised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper). We also have no aircraft carrier, either.
The book talked about upcoming vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, i.e. the Harrier, which could have operated from the Bonnie in a manner the Brits chose for several decades. The planned F-35B are meant to replace them. Harriers won the Falklands Islands War for Britain.
If Canada had kept the Bonaventure, and eventually replaced her with a larger carrier, maybe we would have more options today when other nations stir up trouble. After all, the CF-18 is a redressed F-18A, designed from the get-go for carrier operations.
Now we are looking at, once again, bombing someone. This time it's ISIS, in Syria and Iraq. If we still had a carrier, maybe we could do something about it. But watch what will happen. We have decimated our military to the point where we will probably deploy only six, maybe seven, CF-18s, not even a full squadron of 12, because that's all we're capable of. We have four CF-18s in the Baltics trying to deter the Russians from grabbing another chunk of the former USSR. Why four? Because that's all we're capable of.
Canada was once capable of so much more, but this book is a reminder of a vitality now lost. Like an old man, Canada is largely impotent on the world scene today.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
