The Spitfire in Canadian Service
In Our Timeline
On paper the RCAF had 23 squadrons on 03.09.39 of which 11 were Regular and 12 were Auxiliary. This included 6 fighter and 3 army co-operation squadrons. 271 aircraft were on hand but the only modern aircraft were 10 Fairey Battles and 19 Hawker Hurricanes. The RCAF received 20 Hurricanes before World War II which were built by Hawker and taken from its first RAF production contract.
Another pair of Hurricanes had been delivered to Canada before the war. These were used as pattern aircraft by the Canadian Car & Foundry who had received an order for 40 Hurricanes in November 1938. These were the first of 1,451 Hurricanes built by the firm to British and Canadian account between 1940 and 1943. The Firm also built 835 Curtiss Helldivers 1943-45 out of 1,000 that were ordered in 1942.
Meanwhile, National Steel Car received a contract to build 21 Westland Lysanders in March 1938 and these were the first of 225 built 1939-42. The first 75 were for the RCAF and the last 150 were for the RAF. Except that the RAF cancelled its order and the aircraft were taken over by the RCAF who used them as target tugs. The firm delivered its first Lysander about 6 months before CCF delivered its first Hurricane, which is not surprising because the first batch of Lysanders was ordered 8 months before the first batch of Hurricanes. NSC sold its aircraft business to the Canadian Government in 1942 and the Firm was renamed Victory Aircraft. It built 430 Lancasters, one Lincoln and one York 1943-45. But there was a gap of about 6 months between the last Lysander and the first Lancaster.
The RCAF sent one fighter and 2 army co-operation squadrons to the UK in 1940. The fighter squadron was equipped with British built Hurricanes, joined Fighter Command and fought with distinction in the Battle of Britain. The army co-operation squadrons were equipped with British built Lysanders, joined No. 22 (Army Co-operation) Group and didn't do very much at all. One became a fighter squadron at the end of 1940 and the other re-equipped with Tomahawks in April 1941.
In This Timeline
The RCAF still had 23 squadrons on 03.09.39. However, because it had adopted the TTL version of the RAF's army co-operation doctrine so it had 9 fighter squadrons and a number of AOP & Light Liaison flights. It still had 271 aircraft on hand and the only modern aircraft were 10 Fairey Twin Battles and 19 Supermarine Spitfires. A total of 22 Spitfires had been sent to Canada of which 20 were for the RCAF and 2 were pattern aircraft for CCF.
In common with the Mother Country Canada built Spitfires instead of the 1,451 Hurricanes and 225 Lysanders built IOTL. Furthermore, all 1,676 of them were built by CCF. It and NSC also built Avro Ansons IOTL so ITTL CCF built fewer Ansons and NSC made more of them. CCF was given a pair of British built Spitfires as pattern aircraft and the first production contract was in March 1938 (when the first Lysanders were ordered IOTL) instead of November 1938 (when the first Hurricanes were ordered IOTL).
Deliveries were as follows:
1939 - 15 instead of 15 Lysanders
1940 - 101 instead of 76 Hurricanes and 25 Lysanders
1941 - 546 instead of 511 Hurricanes and 35 Lysanders
1942 - 850 instead of 700 Hurricanes and 150 Lysanders
1943 - 164 instead of 164 Hurricanes
However, CCF might continue to build Spitfires instead of re-tooling to build Helldivers. Production of that type IOTL was 30 in 1943, 506 in 1944 and 299 in 1945. If 1,000 Spitfires had been ordered in 1942 instead of 1,000 Helldivers my guess is that CCF would have delivered the last one by the middle of 1944 because no production would have been lost through ending production of the Spitfire and re-tooling to build the Helldiver. IOTL average production in 1942 was 175 Hurricanes a quarter but Helldiver production didn't reach that level until the second half of 1944 when 150 were built in the third quarter and 190 in the fourth quarter. ITTL the average production of Spitfires at TTL in 1942 was 213 Spitfires a quarter.
The RCAF sent 3 day fighter/ground attack squadrons to the UK in 1940. The squadrons were equipped with British built Spitfires. The intention had been for them to proceed to France and reinforce the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force (ACBEF). However, the plan was overtaken by events and all 3 squadrons joined Fighter Command instead and served with distinction in the Battle of Britain.
