VIRDEN DAYS: MEMORIES OF NO. 19 E.F.T.S. - R.C.A.F. 1941-1944 (Manitoba, Canada) RCAF FLYING SCHOOL TRAINING

00 Pages including covers; approx. 116 PHOTOS; 7-1/4" x 10-1/4" Size; 260 Grams; ** A Partial Record of No. 19 Elementary Flying Training School R.C.A.F - Virden, Manitoba; ** Operated By Virden Flying Training School, Ltd 1941-1944; ** To All The Grand Fellows: Instructors, Students and Staff Who Made Number Nineteen A Place of Happy Memories This Souvenir Is Dedicated; ** Opened under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan on 16 May 1941 north of the Town of Virden. A Relief Landing Field was constructed near Lenore Hargrave, followed by a second near Lenore in the fall of 1943. No. 19 EFTS closed on 15 December 1944, as did RCAF Detachments Hargrave and Lenore. ** The former aerodrome later became home to 2 different manufacturing companies. First Walden Industries, a farm machinery manufacturer, set up a plant on the property. After Walden Industries closed, WedgCor Inc, a manufacturer of steel buildings and aviation hangars, purchased the land and opened their own plant. With the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, WedgCor closed their Virden plant. The hangar now sits abandoned. ** Very little remains of the former school today. In addition to the sole remaining hangar, a Quonset hut, the gunnery backstop, and a small, broken portion of the taxiway also remain. The original airfield was abandoned, and a new runway and hangar were constructed at the north end of the property in 1999. A new industrial park is slated to be build on the south-east section on the property. ** All that remains of RCAF Detachment Lenore is the concrete base for the maintenance building (there was no hangar) and the roadway into Detachment. The airfield was ploughed under long ago for crops. Notes from WayBackMachine; RARE TITLE; >> Minor cover soiling to covers. Size: 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall.…