RCAF Station Carberry, Manitoba

[Rob Fast]

thanks for posting. Amazing to see how many Manitoba Mustangs are still around today. Still one of my best entries in my flight log book is 2 flights/1.2 hours/duel instruction P-51D "Miracle Maker".
Last time I was in the Chater hangar outside of Brandon, I crawled up into the Control Tower room built into the corner of the hangar. Does anyone remember seeing pics of a V-1 and Me 109 being stored in this hangar on a cross Canada tour back in the day?

As soon as I win that lotto, I am paving my driveway, putting up the control tower into my shop, and buying a limber/ Ford Lynx scout car/ and some other goodies.

Cheers for now...keep those 17 pounder parts coming.

[David Dunlop]

I ran across another reference to Carberry's days of active service in the war and found the aircraft in use at the base while a training facility was the trusty Avro Anson. Something nags at the back of my head (no, not my wife) that MacDonald Brothers in Winnipeg might have been involved with production of the Anson. If correct, they certainly didn't have far to go for those in use at Carberry.


David

[Ewen B]

There may be more information for this at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum at the Brandon airport, Brandon, Manitoba. They have collected information from all the air training plan locations. South of Justice (possibly the Chater hanger previously mentioned by Rob) you can see the remnants of an airstrip and east of the correctional center on the low road to Shilo, there is remnants of a concrete wall that appears to have been used by aircraft?? Gunnery range possibly. Great find. I'll have to look for the old strip when near Carberry next. Ewen

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Ewen B

on the low road to Shilo, there is remnants of a concrete wall that appears to have been used by aircraft??

I trust you are talking the cement wall on the hill just to the east of the RCMP highway detachment/municipal offices. I have always wondered what that was and have yet to get a definitive answer.

[Robert Bergeron]

Gents,

I have visited at least 20 of those former training bases in Québec , New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia.

They all have the cement wall.As a matter of fact that cement wall is still in use in Saint-Jean Québec : A pistol range .

On advanced fighter training bases the wall probably would of been used to zero the machine guns or collimate them as per official vocab. At the time the most avanced fighter the Hurricane had .303 MG on both sides.

In Bagotville Québec ,home of 425 Hornet Squadron, the wall existed until very recently. I remember using it as a pistol and .22 rifle range.

I am almost sure it was used during the war to collimate the Mosquito Mg's there.

My two cents.

Cheerio !

[rob love]

This one is not the standard pistol range. It's location is just before the crest of a very large hill. There is no base there either. Also, the pistol range is still there at the Brandon airport, which was the main training center in this area.

[maple_leaf_eh]

There is a wall type range just off the apron in St Hubert. The now-pistol in Trenton had a soft roofed shelter over it so the Air Force guys don't have to walk through the snow when they shoot their qualifications. (Did the Taliban ever shovel snow on their battlefields?)