At the Baysville Public Library, July 2018
Andrea Baston
August 23, 2018
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I enjoyed speaking to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s Tour Guides on July 19. Afterwards, there was a special treat: a visit with the museum’s Cornell PT-26. This restored Cornell has been painted with the colours and markings of Little Norway’s aircraft and named “Spirit of Little Norway” in honour of the original Norwegian planes!
It was lovely speaking about Exile Air to the District Municipality of Muskoka’s W.I.S.E. Seniors Club in Bracebridge, Ontario, on June 4, 2018. I was delighted to meet a couple of audience members who had personal memories of Little Norway, the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s wartime camp at Muskoka Airport. Thanks to the Club for inviting me!
By Glenn Perrett
BLOG POST 07:24 PM
Andrea Baston, photography and photographic editing by Candis Jones,
Old Stone Books
2017, 240 pages
ISBN: 9780992090326
Exile Air: World War II’s “Little Norway” in Toronto and Muskoka is a well-researched and interesting book by Andrea Baston that “…tells a true, inspiring story from Canada’s and Norway’s history – that of camp Little Norway and of the young recruits who trained there.” Baston’s book covers the Norwegian recruits who came to Canada during WWII, following the invasion of Norway by Germany, and joined the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF) where a flight training camp was first located in Toronto and later near Gravenhurst, Ontario at the Muskoka Airport. The recruits had escaped their homeland returning later as “Little Norway’s” airmen flying in squadrons of Britain’s Royal Air Force.
At the beginning of the book is a “Timeline” beginning with April 9, 1940 when Germany invades Norway and Denmark and ending with the official opening of “Little Norway Memorial, Muskoka Airport.”
The informative book covers the invasion, the establishing of an air training centre in Toronto for exiled Norwegian airmen, the centre’s move to Muskoka Airport, Dieppe, life at Little Norway – and lots more.
It’s important to learn about local history and wars and Exile Air provides an interesting look at both. Complementing the fascinating text are excellent black-and-white photos throughout the book!
Note: Another very good book by Andrea Baston covering local history is Curing Tuberculosis in Muskoka. You can find out more about this book and Exile Air at www.oldstonebooks.com
From www.ourwindsor.ca, May 25, 2018.
Many thanks to Gord McNulty for reviewing Exile Air: World War II’s “Little Norway” in Toronto and Muskoka, in the March edition of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society’s National Newsletter!
To read the article, click here: then select “CAHS National March Newsletter.” The article appears at about page 10.
Thanks to Gord McNulty for reviewing Exile Air in the March 2018 edition of the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association’s newsletter, Roar of the Harvard!
The article appears on pages 9 and 10 of the newsletter. If you’d like to have a look, click here!
Gord McNulty’s great review also appears in the January-February 2018 edition of Wing Drift, the newsletter of the Royal Canadian Air Force Association’s 447 (Hamilton) Wing.
I’m excited to be speaking about Exile Air at Huntsville’s Probus Club on Thursday, March 15, 2018. Here is the location: Sutherland Hall, All Saints’ Anglican Church, 30 High Street, Huntsville, Ontario.The time is 11 a.m. Everyone welcome!
