No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School

MacDonald, Manitoba

An image of the MacDonald Air Station, the site of No. # Bombing and Gunnery School. This beautiful image was photographed by Harry Palmer in 1987. Click here for the link to his site.

Information on the fate of No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School was obtained from Bruce Forsyth's Canadian Military History page. Please click here to go to his site.

Mr Forsyth meticulously documents that the site opened on March 10, 1941 based on the BCATP (British Commonwealth Air Training Plan) as the No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School, and closed on February 17, 1945. In 1963 the property was disposed of by the Government. I quote directly from Mr. Forsyth about the uses of the site since 1963, and the sources he consulted in his extensive research.

"From 1965-1970, the abandoned runways were used as a racetrack for sports car and motorcycle racing.

Since 1972, the former aerodrome has been "Airport Colony Farms", a grain and livestock farm run by a "Hutterite Colony", a German speaking Christian religious sect.

Today, some of the PMQs remain, as do assorted buildings like the old recreation building, the maintenance building, transportation buildings, gunnery backstop and one of the hangars, although it is scheduled to be torn down sometime in the future. The airfield is also gone; ploughed under for crops long ago.

Source Material: "Sentinel" Magazine June 1986. Pg 6-9, the personal recollections of Harry Palmer, Photographer (2001), "Portage La Prairie - Fifty Years of Flying Training: 1940-1990" by Major Gordon Greavette, CD, information supplied by Airport Colony Farms, Ltd (2003), Grandville Island Publishing web site - http://www.granvilleislandpublishing.com/profile/sportscarracing/contents.shtm, Canadian Racer Web site - www.motorsportcentral.com & the personal recollections of the author (2003)."

Source: Bruce Forsyth's Canadian Military History page; http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/2529/