Point of Interest
Royal Canadian Air Force Station Saint John
Street Address: 151 Black St, Saint John, NB E2K 2L6
By the fall of 1941, the Saint John airfield was one of six operational fields in Eastern Air Command of the RCAF. Stationed at the municipal airport at Millidgeville there from 1 November 1939 to 27 September 1940 was a flight of 2 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, flying four Armstrong-Whitworth Atlas aircraft. These were soon after replaced by modern Westland Lysanders (Picture available in Douglas - The Creation of a National Air Force). In the fall of 1939 a hanger and other buildings were built for the RCAF detachment at Millidgeville. No 2 Squadron was replaced by 118 (Coastal Artillery Co-operation) Squadron from 1 November 1939 to 27 September 1940. The 118 Squadron was renumbered 1 (Coast Artillery Co-operation) Detachment and it remanded until 1 April 1944. By the end of January 1944 1 (CAC) had been made redundant by army radar equipment, it was first transferred to Dartmouth and then disbanded. Shortly after RCAF Station Saint John was closed. As part of the East Coast Air Defence Radar Coverage, #23 Radio Unit (Ground Control Intercept radar) was located at Saint John.
In 2010 a commemorative monument was erected on the grounds of M. Gerald Teed Memorial School, built atop the site of the former airbase. Nearby Donaldson Street runs the length of one of the runways.