The site of the School of Aerial Fighting was selected in the autumn of 1917. Actual preparation of some 300 acres comprising the aerodrome began, and the work of building was in full swing by December. Climatic conditions approximated those at Camp Borden some twelve months previously, it being a winter of severe cold and high winds, but so earnestly was construction pushed that the camp stood ready for occupation when the School of Aerial Gunnery, as it then was, returned from Texas at the beginning of April, 1917. This provision did not at the time include barracks for cadets and rank and file.

As will be understood, complete equipment was provided for gunnery practice, the several ranges running from 25 to 200 yards. These were furnished with a diversity of targets for surprise deflection, miniature aeroplane and disappearing target work, the type of butt here constructed proving extremely satisfactory.

Full sized silhouettes of machines, riding on anchored rafts, were also set out in Lake Ontario a mile or so from shore, it having already been established in practice over Lake Worth, Texas, that firing over the water was of great value, owing to the accuracy with which registration could be made and also the excellent opportunity given of arriving at a proper diving angle. Beamsville provided all such advantages, and practice was further stimulated by the use of a fast armour-clad launch, which, travelling at top speed, offered an unusually good target.

As work developed, it became clear that the School was in point of fact one of tuition in aerial fighting, the practice of tactics forming a large part of the instruction given. Its nomenclature was in consequence altered in July, 1918.

In the summer of this year, a fourth squadron was organized and housed, and steps taken to provide permanent accommodation for all ranks. This programme included additional officers’ quarters, and the construction of about a dozen large buildings on the hillside which previously held the tents of the unit. The work had just been completed at the date of the armistice, when the accommodation at this station was sufficient for 122 officers, 400 cadets, 96 warrant officers and sergeants and 768 rank and file.

Other services covered an excellent supply of pure water from the lake, a complete drainage system, and ample electrical facilities from the circuits of the Dominion Power and Transmission Company of Hamilton, from which city Beamsville is some twenty-three miles distant to the eastward.

The trip from Toronto by air was always of interest, paralleling the south shore of Lake Ontario to the long sandspit that cuts off Hamilton Bay from the main lake, along this curving bar and thence over orchard and vineyard along the edge of the great escarpment over which, a little further eastward, plunges the Niagara River. This area is appropriately called the garden of Canada, and the unit found itself fortunate in its surroundings.