Programs & Events

Canadian Aviation Historical Society May Meeting * OPEN TO THE PUBLIC*

Meetings are free and open to CAHS members and everyone interested in Canadian aviation history.

Presenters: Robert Nash and Alex Fitzgerald-Black, author of Eagles over Husky: The Allied Air Forces and Sicilian Campaign, 14 May to 17 August 1943

Alex and Robert will outline the air force aspects of the preparation for and execution of Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and put into historical context the loss of eight Manitoban airmen who perished while conducting operations in the Mediterranean.

Speaker Biographies

Alexander Fitzgerald-Black is the Executive Director at the Juno Beach Centre Association, the charity that owns and operates Canada’s Second World War Museum on the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, France. He holds a Master of Arts in military history (University of New Brunswick) and a Master of Arts in public history (Western University). Eagles over Husky: The Allied Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign, 14 May to 17 August 1943 is his first book.

Robert Nash served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) for more than 36 years as an Aerospace Engineering Officer and, since 1988, as an Intelligence Officer., providing intelligence support to air, joint and multinational operations and exercises involving Canadian, NORAD, NATO and Allied forces. Robert was deployed on operations during the Gulf War, in Bosnia-Hercegovina and at Kananaskis, Alberta, during the first G8 summit following 9/11. Robert served as an Intelligence Officer and Teaching Fellow as a member of the RNZAF, providing intelligence support to New Zealand operations in Afghanistan, East Africa, Southwest Asia and the Pacific. Robert has a master’s degree in International Security, a Master of Arts degree in War Studies and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics. He has lectured on contemporary military operations at the undergraduate level, presented papers at the Northern Great Plains and Missouri Valley History Conference, and is published in the Royal Canadian Air Force Journal and the RNZAF Air Force News. Robert is an Associate Historian of the RCAF.

Registration required!