While there were no Bombing and Gunnery Schools in Mississauga when Canada hosted the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), there certainly were targets.
Bombing crews, flying Anson, Battle, Bolingbroke and Lysander aircraft were stationed at Bombing and Gunnery Schools at London, Jarvis, Mountain View and Picton Ontario. Bombing target sites were established along the northern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie. One was just off the shores of the Lakeview area in Mississauga.
Pairs of observation towers spaced about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) apart were built on shore with the target at a 90 degree angle floating in the lake. The target was a large wooden pyramid, big enough to rise above a two-storey fish shanty when anchored in harbour for repairs. An observer was stationed in each observation structure to ‘sight’ the results of the bombing runs. The sightings were done by using a pelorus, a navigational instrument resembling a mariner’s compass but without magnetic needles. It has two sight vanes by which bearings were taken.
When a strike was made in daylight, the observer would see smoke at the point of impact. After dark, there would be a flash. This was caused by titanium tetrachloride in the bomb. The angular readings were then communicated from each observer tower to the training base. The impact points would be plotted to determine the closeness of the strike and then immediately communicated to the aircraft before making its next bombing run at the same target.
The target, see here in dry dock for repairs, was a wooden structure mounted on a floating base.
After WW11, several eastern Ontario fishermen were contracted by the government to salvage the lead content found in the spent bombs. The McIntosh brothers from Ontario’s eastern townships were the first fishermen to ‘fish for bombs’.