INTRODUCTION

The great national effort put forth by Canadiansduring the Second World War took many differentforms. The brave Canadians engaged in combattingthe enemy needed a great deal of support from manyareas of Canadian society to be successful in theirvital struggle. The Second World War was a highlymechanized war, with a great deal of mass-productionof weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and other warmaterial necessary to defeat the enemies who hadgreat industrial powers of their own.

With the onset of the war, Canada was faced withthe challenge of creating - practically from scratch -a strong industrial base to produce weapons and warmaterials for the war effort. Canadian industry andthe workforce of our country stepped up with anamazing response to this situation and helpedcontribute to the Allied victory in the war.

TRUCKS, TANKS AND GUNS

■ Britain had entered the war with 80,000 militaryvehicles of all types; however, 75,000 of theseBritish vehicles were left behind in the evacuationat Dunkirk in 1940. Virtually defenceless on theground, Britain turned to Canada - andparticularly the Canadian auto industry - to replacewhat had been lost. Canada not only replacedthese losses, it did much more.

■ Canadian industry produced over 800,000 militarytransport vehicles, 50,000 tanks, 40,000 field,naval, and anti-aircraft guns, and 1,700,000small arms.

Veterans AffairsCanada

Anciens CombattantsCanada

■ Of the 800,000 military vehicles of all types builtin Canada, 168,000 were issued to Canadianforces. Thirty-eight percent of the total Canadianproduction went to the British. The remainderof the vehicles went to the other Allies. Thismeant that the Canadian Army ‘in the field’ hada ratio of one vehicle for every three soldiers,making it the most mechanized field force in thewar.

■ The Bombardier company of Valcourt, Quebec,built over 150 military snowmobiles. GeneralMotors developed a frame for another snowmobile,of which 300 were built.

■ Canadian Pacific Railway constructed 788Valentine tanks in its Angus shop in Montreal;its engine was built by General Motors. 5,200tanks had been built at C.P. Angus and MontrealLocomotive Company shops by the end ofthe war.

■ 2,150 twenty-five pounder “Sexton” self-propelledguns were built by Montreal Locomotive Works.

■ A heavy utility vehicle body was developed inCanada. 4,000 such vehicles were manufacturedby General Motors in Oshawa. This vehicle bodycould be mounted on a 4x4 chassis and could,with slight modifications, be used as a personnelcarrier, ambulance, light wireless truck ormachinery truck.

ALL THE SHIPS AT SEA

There were 348 ten thousand-ton merchant shipsbuilt in Canada during the war. Large and relatively

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to Britain, and the remainder going either to theUnited States or remaining in Canada for use inthe British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

■ Canadian factory space for the production ofaircraft increased from 500,000 square feet beforethe war to a high of 14,000,000 square feet at itspeak during the war.

■ Canadian industry pulled together to a greatdegree in many different ways and cooperated agreat deal to produce vitally-needed war materials.For example, the contract to produce 1,100Mosquito fighter-bombers was awarded toDe Havilland, but they only did the final assembly.General Motors made the fuselages, MasseyFerguson made the wings, Boeing made thetailplanes, the flaps were made by Canadian PowerBoat Company, and the undercarriages were builtby Otaco. Numerous other smaller companieswere also involved in producing other parts forthis aircraft as well.

THE LEGACY

The sacrifices and achievements made by Canadiansduring the Second World War were many and spanneda broad range of efforts. The contributions of theCanadians who worked in industry on the homefront and helped produce material for the war effortwere essential in helping triumph in the war. To learnmore about the Canadian war effort during the SecondWorld War, please visit the Veterans Affairs CanadaWeb site at www.vac-acc.gc.ca or call1-877-604-8469 toll-free.

slow, but reliable and easily adapted to a variety ofcargoes, these ships and those who sailed on themensured the delivery of much of Canada’s warproduction.

■ During 1941, the first of the large 10,000 tonmerchant ships were taking an average of 307days to build (and up to 426 days in one case).One year later, average production time haddropped to 163 days (with one ship beingproduced in a record 112 days).

■ Some 57,000 individuals were employed inmerchant shipbuilding and a further 27,000worked in naval shipbuilding, which includedbuilding vessels like destroyers, frigates, corvettesand minesweepers.

WASPS, MOSQUITOS, AND HAWKERHURRICANES

Canadian aviation industries manufactured parts forhuge bombers and fighter aircraft like the Wasp,Mosquito, and Hawker Hurricane (whose laminatedfuselages were made of wood harvested from the forestsof British Columbia).

■ Production in the aircraft industry went fromextremely low levels before the war to 4,000military aircraft a year by the end of the war. Atits peak, the industry employed 120,000 men andwomen.

■ Canada assembled a total of 16,000 militaryaircraft, 10,000 of which were shipped directly

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