----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Winnington-Ball" <gwball@sympatico.ca>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2001 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] [MV]What did your company do in the war dad...
> Good one! In Canada:
>
> Montreal Locomotive Works built Valentine, Ram and Grizzly tanks
(including
> the Skink), along with Sexton 25 pdr SPs...
> Colin, YOU take it from here... :-)
Aw, don't I get a turn?
Otis Co. has given people a 'lift' for nearly a century now, but during the
war they built Bofors 40mm AA guns under license in Canada.
Underwood Typewriter Company also expanded its horizons during the war, and
built heavy, clunky automatic weapons (the B.A.R.) alongside equally heavy
and clunky manual typewriters. Come to think of it, I think the typewriter
had a better overall rate-of-fire.
In my old Reserve unit, one of the weekend tasks we got to perform was to
sit in a classroom with what must've been the full unit complement from 2IC
on down through sundry 2nd Lieutenants and other ranks, and basically clean
everything held by the armoury before the Annual Technical Inspection. Most
of our weaponry is reasonably modern (the C7 is basically an M16A1), but
every sidearm in the armoury was an Inglis mfd. Browning 9mm of Second World
War vintage. The funny thing was watching the Officers (who were all
supposed to have had Care and Feeding of Browning 9 milli ticked off on
their qual. sheets!) trying to figure out how to strip the things for
cleaning amidst the sounds of accidentally closed slides and nibbled
fingertips. After a few giggles, some of we 'other ranks' more familiar
with such historical relics had a bash and earned a bit of undying
admiration (but no extra stripes - rotten sods.)
Oh yeah. Dominion Bridge Company of Vancouver built naval 2 pdr. pom-poms
among other things during the war, many of which were tested on the grounds
of the University of British Columbia which was doubling as a Coast
Artillery installation at the time. The Dominion Bridge factory building
was our largest film studio for the longest time (think "Highlander" and a
great many others), and, though now demolished in favour of newer buildings,
remains the home of productions like "Stargate SG1".
Obligatory MV content: does anyone know what vehicle would've been the
average vehicle tasked with towing the Bofors 40mm AA on the Home Front
during the war? Probably something CMP, and likely Cab 11, I would guess,
but others may have better guesses.
Andy Hill
MVPA 9211
Vancouver, B.C.
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