[maple_leaf_eh]

The flood of war surplus equipment was the impetus a lot of farmers, businesses, industries, and communities needed to get ahead after the Depression and rationing years. The postwar consumer industry took a decade to get going again.

The stories of Canadian farmers buying yellow BCATP training aircraft to use as chicken coops is well understood. To a salvor it would never fly, but has structure, covering, windows, cables, pulleys, wheels, etc. How many Universal Carriers were bought as tractors or log skidders, but found less than ideal? As a boy, I remember seeing a farm built tractor that had two steerable axles, so the farmer could manoeuver through the maple trees and collect sap buckets. The alternative was to bring in the sap with a horse team and the reservoir on a stone boat. But Australians really liked the CMPs for forest and field work, so sometimes the army surplus was quite suitable.