[David Dunlop]

Good Afternoon, Hanno.

I got home from work yesterday and ended up unwinding, while thinking about this orange tent equipment that keeps popping up from time to time from Canadian manufacturers in the latter half of World War Two.

The initial questions in my head were all focused on the colour itself and why anyone in authority would have picked it for use, over the traditional Khakis or Greens, for military use. I could not come up with any useful answers, and then I started to wonder if the colour was not the end point goal, but merely a byproduct of an unrelated issue. I was starting to get into the wine now.

From 1939 to 1941, the war was European in nature, and then Japan entered the conflict. 1942 was something of a transition year. The Allies were trying to adapt to war in two distinct areas of the world and were starting to find serious shortcomings in a lot of their equipment in tropical combat conditions. These were slowly identified and prioritized. Top of the list were things like the Mosquito having its wood ply structure delaminating due to animal glues used in construction. So serious that De Havilland himself went to India to investigate. Wireless equipment was failing for everyone as well. Another important priority. A little further down the line, in all likelihood, it was probably noticed that heavy canvas goods like tents were rotting and falling apart far sooner than expected in the wet tropics.

So perhaps, to solve the rotting canvas problem, a new improved waterproofing/fungicide was developed in 1942/43 to replace what was in use, but a byproduct of this was the orange tint to the new product. Once a new product was available and new canvas in production, not all manufacturers would have received it at the same time. It would have been phased in across Canada. In addition, the individual tent manufacturers would not have abandoned existing stocks of the older canvas. The tent was the critical product so that production would have switched first. Finish the last complete khaki tent and move to the new fabric. The existing khaki fabric was likely used up on the smaller, storage type items like the Valise and Pin Bag. Then from that point, all further production would have been in the new orange tint canvas.

There seem to be a few surviving 1943 dated valises from Manitoba Tent & Awning. The one you posted, one I saw a few years ago on another European Website, and a friend of mine in BC has yet another, photo attached. Note the smaller, grommeted bag to the right in this photo. Also dated 1943, this is a product of Woods in Ottawa.

The Master Parts List for the 52-Set would have been written/assembled in 1943/1944. It shows S.S. Holden as the manufacturer for the Wireless Tent Station and describes the tent as being Khaki in colour. Based on the surviving example of a Wireless tent in Colin Alfords possession, it looks like 1944 may have been the transition year for S.S. Holden switching from khaki to orange tint canvas: an orange tint tent in a khaki valise. Too bad more of these wireless tents are not available to study. Chances are some may all be khaki and some all orange. Would also be nice to find some old time employees from these various tent makers who might remember when and why this orange tint canvas came into production.


David