Canadian war production

[Mike Cecil]

Perry,

I have some Canadian Mutual Aid lists of items supplied to Australia somewhere. Don't remember if they are 'company specific' or simply lists the objects provided, but it may give you some clues re production items to look for or match to companies.

I suppose it needs to be asked: where do you draw the line? A lot of 'raw'/part-processed material was also provided by Canada to Australia - chemicals, timber, cloth, and so on, used to make other stuff. Are you interested in these sorts of things as well? They were just as valuable to the war effort as the trucks, ships and rifles.

There was also the companies that moved the gear, too. I have references to various contracts with CDN rail to move items to the US west coast from the east, in order to avoid the shipping hazards along the US east coast and through the choke point at the entrance to the Panama Canal: favorite hunting grounds for U-Boats. A number of Australia-bound vessels with goods from Canada were sunk along that route to the point where the decision was taken to freight items west, and ship from there.

This could be a very broad project depending on how you define your parameters. Let us know what limits you want to place on it, and we'll provide "as appropriate". Will you handle this info as a database, like MS Access or similar?

Mike C