Canadian Army Central Ordnance Depots

[Jon Skagfeld]

15 ROD was located in Lakeview very close to the Small Arms site.

There was a 43 COR at Base Borden.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Here are pics of the London Ordnance Depot on Highbury Road in London, Ontario being demolished a couple of years ago. Nothing there now but the concrete floor and weeds. The last pic is the tank repairing facility across the street. I recall going by there when I was a kid and seeing hundreds of what I now know were M series Dodges parked nose to tail.

[David Dunlop]

Thanks for posting the photos, Bruce.

I remember Peter Ford once telling me that on a trip down to Ottawa one year in the early 1980’s he bumped into one of the staff from the London Depot at a nearby diner. The chap told Peter that a couple of years earlier he had been tasked with disposal of a huge allotment of boxes full of unissued WW2 Military Vehicle Manuals. They had done a number of truck loads to the local dump and then word got out a few manuals had turned up at a used book store for sale. The higher ups decided all remaining manuals had to be burned and they did so somewhere on the Depot grounds. The chap told Peter it took three days of near continuous burning to finish the job.

David

[BCA]

From packing slips with surplus vehicle parts:
27 Central Ordnance Depot London, Ontario (March 1955 & Mar.1953)
I'll dig for more slips. … Brian

[BCA]

Nearly all of the automotive parts packing slips in my collection originate from the 27 Central Ordnance Depot, London Ontario. I think this because there must have been a major packaging or inspection and re-packing facility there. The packaged part was usually accompanied by a circular inspector tag with a inspector number. A 1969 engine test log indicates an engine rebuilt by "27 CFSD WKSP BR" so London also had a workshop facility.
Workshop numbers have been discussed in other MLU threads.
Interestingly I have one shipping document for an order going from "27 C.O.D. Hagersville Ont. SPSS" to "No. 27 Central Ordnance Depot, Highbury Ave., London, Ontario" so Hagerville had a connection to 27 C.O.D.
Several WW2 packing slips from Ford and GM refer to Longue Point Ordnance Depot or simply Longue Pointe Depot. No number is assigned.
CFB Downsview (Toronto area) had a very large supply depot which I recall being referred to as No. 1 Supply Depot. It was phased out in the late 1980's to early 1990's (?) and excess probably shipped to Montreal (Longue Point?). The huge Supply Depot building at Downsview is now used primarily as a film studio.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by BCA

CFB Downsview (Toronto area) had a very large supply depot which I recall being referred to as No. 1 Supply Depot. It was phased out in the late 1980's to early 1990's (?) and excess probably shipped to Montreal (Longue Point?). The huge Supply Depot building at Downsview is now used primarily as a film studio.

As a young reservist I was kitted out at No. 1 Supply Depot at Downsview. We drove there in the back of a deuce and spent several hours out in the rain, at night, by a back door wondering if we were even at the right place. Then the door opened and we went in to get a mysterious tangle of '51 pattern web gear, WW2 era mess tins, a melmac plate and cup (I still have the cup) and an M1 helmet with a reversible green/brown cover. Most of us assembled the '51 pattern web, wore it once and went to a surplus store to buy ourselves a set of '64 pattern web. Most of the kit, weapons and vehicles we were issued was made before we were born.