POW/Work Camp Vehicles in Canada

[David Dunlop]

I was reading up on the big work camp at Whitewater Lake in Riding Mountain National Park during the War recently. It was a very interesting place. Set up for DAK troops which must have been quite a shock arriving there in mid February.

In any event, what got me thinking was the road trip from the rail head in Dauphin to the actual camp. What types of vehicles were used by these camps in Canada during the war? Commercial Pattern, Modified Commercial Pattern, CMP or a mix of whatever was available. And would they have been marked in any particular way? Might be an interesting restoration option for someone if the relevant information was available.

David

[Phil Waterman]

Hi David

Very interesting thread idea, be interesting to search the archives for photos to see what vehicles are in the back ground in various photos.

On a side point the apple orchards 1/4 mile from my house had German POWs mostly, U boat crews, picking apples they slept in the barn and it was considered choice assignment by the POWs The local stories go that they would be fed well by the local farmers.

The POWs came from the Portsmouth Naval Prison which is 75 Miles from here so they would come over for the entire picking season.

Picture below was taken this morning, I bought my land from the farmer who family owned the farm. He was a young man at the time an was given a deferment because his family owned one of three tractors in town. A Ford 9N he and the other two tractor owners worked their own farms as well as all the other farms in town during the war. He said that at times during the war the tractor ran 24-7 with changes in drivers. The tractor is still in his family here in town.

Lee Barn.jpg

Picture was taken on my way to our big summer rally in Weare, NH.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

Nice to see that you are wearing a coat that matches the paint job.....

.......but what is that urine collection bottle doing on the left hand side of the dash?????

Cheers

[Wayne Hingley]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

Nice to see that you are wearing a coat that matches the paint job.....

.......but what is that urine collection bottle doing on the left hand side of the dash?????

Cheers

I was wondering the same thing, but I didn't dare ask the question. Maybe it extends the intervals between rest stops on long road moves?

[Grant Bowker]

My boring guess is - the paint can pretending to be the coolant recovery tank isn't up to the task so a fully functional fluid recovery system was substituted....

[Jason Ginn]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

I was reading up on the big work camp at Whitewater Lake in Riding Mountain National Park during the War recently. It was a very interesting place. Set up for DAK troops which must have been quite a shock arriving there in mid February.

In any event, what got me thinking was the road trip from the rail head in Dauphin to the actual camp. What types of vehicles were used by these camps in Canada during the war? Commercial Pattern, Modified Commercial Pattern, CMP or a mix of whatever was available. And would they have been marked in any particular way? Might be an interesting restoration option for someone if the relevant information was available.

David

Most of the vehicles would be civilian models and MCP's but it's more than likely the odd CMP was used.

I have seen two vehicles in person that were used in camps. One was a civilian Chev and the other was a MCP Dodge. The provenance for both was painted on the doors in the form of the camp numbers in typical DND domestic markings.

I'll see if I can find pics.

[Jason Ginn]

Here are a few pics.

The West coast internment of Japanese Canadians appears to have relied on Department of Labour Dodge civilian trucks.

The snowy picture of Petawawa shows what appears to be a pre-war Ford.

[Jason Ginn]

Not strictly a Camp vehicle but a neat shot of a private Ford with a load of Labour headed to the fields in 1942 from one of the Chatham camp.

[Jason Ginn]

This GMC is part of the CWM collection in Ottawa. It is from the Lethbridge Camp and has been restored with original markings. The tires aren't correct tho!

[Jason Ginn]

I couldn't resist this one!