Arms for Victory

Published by GENERAL MOTORS OF CANADA LIMITED

The Mosquito-Pest to the Axis!
An angry buzz ... a vicious sting . . . terrific speed . . . and amazing maneuverability. That’s the Mosquito,
Britain’s newest and most versatile weapon in the air, which resembles in every way the pestiferous insect
after which it is named. Depending on the most urgent need, it can become a fighter, a bomber or a
reconnaisance plane. In any guise, it is reputed to be the fastest thing that flies, and we at General Motors
are mighty proud to have an important part in its manufacture. In a newly set-up assembly line at Oshawa,
fuselages and nacelles are now being constructed entirely of plywood. These, powered by mighty twin
Rolls Royce engines, will soon be winging their way to sting Hitler and his huns.
 charge of
Or six-pound

{Right) At Oshawa, test-

ing powerful recoil
mechanism of six-pound
anti-tank gun.

{Left) War craftsmen at

Regina plant follow news­
paper reports of success
of six-pound anti-tank
guns they helped build.
on convoy.

{Above) The hard-hitting Oerlikon Woman war craftsman inspects with Lieut. Robt. MacMillan, D.S.C. and bar,
gun with single mount. micrometer mounting for Oerlikon gun. naval hero, watches Oerlikon gun being
mounted at General Motors Oshawa plant.

Browning machine guns

are carefully checked after
firing on test range at
General Motors Windsor
plant.
 G-M-BUILT "WHEELS OF VICTORY” ROLL

ARMY STORES TRUCK—Is a rolling stock army of spare parts and WIRELESS TRUCK—This truck has an important job—to carry
supplies, which—as everyone knows, is indispensable to the men in the portable wireless set that keeps the advance unit, to which it is
the front line. Body is all steel with steel storage compartments and attached, in touch with other units and with military headquarters.
mesh roof.

DUMP TRUCK—This 3 -ton capacity giant is a jack of all trades. It can haul unusually heavy GAS TANK TRUCK—An army that move
loads over the roughest kind of country. It may be called on to carry troops, supplies— The particular job of this unit is to trans
almost any cargo. The huge tires carry on for miles even if riddled with bullets. as the ones on our Canadian streets.

““D-tij-r-rreie-

AMBULANCE—To carry wounded soldiers back from the front line with FIELD ARTILLERY TRACTOR—A four-wheel-drive unit that hauls
the greatest possible comfort and speed. Ambulances were one of the first a heavy field gun and its crew. Like the beetle it so much resembles,
vehicles in the history of war to be motorized. this tractor climbs over obstacles rather than avoiding them.
MEN AND SUPPLIES ON TO THE ATTACK

WATER TANK PURIFIER TRUCK—Marching men need water and to assure AIRPLANE GASSING TRUCK—A tank body capable of carrying
a constant supply, tank trucks like this transport it. Built into the body is hundreds of gallons of gasoline mounted on conventional chassis
a chemical purifier which renders all water drinkable. used for re-fueling planes at army airports. Special hose racks make
it possible to reach gas tanks in big bombers.

on wheels needs plenty of oil and gasoline. COLLISION TRUCK—Just like the one at the local garage—but wearing khaki and an
art fuel. It looks and operates much the same essential part of mechanized units. This is a heavy duty "wrecker” specially equipped
for salvage work.

SNOWMOBILE—Newest model in the General Motors War Fashion GENERAL SERVICE TRUCKS—Are quickly adaptable for transport
Parade. Not as streamlined as some but capable of moving men or of men and supplies, as the need may arise. Mobile work shops are
supplies through deep snow and slush. Caterpillar treads make mounted on this type of truck for quick repairs in the field.
easy going of rough country.
 CONSERVATION OF MATERIALS
Typical of Canadian skill and ingenuity in the saving of critical materials, are the new open-type Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun mounts
which are now being delivered from GM at Oshawa. Illustrated, above, is an old-type solid mount compared with the new metal­
saving open-type mount which is now rolling from the GM lines.
 General Motors’ responsibility, so far as mechanized units
are concerned, does not stop with their manufacture. The
servicing of those trucks must be considered, and so, work­
ing closely with the Government, GM has established the
Department of War Training and Products service. It is
the job of this highly experienced group to give specialized
instruction to army personnel, to supply technical service
for the eleven military districts of Canada, and to send
trained technicians to the front lines wherever GM vehicles
are being used.

{Right, above) "Tear ’em down and build ’em up” is the slogan at the
General Motors Army Training School at Oshawa where a compre­
hensive three weeks’ course covers all basic service phases of mechan­
ized equipment. A new, special course concentrates on electrical and
ignition units.

{Right) This informal photograph shows General Motors service

experts whose job is to help keep the mechanized units of the Eighth
Army rolling on to Victory. Many of the trucks which have played
so major a part in the North African campaign, by the way, were
assembled in Oshawa.

A plant was urgently needed in the Middle East for the assembly of From sun-baked desert to modern assembly plant in fifty days! That
war vehicles. The job was undertaken by GM Overseas Division and, is the brief history of the building illustrated above, with rugged
in the face of terrible obstacles which included sand, poisonous trucks rolling down the line ready for duty on the nearby North
insects, lack of tools and competent labor, finished in record time. African front. A tribute to the resourcefulness of man.
 ERYONE
AIRCRAFT
Definite production figures cannot be re­
leased at the moment but the output is num­
bered in thousands. It is estimated that in
the next year and a half, about one billion
dollars’ worth of aircraft will be turned out
for the United Nations. About 5 5,000 per­
sons are employed by the industry.

This skilled
woman operator
is in charge of an
automatic screw ma­ SHELLS
chine at the Windsor
During the First World War, Canada made
plant.
empty shells but sent them overseas to be
filled. Now we fill our own, besides manu­
facturing them from start to finish. Fuses
and shells filled with explosives; cartridge
cases packed with propellents; aerial bombs,
anti-tank mines, pyrotechnics and depth
charges are among the many types included
in an output measured in millions and double
that of a year ago.

Honing a
pivot casing,
a step in the
production of
the Oerlikon
gun mount at MOTOR VEHICLES
Oshawa plant. Canadian manufacturers have already turned
out mechanical transport and other fighting
equipment which, if parked on the roadside,
would form a column 1,100 miles in length.
Proved in the Far East, at Dieppe — on every
fighting front, so many of these vital units
are coming off the assembly lines that, if
placed bumper to bumper, they would stretch
over a distance of 60 miles.

CHEMICALS
Since the war,
than 300 projects concerned with the fabri­
cation of explosives and chemicals have been
developed. More than half of these can be
At Regina, smiling considered of major importance involving
feminine employee individually, as they do, an expenditure of
masters the intrica­ from $1,000,000 to $ 19,000,000. For some
cies of her machine. time they have been turning out more ex­
plosives in a few months than were developed
during the last war. -
Rifles, sub-machine guns, Bren guns and
several kinds of heavy machine guns for
army, navy and air force use, in addition to
charge throwers, smoke dischargers, anti­
tank rifles, trench mortars, bomb throwers
and naval pom-poms — all items included
under this heading are being manufactured
in Canada in hundreds of thousands.

TANKS
From nothing at the start of the war, to
some thousands per year is the history of
o
tank production — and the rate is increasing
Engines for the trucks
so rapidly that figures cannot be released.
of war. Rough turning
crank shaft and con­
necting rod bearings.

BULLETS
Where once 500 workers, employed at a
certain plant were responsible for our entire
production of small arm bullets, 30,000
men, women and girls are today manufac­
turing ammunition in two government
arsenals and many factories being operated
by the Government. The monthly output Fuselage for
far exceeds 100,000,000 rounds — or twice Mosquito plane
the 1941 rate. coming down the
assembly line at
Oshawa plant.

SECRET WEAPONS
Another great field of Canadian achieve­
ment is one about which we are permitted
to say little . . . secret weapons. One day,
details of our country’s part in this extremely
important angle of modern war will be
divulged, meanwhile resources and facilities
have been built and a new seal has been
added to Nazi doom.
This, then, is your Canada . . . land of
laughing waters, of rich soil, of vast plains,
of deep woods. Your land of promise clothed
in a coat of mail. Canada is proud of her
sons in the armed forces; you, in turn, can
well be proud of her. When peace is restored Flame cutter slices
you will return to take your place in the through thick, steel
growth of what will unquestionably be one 0SHAWA PUBLIC LIBRARY plate in the making
of the great nations of the world.
Illi
3 9364
of a six pound anti­
tank gun.
To steel our souls against the lust of ease:
To find our welfare in the general good: 1
To hold together, merging all degrees
In one wide brotherhood.
To teach that he who saves himself is lost:
To bear in silence though our hearts mug bleed:
To spend ourselves, and never count the tost.
For others’greater need.