A Look Inside the Long Branch Armory, Courtesy of my Grandma. [IMG heavy]

Skippy

Skippy

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In June of 1941 my Grandfather was overseas with the Royal Canadian Engineers, and had been for three years. Around that same time my Grandmother completed an engineering course and began riding the Toronto street car every day to her new job at the Long Branch Armory.

My grandmother brought home about $35 each week working 12 hours a day in Long Branch in the Lee-Enfield department. She worked in a separtment that recieved 7lb chunks of steel and milled them into No.4 recievers. Her job there was inspecting and stamping inspection marks on those recievers.

For short periods of time she also worked in Sten and Bren departments, filling in for absent workers.

So it is very likley that my Grandmother handled and stamped your Long Branch No.4 before it even had a chance to be test fired, as she worked them from '41-'46. I think she still has the steel stamp she used to mark the inspected pieces.

Anyway, last weekend I borrowed a scrap book from my Grandma entitled "Women at War." It features little blurbs on much of the Canadian war industry, including 5 or 6 pages deticated to the Long Branch Small Arms Factory. I've scanned the pages pertaining to Long Branch so you guys can have a glimpse of the conditions underwhich your rifles were made.

Here are some the pics, some of them show my grandmother's handwriting, and point out girls she worked with. I also scanned the index to give you guys an idea of what else is in this book:















 
Great stuff, thanks for shareing that with us. I can still remember my uncle saying " that Longbranch rifle plant ruined your aunt, spoiled her you know, to much money and to damned much independance, it's a good thing her legs were good or I wouldn't have married her when I got home. big wink" He was very proud of what she did dureing the war, as I'm sure you are of your grandmother, it was a huge step for women in those days and a lot of men couldn't handle the emancepation. Good for her. bearhunter
 
Longbranch

I will think about your Grandmothers contribution to the war effort the next time I take my Longbranch out to the range.:cool: I will remember to say thanks for making it so accurate.;) I have pics of many family relatives that carried an Enfield in WW1 and WW2. My late uncle Rip carried one in Korea and he told me that they wanted him to pack a Sten or Bren whichever but he said he asked for his No4Mk1* back after testing the auto's. :) I remember him saying that the only thing that bothered him was when he went to answer the call of nature, it seems he did not want to be shot with his pants down.:eek: He told me stories of shootin' across the "river' at the enemy who would come out to "moon" the Canadians. After about the 6th or 7th day of this him and about 5 of his buddies all fired at the guy acoss the river,the next morning there was no repeat performance.:D
 
Long Branch Armory

I think it is sad that very few Canadians know about the Long Branch Arsenal and the Inglis plant, these Small Arms factories supplied excellent quality weapons to the allied war effort, many of these weapons ie: N0.4 rifles, Inglis 9mm pistols are still in use some 60 years after they were made,Canadian small arms always had a high standard of finish,also the Long Branch arsenal, now called {Canadian Aresenals Ltd} made the famous C1 7.62mm rifle, C2 section light auto and the 9mm C1 smg, i know i can speak for all of us that served in the Canadian Forces when the C1, C2 and 9mm SMG were standard issue and how we all have great memories of these well made reliable weapons."God" i loved that C1 rifle, it was built like a brick sh**t house!!!. The Liberal Government in 1976, tore down the Long Branch plant, and for some considerable time Canada had no Small Arms plant , until Diemacco of Kitchener got the contract and maintaintence of the CF small arms
 
Long Branch Arsenal trivia

x westie said:
I think it is sad that very few Canadians know about the Long Branch Arsenal and the Inglis plant, these Small Arms factories supplied excellent quality weapons to the allied war effort, many of these weapons ie: N0.4 rifles, Inglis 9mm pistols are still in use some 60 years after they were made,Canadian small arms always had a high standard of finish,also the Long Branch arsenal, now called {Canadian Aresenals Ltd} made the famous C1 7.62mm rifle, C2 section light auto and the 9mm C1 smg, i know i can speak for all of us that served in the Canadian Forces when the C1, C2 and 9mm SMG were standard issue and how we all have great memories of these well made reliable weapons."God" i loved that C1 rifle, it was built like a brick sh**t house!!!. The Liberal Government in 1976, tore down the Long Branch plant, and for some considerable time Canada had no Small Arms plant , until Diemacco of Kitchener got the contract and maintaintence of the CF small arms
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I was brought up in Long Branch, on 42nd St, just east of the Etobicoke Creek, which was the municipal demarcation line. The CAL facilities were actually in Lakeview, a different municipality-akin to Port Credit, to the west of the Creek.

The sound of test firing of weapons into buoyed containment areas in Lake Ontario was a common-place happening.

Many workers walked or bicycled to/from work. Some had windbreakers with "CAL" embroidered on the left chest. As a young kid, I recall saying "Hi, Cal" to a guy and I was somewhat miffed when he didn't reply to what I thought was his personalized monogram.

I was fortunate to have been able to retrieve a brick from the site just after the demolishment.
 
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