Change in name of LongBranch to Canadian Arsenals

[Peter Laidler]

I've got a funny feeling that this info is in the public domain somewhere because I got the information about the Sten gun butts and grips from it while researching the Sten book. In fact, I repeated the billetted wood blocks forSten butts a few days ago on another thread. They were eventually made up at Tibbenham (FT in a diamond logo) at Lowestoft in Suffolk along with Mk2 Bren butts and bayonet grips.

Maybe you should publish all of this archive material in booklet form Bullseye!

[Warren]

Information on some production is found in the second volume of Kennedy's work, however there are no numbers for any experimental work. Production figures are not broken down enough to specifically find any one specific model or another. That information can only be done on a hit and miss search of the Dominion Archives in Ottawa. Some production figures I found were filed with Russian shipping contracts during WW II. Filed there by error or ??
Most, if not all REL records were destroyed by a flood in the early/mid 50's. The sodden records were taken to a paper mill and pulped. A copy of the index existed in the UK however to the BEST the Dominion Archivist's knowledge a copy does not exist in Canada in public domain. The record destruction information came to light during a discussion with the Canadian Dominion Archivist in 1999.
There are several books on WW II War Time production however none are definitive and only by luck will one find the odd orphan document in the archives. The best information source so far has been the financial records however they do lack specific type and kind information and only two copies of the financial records existed post 1955, to my knowledge, and possibly only one copy now remains.

[Bullseye4mkI*]

I would think that all this info was in the Public Domain, somewhere, perhaps not in it's complete form!
The reason I thought this would be of interest is because is it period document written internally, and although requested in 1991 all it's info wasn't included in the article then, and, the only other reference I could find was the request for it in '46...

Peter- Not sure what you mean by booklet form, literally what's posted is all I've typed, want me to continue the rest of brief on that post and then move in it's entirety!? or give you the whole in a word/pdf doc when complete?

Could info be gleaned from it to date (T) models due to it's specific number manufactured by quarter and then backtrack, or were (T)'s pulled of the line before being numbered, identified as such before?!...

I have thousand of pages of documents from my Grandfather that I haven't gone through yet so maybe ......

-Graduated with Honors from University of Toronto - Poli Sci/Economics 1930
-Joined Dominion Small Arms Factory 1940
-Assistant Secretary-Treasurer of Small Arms Ltd. 1942-1946
-Head of Accounting-Finance, with later added responsibilities for labour relations and personnel Small Arms Division of Canadian Arsenals Ltd. 1946-1957
-Asst./Acting Division Manager 1957-1970

1906-1998

Most info, like I've said is post 60's dealing with the Arsenal's continuance, and should probably stress that wartime records especially on 'black' stuff didn't walk away from Manufacturers too often, if it was even ever properly documented?!

[Bullseye4mkI*]

History of Small Arms Limited Oct 1943-Mar 1946, completed and added to page 1 post.

Moderator note: In order to keep the content of the original thread coherent and also separate Bullseye4mkI*'s excellent new research content into their own easily located areas, I've created two new threads in the forum and also stickied them, so they stay at the top. Bullseye4mkI* ... please feel free to edit and modify them with any additional information you'd like to add, in order to bring context to them.

History of Long Branch Arsenal

History of Small Arms Limited- October 1943 - March 1946

Note for members: Perhaps in the interest of continuity, please post your comments on Bullseye4mkI*'s content in the separately listed threads above ... thanks....