POW/Work Camp Vehicles in Canada

[Jason Ginn]

I couldn't resist this one!

[Jason Ginn]

Department of Mines and Resources operated the Alternate Service Work Camps for conscientious objectors. This looks like a civilian ford with a road crew.

[David Dunlop]

Jason.

Great start with getting some photos up about these vehicles.

I had always assumed the Defence Department would have been in charge of POW Camps in Canada, through some branch or other. Interesting that the Lethbridge Camp, which I believe was military has no department ID but shows the camp ID and a marking pattern fairly consistent with markings for home front military vehicles. The other two camp vehicle options are from 'civilian' internment camps and have Department of Labour and Mines and Energy vehicles. Maybe that was a primary breakpoint of the camps in Canada: military jurisdiction for military camps and civil jurisdiction for civil camps.

Excuse my active mind here, but if that premise holds true, as you said, CMP's may very likely form some or all of the vehicle fleets for the military camps and not so much with the civil ones.

Poked about on the web a bit and found references to the ID System for the military camps. Looks like they started out in the war as 'lettered' camps and by 1943 switched to a number system. The one list I found was rather incomplete with the ID of some camps not known at all (Whitewater being one) and three camps from the Manitoba/Northwest Ontario area missing completely.

Whitewater was a POW Work Camp where they were cutting cord wood for the civilian market. The camp was set up where it was because (a) it was very isolated - no fences or guard towers were ever built for it - and (b) it was close to a burn area that was the initial area to have good wood harvested from before the selected area from the surrounding forest were worked. It was a National Park area so the timber work had to be carefully thought out. And a new park at that, less than 10 years old. The camp had to be dismantled as soon as the war ended as well. The site and original access road are now a major park hiking trail and overnight camp.

The prisoners went on strike there for a few days. A large number of them had ordered pyjamas from the Sears Catalog and when the shipment didn't arrive as scheduled, they thought the guards had stolen them so they refused to work. The shipment arrived on the train in Dauphin a couple of days later, the prisoners were thrilled and all was OK.

David

[Bob Carriere]

Seems that most smaller POW camp in Canada were just "numbered" but could not find a comprehensive Canadian listing.

The city jail in Hull, PQ was used as a POW jail..... also deserters and those running away from conscription and was just given a number.

There was a seasonal German POW work camp in the upper reaches of the Gatineau park around Lac Lapeche and although I found confirmation of it's existence no other details seem available......being remote trucks must have been used extensively for the 2 to 3 hour one way drive from/to Ottawa back in 1940.

Cheers

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

Seems that most smaller POW camp in Canada were just "numbered" but could not find a comprehensive Canadian listing.

The city jail in Hull, PQ was used as a POW jail..... also deserters and those running away from conscription and was just given a number.

There was a seasonal German POW work camp in the upper reaches of the Gatineau park around Lac Lapeche and although I found confirmation of it's existence no other details seem available......being remote trucks must have been used extensively for the 2 to 3 hour one way drive from/to Ottawa back in 1940.

Cheers

Our mutual friend Gilles who had a septic tank business tells a similar story about one of the summer sites he had on his rounds. There are some inescapable sensory clues to what a building was once used for.

[Lang]

Just a comment, without hijacking the Canadian thread, POW camps in Australia were a joke. The Italians captured in the desert were quickly put out into the farming community and integrated well (marrying a number of Australian girls)

The Germans on the other hand were a pretty tough lot, mostly Afrika Corps and Sailors. The Australian Guards were made up of Dad's Army and the Germans ran rings around them, It is an embarrassing story. There were so many escapes by blokes with no where to go in such an isolated country - just wanting to get out of confinement.

Two German ship engineers escaped, walked to Melbourne and got a job in an aircraft factory. They were doing well, ready for promotion before they were discovered!

The local police commander got so sick of the camp commandant calling for help in rounding up escaped prisoners told him "If they call in to the police station I will bring them back but the army will have to find them yourselves because I am taking my wife to a movie"


Lang

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Lang

Just a comment, POW camps in Australia were a joke.

It is an embarrassing story. There were so many escapes by blokes with no where to go in such an isolated country - just wanting to get out of confinement.

Lang

There certainly is no consistancy. Some of the camps in horticultural and agricultural areas were a very handy source for farm workers, which eventually saw many POWs reluctant to be repatriated, and even returning as post-war immigrants! Creative Italians, many from similar rural backgrounds as the locals, introduced Vino and Grappa to Australian palates.

Other camps were much more like punishment for recalcitrant escapees, like Nurina, affectionately known to the Commonwealth Railways crews, who were warned to look out for stowaways, as "F***all'sville". Although for the hardened-escapees types, Nurina was perhaps remakable as a POW camp in that it had no fencing of any kind and relied on it's location alone to keep the POWs close to home.

[Grant Bowker]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

There was a seasonal German POW work camp in the upper reaches of the Gatineau park around Lac Lapeche and although I found confirmation of it's existence no other details seem available......being remote trucks must have been used extensively for the 2 to 3 hour one way drive from/to Ottawa back in 1940.

Google satellite shows the remains of the camp Bob refers to near Lac LaPeche at https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.62461.../data=!3m1!1e3 Although near Lac Lapeche, the camp has its own, much smaller, lake - Lac LeBlanc.


In the late 1970s I worked as a lifeguard at Lac LaPeche. The children campers from Camp Gatineau were frequent visitors to Lac La Peche so I assume Lac Leblanc wasn't considered fit for swimming, or perhaps the staff at the camp wanted to tire the children on the walk to/from Lac LaPeche. At that time we allowed an hour for the drive from Hull (now Gatineau) to the beach. I'm not 100% certain but believe the camp is still operating.


The thread Terry refers to is at http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...=camp+gatineau