Canadian Army Central Ordnance Depots

[Edwin Wand]

I assume you are talking about the post war 1946 to the 1968 preunification period of the Canadian Armed Forces.

I am not familiar with Central Ordnance Depots but there were Regional Ordnance Depots (ROD) during this post war period. They were part of the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps.

There was 26 ROD at Cobourg Ontario and at Ortona Barracks in Oakville, there was also a ROD, I think it was either 15 or 17 ROD. I don't recall if Hagersville Ont was designated as a ROD but it was a large RCOC installation.

As you mentioned there were RODs at London and Montreal.

During the National Survival Phase of the post war period, the Government established storage facilities at various locations across Canada. I think you will find there were such facilities at Welland Ont., Coburg, Hagersville etc.

The theory was that major cities such as Toronto and Hamilton (steel) and Niagara Falls (power) would be destroyed. In these circumstances equipment and troops from outlying areas would ride to the rescue.

In retrospect and indeed at the time, there seemed little hope that these arrangements would be of much help should a nuclear attack occur.

Fortunately, these supplies were never needed and much of this equipment was surplused. Items such as Deuce and a halfs still in boxes were later sold from Levy's Auto Parts in Toronto.

To my knowledge the National Survival phase of Canada's history has never been adequately documented. Part of the reason might be that the conversion of Canada's army from soldiers to National Survivalists was very unpopular with the Army. Nevertheless our Militia trained for the worst all the while knowing there was very little they could do in the event of a nuclear attack. For example, in the early stages there weren't even dosimeters available, let alone adequate transport and trained military personnel.

The RCOC History would probably be a helpful source of information about our RODs.

Hope this helps.