Game
Carrying the Tools to Britain
CBC Radio Canada
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
What we get for our Money
- There are now 27,000 men in the Canadian Navy; more than 240,000 in the Army; more than 93,000 in the Air Force. The total - enlisted for service anywhere - is now more than 360,000.
The Canadian Navy has grown in a little over two years from 15 pre-war ships to more than 300 ships today; from a pre-war active strength of 1,800 men to a present strength of more than 27,000 men. It consists of destroyers, corvettes, minesweepers, submarine chasers, auxiliary cruisers, fast motor torpedo boats. Its ships in service are separated by 10,000 miles of land and sea; they are in the North Sea, the North Atlantic, the Pacific and the Caribbean. They have helped convoy from Canadian shores 7,000 ships with 42,000,000 tons of cargo for the British Isles.
At the beginning of the war there were only 1,500 workers in Canadian shipyards. Now there are 20,000 workers in 17 major and 58 smaller yards. They have built and launched 136 Corvettes and Mine-sweepers, and are now building cargo ships. Components for these vessels – boilers, engines, propellers and fittings – are turned out in 500 separate Canadian factories.
Thirteen times as many men as before the war are employed in shipbuilding, 34 times as many in aircraft manufacture.
Before the end of 1942, Canada expects to deliver and to have in service 100 cargo ships of which 90 will be of 10,000 tons of capacity and 10 of 5,000 tons capacity. Some 500 industries from coast to coast are making parts for these vessels.
More that 93,000 young Canadians are in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and thousands of others are in the R.A.F. More than 20 R.C.A.C squadrons are in action overseas. Within a few months the number of trained Canadians across the seas will be equal to a division of infantry.
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan operates 92 training schools, uses 18 pre-enlistment training centres, has 113 establishments and 1,860 buildings of all kinds. The Plan – which will cost Canada in three years, $500,000,000 is now operating 4,000 planes for training purposes; with one plane leaving the ground at some school every three minutes; with planes flying night and day; and with more than 1,000,000 miles a day flown on the average.
More than 34,000 men in 3,500,000 feet of floor space are turning out aircraft; have turned out thus far (Dec. 1941) nearly 4,000 planes.Canadian squadrons are assigned to fighter, bomber, coastal patrol, army reconnaissance and night fighting duties. With army submarines operating off the Strait of Belle Island and convoyed ships plying in and out of Canada’s east coast, the R.C.A.F. at home as an important task to perform. Ships must be protected and Canada’s coasts must be searched daily, not only close to shore but far out to sea. This task the R.C.A.F. vigilantly performs not only on the Atlantic Coast but on the Pacific and in the North. Sometimes R.C.A.F planes patrol so far out over the Atlantic that they could land more easily in Ireland that at their home base.
One of the first R.C.A.F. fighter squadrons to see action shot down 12 enemy planes in its first 19 days of action and is credited with over 100 planes. In one day in September, 1940, it shot down 14 enemy planes over London.
Canada produces one army automotive unit every three minutes each 24-hour day.
Canada is producing tanks; light as well as heavy - and expects to be producing them soon at the rate of 200 a month.
Canadian armored vehicles are being used in every theatre of the war; in Russia and Libya and in Malaya. Canadian guns are being used by every one of the Allied armies.
This year alone the total production of explosives in Canada will equal the entire Canadian output for the whole of the first Great War.Canada has produced 12,000 Bren machine guns (the majority of them are in war theatres); delivered 9,000,000 heavy shells and 10,000,000 shells cases; produced and delivered 500,000 bombs and 150,000,000 pounds of explosives and chemicals; and is producing fuses, primers and miscellaneous parts for complete ammunition at the rate of over 1,000,000 a month. The capacity in 1942 will reach over 2,000,000 lbs daily of chemicals and explosives.
Canada is producing today practically every type of gun, every piece of armament, every bit of equipment that enters into modern war. She is producing heavy guns, anti-aircraft guns, field guns, Browning aircraft machine guns, Lee-Enfield Rifles, trench mortars, bomb throwers and smoke projectors.
Canadian and British armies train and march and fight on full stomachs – stomachs filled by the products of Canadian fields. Since the beginning of the war we have sent to Britain;
300,000,000 bushels of wheat;
7,000,000 barrels of flour;
800,000,000 pounds of bacon and other pork products;
195,000,000 pounds of cheese;
15,000,000 dozens of eggs;
13,000,000 pounds of honey.
The above facts and figures are taken from information available December 1941.
The CBC and War News
In the radio field, as elsewhere, the all-absorbing task is to further the war effort. There is enemy propaganda to be overcome by telling the truth palatably. There are the troops to be entertained. Everything possible must be done to maintain a link between the troops overseas and their folks at home. There is civilian morale to safeguard. There are the numerous war tasks to explain and promote. Such work takes absolute priority.
In war-times, news is one of radio’s greatest responsibilities. Since Jan 1, 1941, the CBC has operated its own news service in the five regions across Canada where the news, laid down by the press services, is prepared and edited for broadcasting.In presenting news, accuracy is the first consideration. Every possible care is taken by the CBC in its newscasts to avoid sensationalism and false emphasis. Sugar coating bad news and over-stressing enemy successes are equally undesirable. No editorial or speculative comment is allowed. The CBC News strives to present only those reports which come from a named source, and which possess reasonable authenticity.
Describing the growth of Canada’s war effort has been one of the vital tasks of the CBC. The people of the Dominion needed to be given first-hand information about the fighting forces, the organization of war services, the harnessing of the country’s productive capacity and the achievements of industry. Soon after the outbreak of war, the two Mobile Units of the CBC reserved for home operation began to carry the microphone into camps and barracks to help the listener visualize the daily life of the Canadian soldier in training. Through these recordings, feature programmes were compiled and broadcast, describing the daily activities of the recruit, the manoeuvres and field exercise of the troops in training, the social life, amusements and attitude of the Canadian army. Then it was the turn of the Navy. Ship to shore transmitters were used to give listeners a picture of the ceaseless vigil of the Navy in war-time. There were broadcasts from Patrols, from Mine-sweepers, from Destroyers, and Corvettes carrying torpedoes and depth charges in ceaseless conflict with German submarines. Similarly, the CBC featured the voyage of the overseas contingents of the Canadian army, with the scenes of their landing in Britain and subsequent experiences, and again, attention was paid to the Royal Canadian Air Force, especially to the life of young airmen in training, including those under the Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
The CBC Unit in England with its battled-scarred van is as much in the front line as anyone else. As early as December 1939, two members of the staff of the CBC, an engineer and a commentator, stepped aboard the Flagship which led the First Canadian Division across the Atlantic to the battle front. In the spring of 1940, they settled down to operate in Britain, CBC Mobile Unit No. 3, a fully equipped six-ton mobile recording van designed to serve in the war zone under severe conditions. From this van, countless war programmes have originated, and been sent across the Atlantic to Canadian listeners. During the Winter of 1940-41, for instance, more than one thousand recordings were made in six months; and the fan was driven an average on one thousand miles a month under blackout and other most difficult conditions in carrying out its work. So valuable were these recordings, that they have been frequently used not only by the CBC, but by the BBC and by the Movie News Reel Companies.
The Overseas Unit has provided programme material describing every aspect of the Canadian forces in Britain. These half-hour programmes are sent across by the Unit every week; one of the more popular parts being the time allocated for personal greetings from the boys to their friends and loved ones at home.
As the course of the War brought Canada nearer and nearer to the fighting line, the role of broadcasting has become more important in organizing national defence. Thus the CBC has cooperated with the Dominion Government in its War Loan and War Savings Campaigns, with local public authorities in various cities in test “blackouts”, in providing many inspirational programmes, and generally in exploring and developing the art of war-time information and publicity.
Carrying the Tools to Britain.
This new educational game was designed by the CBC to enable listeners of all ages to better visualize the mobilization of this country’s vast resources in the gigantic war effort in which we are now engaged. Its purpose is also to show the problems associated with the transporting of munitions and supplies of all kinds to Great Britain.
The part which Canada is playing in the whole war, and in the crucial Battle of the Atlantic in particular, will undoubtedly be better appreciated by both young and old after playing this game and digesting some of the information contained here.
During 1942 and every year until the war ends, immense sums of money will be required to extend and pursue the war – money that must be raised by taxation and by borrowing from every possible citizen. Below are set out a few salient facts regarding these requirements and the purpose for which these sums will be spent in furthering the mighty crescendo of mass production to which Canadians are now bending their efforts.
Why Canada needs Your Money
Canada will spend for War in the fiscal year (1941-2) including financial aid to Britain, $2,183,000,000. That is more than Canada’s total expenditure during four years of the First Great War!
Canadian Earnings
Out of every $1,000 that Canadians earn in 1942, more than 40 cents will go for war. We shall spend (apart from aid to Britain) at the rate of $4,000,000 a day.
War Cost
Canada is spending about five times as much in the present fiscal year as it spent in the last full fiscal year before the war. Five times as many people as before the war are paying five times as much in income taxes of all kinds.
Married persons with incomes from $3,000 to $10,000 a year are paying from eleven to four times as much in income taxes as before the war.
Government spending
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan will cost Canada in the first three years of its operation a sum of money equal to the total collected in taxes by the Dominion Government in a normal peace-time year.
