Canadian Lumberjacks in World War Two

Thousands of lumberjacks, members of the Canadian Forestry Corps, logged the forests of Scotland during the Second World War to produce desperately-needed lumber for the war effort. It is estimated that every fighting man needed the equivalent of five trees. Among the loggers were Carl and Jack Jones, two brothers from Invermere, British Columbia.
Read the story on my Wartime Wednesdays website here: www.elinorflorence.com/blog/canadian-forestry-corps

 

You rock, Ms Florence.

 

Aw, shucks, thank you!

 

Excellent stuff. The Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit was also over here.

 

Thanks, Gordon. In my blog I did mention the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit as well, all 3600 of them. They were hardy souls.

 

Hi Elinor,

Another interesting article, thank-you.

As a side note: The PCMR were a home guard outfit here in BC formed of loggers etc. to protect us from a Japanese invasion. I had the good fortune to meet and befriend one of these Rangers. Another interesting thing about about the PCMR is that they were issued Winchester Model 94's in 30-30 as the Lee Enfields were needed by the regular forces. It is the only time that I know of that the Canadian Military were issued model 94's

My PCMR Model 94


Regards

Ken

Pacific Coast Militia Rangers

 

Well, you learn something new every day! I didn't know about those guys. I'm guessing the Japanese might have had their work cut out for them if they tried to go head to head with armed loggers!

 

Cowboys and Japanese...shooting from a wood wagon on the circling Japanese...now there is a movie in that!

 

Another excellent article and one that's provoking some interesting and educational responses.

 

You might already have seen this, Elinor-
"In 1942 the 3rd Inverness (Newfoundland) Battalion Home Guard was created consisting of over seven hundred men; the only Home Guard unit composed entirely of men from overseas who were serving in Britain on specialised war work."
Staffs Home Guard Memories X25

 

My Mum was in the Land Army but wanted to a Lumber Jill. I know that the Lumber Jills felt superior to other units as they had to pass a more stringent medical. I wonder how many Scottish lassies married a Canadian lumberjack.

 

I'm going to consider writing a whole separate blog post on the women of Britain who performed hard physical labour. They were an inspiration to women around the globe, that's for sure.

 

That's amazing, thank you!

 

Haha, well it is productive insanity. Could be worse.