Commonwealth Production during the Second World War The story of wartime production in the United States and Lend Lease is well known but that of the Commonwealth had been largely forgotten, even the United Kingdoms efforts are largely unknown. The importance of production in Commonwealth countries, in particular that of Canada and Australia cannot be stressed enough, it was vital to the success of the Allied war effort and was especially important to the United Kingdom during the dark days of 1940 and 1941. The amount of material for war produced by the Commonwealth is staggering, from humble beginnings in 1940 to huge proportions in 1943/44. To underline the point of just how large and important the Commonwealths war production was, Canada alone produced more than double the number of trucks/lorries during the war than Germany. As most of my research so far has dealt with British wartime production I have not yet been able to piece together a full picture of Commonwealth production for the entire war, for example I have not yet been able to find a source of aircraft production in Commonwealth countries, explosives and other raw materials but as more information becomes available to me I shall update this article and as always, if you have any data I would be very happy to see it! The following data has been compiled from various documents from the Ministry of Supply, unfortunately I have not come across complete data for Canada before May 1942 or that of the other Commonwealth countries before April 1942. Also data from Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa has been grouped together into an "Eastern Group" and separation of the data for each country would not be possible from these sources. These figures deal purely with production and do not tell of how much of it was shipped to the UK (this information will follow in a separate article). As stated above data for Canada pre May 1942 and the Eastern group pre April 1942 is not available so the incomplete figures for 1942 are given in the tables below but also an estimation for the entire year using the May/April figures have been given, in some cases this will exceed and in others be below actual figures but it should give a good impression of the entire years production. Anti-Tank Weapons Anti-Tank Weapons | Canada 1942 | Canada 1942 (EST) | Eastern 1942 | Eastern 1942 (EST) | Canada 1943 | Eastern 1943 | Canada 1944 | Eastern 1944 | Canada 1945 | Eastern 1945 | 2pdr Guns | 780 | 1,892 | 618 | 1,059 | - | 136 | - | - | - | - | 2pdr Carriage | 204 | 340 | 256 | 568 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6pdr Guns | 4,703 | 5,655 | 192 | 192 | 2,344 | 815 | - | 190 | - | - | 6pdr Carriage | 1,355 | 1,355 | 157 | 157 | 1,669 | 740 | - | 235 | - | 23 | 17pdr Guns | - | - | 6 | 6 | - | 206 | - | 100 | - | - | 17pdr Carriage | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 24 | - | 95 | - | 26 | Anti-Tank Ammunition (in thousands) Anti-Tank Ammunition | Canada 1942 | Canada 1942 (EST) | Eastern 1942 | Eastern 1942 (EST) | Canada 1943 | Eastern 1943 | Canada 1944 | Eastern 1944 | Canada 1945 | Eastern 1945 | 2pdr HE | - | - | - | - | - | 53 | - | - | - | - | 2pdr AP | 1,427 | 2,331 | 255 | 409 | 673 | 31 | - | 23 | - | 6 | 6pdr AP | 1,487 | 1,927 | - | - | 4,694 | 45 | - | 100 | - | 23 | 6pdr APCBC | - | - | - | - | 256 | - | 1,983 | - | - | - | 6pdr APDS | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9 | - | 17pdr AP/APC | - | - | - | - | 374 | - | 293 | - | - | - | 17pdr APCBC | - | - | - | - | - | - | 204 | - | 84 | - | 17pdr APDS | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 51 | - | 75mm HE | 504 | 504 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Artillery / Anti-Aircraft Guns Artillery/AA | Canada 1942 | Canada 1942 (EST) | Eastern 1942 | Eastern 1942 (EST) | Canada 1943 | Eastern 1943 | Canada 1944 | Eastern 1944 | Canada 1945 | Eastern 1945 | 25pdr Equipments | 717 | 1,073 | 640 | 877 | 921 | 317 | 1,236 | 9 | - | - | 25pdr Equipments (Short) | - | - | - | - | - | 64 | - | - | - | - | 3.7" How Pack | - | - | 76 | 97 | - | 146 | - | 287 | - | 112 | 3.7" How Mech | - | - | 24 | 60 | - | 23 | - | 10 | - | - | 40mm Bofors Equipments | 1,311 | 1,671 | 8 | 8 | 1,427 | 155 | - | 58 | - | - | 3" AA Equipments | - | - | 10 | 10 | - | 2 | - | - | - | - | 3.7" AA Equipments | 445 | 489 | 150 | 198 | 1,115 | 122 | 173 | 3 | - | - | Polsten Guns | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 7,051 | 470 | - | 988 | Polsten Universal Mountings | - | - | - | - | 243 | - | 9,497 | - | - | - | Artillery / Anti-Aircraft Ammunition (in thousands) Artillery/AA Ammunition | Canada 1942 | Canada 1942 (EST) | Eastern 1942 | Eastern 1942 (EST) | Canada 1943 | Eastern 1943 | Canada 1944 | Eastern 1944 | Canada 1945 | Eastern 1945 | 25pdr HE | 3,402 | 5,438 | 2,657 | 3,029 | 1,861 | 5,242 | 2,892 | 1,666 | 2,450 | 880 | 18pdr HE | - | - | 312 | 389 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.7" How Mech | - | - | 493 | 600 | - | 912 | - | 1,373 | - | 547 | 75mm HE | 785 | 1,393 | - | - | 106 | - | - | - | - | - | 4.5" Gun HE | 279 | 471 | 258 | 438 | 45 | 15 | 119 | - | 278 | - | 5.5" Gun/How HE | 467 | 647 | - | - | 459 | - | 890 | 24 | 466 | 6 | 6" How HE | - | - | 37 | 60 | - | 10 | - | - | - | - | 60pdr HE | - | - | 5 | 11 | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 7.2" How HE | 270 | 434 | - | - | 182 | - | - | - | - | - | 25pdr Smoke | 681 | 1,037 | - | - | 686 | - | 486 | - | 478 | 18 | 75mm Smoke | 487 | 1,163 | - | - | 1,071 | - | 811 | - | - | 27 | 40mm HE | 3,342 | 5,306 | - | - | 5,024 | 284 | 5,232 | 449 | 634 | 1 | 3" AA HE | - | - | 10 | 10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.7" AA HE | 2,006 | 2,998 | 185 | 290 | 2,037 | - | 1,481 | 31 | 327 | 8 | 3.7" AA Sharp | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8 | - | - | Sources - AVIA 22 456- 514
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