Defence Industries Limited

Canadian Industries Limited (C-I-L) created subsidiary Defence Industries Limited (DIL) to manufacture munitions in September 1939, and arranged a contract with the Canadian government to operate two small plants which manufactured TNT and cordite.{{cite book|author=Serge Durflinger|title=Fighting from Home: The Second World War in Verdun, Quebec|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVQXd7OkBDgC&pg=PA129|date=1 November 2011|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0-7748-4104-7|pages=129–}}

In 1940 the Canadian government's Department of Munitions and Supply contracted DIL to refurbish the defunct British Munitions factory in Verdun, Quebec, for the manufacture of munitions. The plant began operations in May 1941.{{cite book|author=Serge Durflinger|title=Fighting from Home: The Second World War in Verdun, Quebec|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVQXd7OkBDgC&pg=PA129|date=1 November 2011|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0-7748-4104-7|pages=129–}} By 1943 the company had constructed about 40 more buildings at the site.

In 1941 DIL also set up a facility in Windsor, Ontario, to manufacture carbamite, a component of cordite;{{cite book|title=Canadian Chemistry and Process Industries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esXmAAAAMAAJ|year=1945|publisher=Westman Publications.|page=302}} other explosive components were manufactured in Beloeil and Shawinigan, Quebec; Nobel, Ontario; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

DIL set up facilities in St. Paul l'Hermite and Ste Thérèse, Quebec, to fill shells with explosives.

The company purchased 3,000 acres of farmland in Pickering Township, Ontario, for the purpose of building Pickering Works, a large munitions factory.{{cite book|author=Mike Filey|title=Toronto Sketches 3: The Way We Were|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCQKzZ6xW6sC&pg=PA135|date=September 1994|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=978-1-55002-227-8|page=135}} Construction began, and the DIL plant was opened in 1941.[https://chronicle.durhamcollege.ca/2018/04/town-called-ajax-got-name/ "How a Town called Ajax got its name"]. The Chronicle, By Tracy Wright - April 17, 2018 It employed about 9,000 people, including about 7,000 women, and was the largest munitions production factory in the British Empire.[https://www.waybacktimes.com/history/canadian-women-at-war-on-the-home-front/ "Canadian Women At War on the Home Front"]. The Wayback Times, October 1, 2019 By Douglas Phillips By the end of the war, the workers had filled more than 40 million percussion caps, detonators, bombs, anti-tank mines, armour-piercing and anti-aircraft shells.[https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/once-upon-a-city-archives/2016/06/04/once-upon-a-city-women-who-were-unsung-heroes-of-war-effort.html "Once Upon a City: Women who were unsung heroes of war effort"]. Toronto Star, Janice Bradbeer, June 4, 2016[https://legionmagazine.com/en/2016/02/the-bomb-girls-of-ajax/ "The bomb girls of Ajax"]. Legion Magazine, February 20, 2016 by D'Arcy Jenish Although the houses built for the DIL employees were intended to be temporary, after the war the occupants petitioned to buy them, and, after permanent foundations were built, the homes became part of a new town, which was named Ajax after HMS Ajax (22), a light cruiser of the Royal Navy during World War II.[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/celebrating-the-town-named-for-a-battleship/article4118181/ "Celebrating the town named for a battleship"], Dave LeBlanc, The Globe and Mail, June 3, 2005

DIL's Montreal and Brownsburg plants made small arms. In Cornwall the company manufactured mustard gas.

As World War II drew to a close, most of the DIL plants were shut down. DIL was contracted by the federal government to co-ordinate the construction and operation of Chalk River Laboratories, a pilot plant for the production of plutonium using heavy water as a moderator, which was being built in northern Ontario as part of the Manhattan Project. Temporary houses from DIL's plant in the town of Nobel, Ontario were moved to the area, creating a new town, Deep River, to house the workers.[http://www.nuclearheritage.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/The-Early-History-of-Deep-River-and-the-Plant.pdf "The DIL-NRC-AECL Evolution"]. The Early History of Deep River and “the Plant”. October 2017. The Society for the Preservation of Canada’s Nuclear Heritage.

In 1947, operation of the partially completed facility was taken over by the National Research Council; a number of DIL employees were hired by the NRC to provide continuity in the process. DIL continued to oversee construction in progress.{{cite book|author1=Hurst|author2=Atomic Energy of Canada Limited|title=Canada Enters the Nuclear Age: A Technical History of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SkrVDKMconIC&pg=PA6|year=1997|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-1601-4|pages=6–}}

Quebec

• l'Usine Cherrier in Saint-Paul-l'Ermite, shell-filling
• l'Usine Bouchard in Sainte-Thérèse, shell-filling
• Montreal Works in Verdun, manufacturing small arms ammunition; a refurbished version of a former British Munitions Supply Company Factory built in 1916 during the World War I{{cite book |author=Magda Fahrni |chapter=The Second World War: Wartime Production and War Efforts |editor1=Dany Fougères |editor2=Roderick Macleod |title=Montreal The History of a North American City |volume=2 |year=2018 |page=39 |isbn=9780773551282 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JNNDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA39 }}
• Villeray, manufacturing small arms ammunition
• Beloeil, manufacturing explosives and cordite
• Brownsburg, manufacturing small arms ammunition
• Shawinigan, manufacturing explosives, cordite, and hexachloroethane
• Île de Salaberry, manufacturing NC cannon powder and TNT

Ontario

• Pickering Works in present-day Ajax, shell-filling
• Windsor, manufacturing explosives and cordite
• Nobel, manufacturing cordite and TNT{{cite book |author=Matthew Evenden |title=Allied Power: Mobilizing Hydro-electricity During Canada's Second World War |year=2015 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=9781442617124 |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OEYjCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 }}
• Cornwall, made mustard gas
• Petawawa Works, later Chalk River Laboratories{{cite book |author=Wilfrid Eggleston |title=Canada's Nuclear Story |publisher=Harrap |year=1966 |oclc=613979783 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eRIlAAAAMAAJ }}

Manitoba

• Winnipeg, manufacturing explosives and cordite

{{Reflist}}

Category:Canadian companies established in 1939

Category:Ammunition manufacturers