I mentioned in an earlier post that Massey-Harris in Australia made an enormous contribution to the war effort.

Here is the cover of their brochure which summarised their work.  I will post some photos from it in due course. H V McKay Massey Harris as it was then known.

Their first order was for parts to enable conversion of field guns from horse drawn to mechanical traction.  Up to 10,000 per item required were produced.  Then followed orders for track pins and track parts for Matilda tanks and sprocket driving drums.  There was an order for one million carrier track links and pins and thousands of machined parts for carrier suspension gear.

Special furnaces were built for heat treatment of 27 million cores of armour piercing bullets.  The company was closely associated with the production of armoured fighting vehicles.  Supplies were sent to the western desert, India, the Dutch Indies and even China.  Approximately six and a half million parts were supplied for such vehicles.  At the same time two million track links were also made

The company made many parts for aircraft such as the Beaufort bomber, the Beaufighter and the Licoln heavy bomber; Mustang and Boomerang fighters.  Camshafts were made for aero engines.

Rough forgings were supplied to other manufacturers including 500,000 drop stampings for Lee Enfield rifles.  There were thousands of castings for aero engines and air frames, for Bofors anti aircraft guns and many sub assembiles for these.  They also made many special tools for the armaments industry generally as well as regular tools needed by troops on the ground.

One of the company's larger projects was radio location equipment and control assemblies such as for the 18 inch Mark 15 torpedo.

400,000 shell bodies for the 4.5 shell were produced and 250,000 six pounder armour piercing shots

I wonder have any our Australian friends ever come across any of the tolls made by MH for the war effort?  Alan - another line of enquiry perhaps??

John