Table of Contents Foreword Preface 1 In the Beginning 2 A Frozen Field of Dreams 3 A Mini City Tucked Behind an Eight-Foot Barbed-Wire Fence 4 Ramping Up 5 If You Can Walk, Talk, Creep, or Crawl - Apply Here! 6 A Day in the Life of a Bomb Girl 7 It All Depends on Me 8 Safety First Because Safety Lasts 9 Whistle While You Work: Industrial Relations and Personnel 10 Service with a Smile: Departments Serving Employees 11 Rolling Up Their Sleeves: Departments Contributing to Munitions Production 12 Nothing Less Will Do - Employee Morale 13 Disasters at the Plant 14 When "Victory" Trumpets Sound the Call 15 If You Build It, Scarborough Will Come Appendix A: Layout of GECO: An Engineer's Sketch of GECO Appendix B: GECO Management Chart Appendix C: Typical Workshop Layout: Fuse 251, Shop 67C Acknowledgements Notes
Bibliography Index
Dedication
To Those Women of All Ages
Foreword by Philip Hamilton
Preface<
Chapter One: In the Beginning Canada Declares War Wanted: One Mining Company, No War Experience Necessary The Dynamic Duo Anticipation Swells A.W.S.C. Project No. 24: Birth of a War Factory A Few Good Men Scarboro, Ontario, Canada: Farms, Fillies, and Fuses The King's Speech Chapter Two: A Frozen Field of Dreams Dead in the Water Turning of the Sod - with a Little Help from some TNT Loose Lips Sink Ships The Gunpowder Plot Needed: 2,500 Good, Strong Men Hitler's Fate Sealed Chapter Three: A Mini-City Tucked Behind an Eight-Foot Barbed-Wire Fence Taking Sides Give Me a "U"! Pick a Number, Any Number What Lies Beneath Life Happens: A Change of Plans Can We Talk? There is No "I" in "Team" A Squeaky Wheel Gets an Earful When All is Said and Done: Feeds and Speeds of a Top Secret Munitions Factory Chapter Four: Ramping Up Talk Is Cheap: Bring on the High Explosives Glitches, Hitches, and Snags The Girls Behind the Boys Behind the Guns Chapter Five: If You Can Walk, Talk, Creep, or Crawl - Apply Here! It's in Their Blood Working in a Man's World War, Ammo, and Feminine Pads GECO's Bomb Girls Chapter Six: A Day in the Life of a Bomb Girl All Aboard I Do Solemnly Declare ... First Things First: Ground Rules Please Check your Brassiere Features of GECO Change Houses A "Harmless" Pack of Matches Non-explosive Uniforms An Ode to Ye Olde Shift House Working on the "Clean Side" Where's the Beef? At Day's End Paying Tribute to the Girls Chapter Seven: It All Depends on Me GECO Gals On the Dirty Side Mum's the Word: Dorothy Cheesman Too Young to Fill: Elizabeth Ellis A Star Is Born: Helen Fraser A Run-In with the Boss: Barbara Holmes Chief Dietitian and "Guiding Genius": Florence Ignatieff On the Clean Side Don't Drop that Det!: Molly Danniels "Truckerette": Hilda Keast Yellow Canary: Carol LeCappelain For the Love of her Country: Helen Leslie A Woman of Sorrow: Peggy MacKay Bench Leader: Norma McGregor Breath of Fresh Ayr: Mary Plain "Fireball": Edith Reay-Laidler "My Mom was My World": Doris Scott Widow with Five Children: Winifred Stewart D.I.L. Gal: Rena Sweetman "I Want to Work with Munitions": Anne Wilmot The Old Boys' Club On the Dirty Side Someone's Got to Pay the Bills: William Howe Positively Electrifying: Hartley "Tony" French "Piston Packin' Moma": Donald John MacDonald Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: Roy Robertson Keep on Truckin': Joe Sullivan The Sawdust Brigade A Name Couldn't Sound Sweeter: Alex Licorice Waddell On the Cleanside "Hefty Work": Peter Cranston It's a Bust: Harold Pfeiffer A Long Road to Peace: Ernest Herbert Pickles All in the Family Mother and Daughter In-Laws: Hilda and Dorothy Clements The Darnbrough Way: Walter, Rene, and Violet Darnbrough General Delivery: John Everest and Family Truck 'Em and Fill 'Em: Sidney Ledson and Family Modern Misses: Margaret and Netti Neufeld Snowed In: The Simerson Gals "Shamed Be He Who Thinks Evil of It": Roxaline Wood and Family Without a Name Man Lays Down his Life on the Home Front With our Deepest Gratitude I Wish to Remain Anonymous The Dynamic Duo: Philip Dawson Prior and Robert McLean Prior Hamilton's Story The Bloody Red Baron The Roaring Twenties The Thirties: Prelude to War A Son's Reflection: Philip Hamilton John McLean Parsons Hamilton Chapter Eight: Safety First because Safety Lasts Friend or Foe In Case of Explosion ... Life Expectancy In Spotless Air Conditioned Shops Jack be Nimble Galleries and Vestibules and Tunnels, Oh My! Death and Disfigurement Guns and Gum The Tetryl Dilemma Conclusion Chapter Nine: Industrial Relations and Personnel Industrial Relations: Whistle While You Work Personnel There's Got to Be a Better Way Show Me the Money GECO and its Books of Many Colours One Hundred Percent Club An Urgent Need - the Guns to Feed Chapter Ten: Departments Serving Employees Medical: An Ounce of Prevention Food Services: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry Uniforms: The Mechanical Laundry Mangle Transportation: When the Rubber Hits the Road Chapter Eleven: The Men behind the Women: Departments Contributing to Munitions Production Production Department: The Buck Stops Here Planning and Records: A Juggling Act Just Where Do You Test Explosives? An Explosive Conflict Quality Control: Impressing the Enemy Shipping: We Got Ourselves a Convoy Research and Development: Safer, Faster, Deadlier Purchasing: Axes, Apples, and Ammo Engineering General Office: Ground Zero The Sawdust Brigade Other Departments: Smaller but Just as Deadly Chapter Twelve: Nothing Less Will Do: Employee Morale The Situation Room The GECO Diamond is their Badge GECO Fusilier: A Powder Magazine A Young Canadian Died! Skuce's Goose A Little R&R Sing a Song of Softball Bombs Away, Beautiful! Victory Gardens More Mistletoe and Less Missile-Talk The Kids are Alright Big Business Unions Blood is Thicker than Water I'm Making Bombs and Buying Bonds The Good Ol' Sally Ann Pennies from Heaven Special Guests The Songs they Sing are Preludes to the Voices of the Gun Every Fuse you Fill may Save a Life The Whispering Gallery Conclusion Chapter Thirteen: Disasters at the Plant Snow Stranded Death at the Plant Chapter Fourteen: We Won the War - Now What? Lay Down your Arms Thanks for Your Faithful Service Wrapping Up By the Numbers Scarboro's Spoils of War Production: Collateral Damage Total Production: From July 1941-July 1945 The Final Headcount It's in You to Give Bits and Pieces Chapter Fifteen: If You Build it, Scarborough will Come Decontamination and Desensitization Sheltering the Homeless Scarborough's "Golden Mile" of Industry Veil of Secrecy Lifted Long Live Scarboro! Appendices A. Layout of GECO B. GECO Management Organizational Chart Notes Bibliography Index
