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This is a shop where some of the RCAF radio components were manufactured.

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199 Artillery Fuze
Circa 1943
Canada, Europe and North Africa

Credits:
Telecommunications Museum

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The 199 artillery fuze, (as spelled then), was used on anti-aircraft shells. The graduations allowed the gunner to set the altitude at which it was to explode. Northern Electric manufactured all the parts for the 5 million produced.

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Machining Artillery Fuzes
Circa 1943
Montréal, Québec, Canada

Credits:
Northern Electric

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The war production demand exceeded the availability of male manpower, who for the most part were in the armed forces. Women in large numbers filled in the gap, they were trained to perform non-traditional jobs such as machinists. Here we see one at work on a milling machine producing most likely a fuze component.

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Fuzes Display
Circa 1943
Montréal, Québec, Canada

Credits:
Northern Electric

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This display was set up at the end of one of the Shearer plant wings to show the importance of not missing time: "Lost Time Means Lost Fuzes, Lost Fuzes Mean Lost Shells, Lost Shells Mean Idle Guns".

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Wireless Set No. 19
Circa 1944
Globally

Credits:
Telecommunications Museum

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The No. 19 Wireless Set was a British design that had been chosen to be the Allies' military radio. Northern Electric dispatched Sidney Silletoe and others to England to obtain their plans from manufacturer Pye Radio. Their trip nearly finished in disaster as their plane crash landed upon arrival in England. They had flown to England rather than take a ship, because Northern Electric lost Stanley Almond a technical inspector, Arthur Deadman a tool room inspector and Hugh Percy Ray an assistant master mechanic on a similar mission, when the S.S. Nerissa, on which they were travelling, was sunk by a Nazi submarine in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland on April 30th, 1941.

The set had bilingual designations English and Russian since they were also produced for them under a lend-lease program. Look for one in a war movie, one is likely to be seen.

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19 Set Assembly Shop
Circa 1944
Globally

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One of the 19 sets shops where power supplies are being assembled, note all the workers are women. Northern produced 30,000 of these sets before the war ended.

Another product was the top secret radar tube, over 19,000 were produced by people who frequently worked 12 hour days seven days in a row to meet the demand.

A great variety of field telephones were produced along with a field switchboard. Public address systems were built for the Navy, RCAF and the army.

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Dean Bangs 19 Wireless Set Operator
1943 - 1946
Canada and Europe

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Dean Bangs was born in 1923 on a dairy farm in the Hawkesbury Ontario countryside. He traveled the 4.5 miles (7.2KM) to high school by horse and buggy or sleigh depending on the season. After a three month course at Cornwall Tech in machining metals he was hired in December 1941 by Northern Electric to work in the Tool Room at its Shearer Street plant in Montreal.

Dean worked on milling machines and jig borers fabricating the tools needed for production work. In early 1943 Dean wanted to enlist in the RCAF along with his friend Jimmy Priest, Jimmy who lost a brother in a RCAF flight crew convinced Dean ground crew was far safer. The Air Force only wanted Flight Crew personnel so they both said no thank you.

In March 1943 he enlisted along with his friend Art Pratt in the army. He took his basic training in Listowell Ontario, then to Camp Borden for tank corps training as a gun loader and radio operator. The 19 Wireless Sets used in tanks were manufactured by Northern Electric.

In December 1943 he shipped out of Halifax on the ship Île-de-France to Great Britain where he underwent further intensive training. The Sherman tank had a five man crew: a crew commander, a driver, a co-driver, a gunner and Dean's function as loader operator. Each crew member had either their own hatch or quick access to one other than the loader operator, who had to crawl under the 75 mm canon and scramble out of the turret hatch.

Dean landed at Normandy as reinforcement June 15th 1944. He was assigned to "A" Squadron of the 3rd tank regiment, the Sherbrooke Fusiliers in the 2nd Armoured brigade that had come over on "D" Day. By the end of July he was part of an offensive towards Falaise when his tank was hit and their commander injured, they had to quickly scramble out of tank, luckily they were unhurt. Shortly afterwards Dean and his crew were assigned to another Sherman tank which was part of an action driving the Germans towards the Seine river. They reached the Seine by mid August when they ran over a large field mine which blew off a track from their tank, fortunately no crew was hurt.

The crew was assigned a third tank, they fought their way in October to northern Belgium in support of British infantry that was trapped in Turnhout near the Dutch border. They were half way into town on a street running next to the canal, when a bazooka shell slammed into their fuel tank which erupted in flames, the crew tore out of the tank to avoid being burnt alive. Dean of course was always the last to get out due to his difficult access to a hatch.

Since Germans up ahead on the road were firing at them they had the choice of either jumping into the cold water of the canal or climbing over the stone walls facing the houses on opposite side of street. They took to the wall, scaled it and quickly ran around a building to come face to face with two Germans, one with a bazooka who had shot them and the other with a machine gun. So stunned were the Germans that the one holding the machine gun dropped it, our crew rushed back to the street. The commander jumped into the canal, since the other crew members not knowing how to swim they ran like hell to their lines zigzagging around buildings to avoid being shot. Unfortunately the co-driver was injured by an exploding grenade. Nevertheless the whole crew managed to survive this terrifying incident.

The crew with a new co-driver were assigned to another tank which took them to the outskirts of Neimegen by the end of December or early January 1945. It was wet and very muddy, tanks sank half way up their tracks. By the end of February they had a new commander, a Lieutenant who was about to see his first action. They were taking part in a large night attack. The tank crews were not allowed to fire their guns. The flash would reveal their position while they were advancing towards enemy lines. Air bombers flying above were to bomb a locality nearby. Suddenly the tank sustained a hit that came from nowhere The driver lost control and they ended up in a bomb crater, their commander killed. The rest of the crew were able to get out and get a ride on a Red Cross jeep back to their lines.

Dean's tank number five was his last, it took him to the North of Holland near Emden when the war ended in 1945. Dean was retained by the Army in Europe till February 1946 then was shipped back by the liner Queen Elizabeth to New York City. The crossing was horrible due to rough seas, most were seasick. He finally made it home by the end of February and after one or two months rest came back to work in the Shearer Street Tool Room were he stayed for ten years. From there he went on to Tool Planning and Estimating, Factory Facilities planning, then in purchasing as a technical buyer and finally as senior buyer. Dean retired with 41 years service in 1982.

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Dean Bangs reunited with No. 19 Wireless Set
Circa 2005
LaSalle, Québec

Credits:
Ken Lyons