Long Branch: Small but mighty

Small Arms Limited (SAL) broke ground near Long Branch (now part of Mississauga) in late August 1940. Within 10 months, it built and equipped a 212,000-square foot plant. It passed Lee-Enfield’s rigorous trials and began producing the Long Branch No.4 Mk I .303. Over the next four years, SAL produced almost a million rifles, other firearms, accessories, and ammuni­tion, with a predominantly female workforce. Now coveted, these Long Branch rifles celebrate these wartime home-front accomplishments. Ironically, the SAL plant was not in the village of Long Branch. It was several kilometres west. The Long Branch moniker probably stems from the Long Branch Rifle Ranges and the Long Branch Aerodrome located nearby. Small Arms Limited Once the Second World War started, the Canadian government decided to build an arms manufac­turing plant east of the aerodrome. It appointed Colonel Malcolm P. Jolley, a former engineer in the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corp, as project lead. Small Arms Limited was created as a non-profit Crown corporation on Aug. 7, 1940. Equipped by American suppliers and the Ross Rifle factory in Quebec, SAL produced five No. 4, Mk I rifles for Lee-Enfield’s approval in June 1941. SAL sent their first 200 rifles to Europe that September. Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk I My .303 Lee-Enfield (see the April 2020 issue) traces the gun’s evolution. The No. 4 Mk I has a cutout on the bolt track near the receiver bridge. It replaced the bolt-release button on the British No. 4 Mk I. This made the Long Branch and American-made Savage/Stevens Mk I easier and cheaper to mass produce. The Long Branch version became the standard infantry rifle for Canadian troops in the WWII, the Korean War, and for Canadian Rangers on Arctic patrols from 1947 to 2018. “I carried mine for about 30 years in the service of Canada, with little training, and it still amazes me what it’s capable of,” gun afficionado Steve Pederson reflected. Women dominate line Ron Craig, who has written extensively on Long Branch’s history, says more credit should be given to the women who worked there. During SAL’s peak employment of 5,500 workers, nearly two-thirds were women, “who took great pride in help­ing the war effort,” he wrote. In 1939, most women worked as homemakers or in low-paying service and administrative jobs for $12-$13 per week. Wartime industries like SAL recruited women across Canada to replace men who enlisted. They targeted