By David Bly
When the Second World War started, thousands of Calgarians enlisted in the Armed Forces, but hundreds of others did their part for the war effort by staying home and manufacturing munitions.
In 1940, the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Ogden Shops became a gun factory, turning out naval artillery and mountings for the Canadian Navy, and later, 105-mm howitzers for the U.S.
The Ogden Shops, built in 1913 as the railway’s western repair depot, had always been a busy facility, but the pace increased during the war, with CPR employees working on the 12-pounders and other guns made in Calgary.