Loading...
The Seaforth News, 1943-05-13, Page 6THS SFORTFT NEWS THURDAY, MAX 19, 1943 Shipshaw Now the "dull story can be told of how the world's largest power sys- tem is being built. Untilrecently there was a complete ban on refer- enee to the name, location, er details of this mammoth wartime undertak- ing. But when the veil ':of secrecy was lifted it was revealed that a huge power development, the Ship- shaw Power Station, was nearing completion on the uppor reaches of the Saguenay River in Quebec, This hydro -electric monster being installed by the. Aluminum Company of Canada 'will be able to produce more than 2 million horsepower by next autumn, a greater development than Boulder Dam. Now we may know how 10,000 men worked through terrible Canad- ian winters, day and night, to lift a great riverout of its natural course, channel it overland for a mile and a half, and then blast it back into the ancient river bed. These thousands who toiled and still toil with giant steamshovels, cranes, tractors, locomotives, and bare hands in a race against time, not only redirected the Saguenay through a canal big enough to float an ocean liner, but also are con- structing a storage dam 135 miles back in the bush and a power house. The power. house will be completed with 12 generators in action by next November. Clearing of the Shipshaw site, where the project was developed, be- gan in the summer of 1941. The actual construction started that fall. Facing the army of workmen, engin- eers and managers were all the ab- normal conditions of wartime. Be- sides the bitter cold and frozen ground, they had to contend with shortages of labor, lack of materials, accidents, and the hazards of hasty work. Small cities sprang up around Shipshaw—the lives of thousands of men, women and children are linked to the great project. A large propor- tion of the men at Shipshaw are quartered in what is modestly called "the Camp" but is actually a self- contained community with its own postoffice, police and fire stations, .16 -bed hospital, residences and shops. Until the present Shipshaw pro- ject was started, all power from the Saguenay was developed by two earlier power plants, one at Ile Mal- igne, the other at a point called Chute -a -Caron. The former was completed 'in 1925, while the long, sweeping dam and power house at Chute -a -Caron were finished in 1931. By next November, the three plants move the ore to Canada. will have an installed capacity of over 2 million horsepower. Want and For Sale Ads, 3 weeks 50c. The water supply for the Sague- Who Is the �lighth nay development is Lake St. John, a vast reservoir, To harness the RiveriY'nly, Saguenay, 8,000 ,workmen were in- volved in ex6avating the canal, They, Brigadier General H. S. Sewell. cut through rock and. earth 300 feet 1 The British Eighth Arn1Y .is a wide, 38 feet deep and a mile and comparatively shall force. East Coto - a half long to a height of land 280 bee 'et the battle of E1 Alamein it feet above the river, I consisted of seven infantry and' three. At the fain of this promontory armored divisions, but daring the they built a power house 800 feet long pursuit of the . Afrika Mores long, so the river, coursing through across the desert, no more than two the canal, could spill down through or three divisions are known to have six penstock tunnels into giant tur-' been engaged at the same time in bines. , any 0110 cation with the Axsl rear - The intake structure at the down- guard. The army which carried out stream end of the., canal is built of the pursuit and stormed the Maretlr massive concrete and Contains 12 Line, though small in numbers, is one steel headgates for controlling the of the most highly trained and the flow of water. Prom here, water most seasoned in the, world, and the flows to the power house turbines system which has never failed to through six tunnels, 30 feet in die keep it supplied has been a master - meter, excavated out of solid rock piece of organization and ceaseless and lined with concrete, effort. Four infantry divisions took • part in the Mareth battle. Each had At the foot of the power house a distinct task and was independent they had to cut back into the .Sague- in the performance of its particular nay again. All that remained bet- duties, although every move was a ween the tailrace (the channel into part of a co-ordinated plan, which the water from the turbines is It is likely to be a long time before discharged) of the Shipshaw power the story of this action is told, and house and the river was a thin rock we have yet to learn how far the barrier 300 feet long. Blasting out batle followed on the lines originally' this barrier was a perilous moment planned by General Montgomery. In in the whole danger -fraught eon- war it is seldom that an operation struction, If there had been even the can proceed with planned precision, slightest miscalculation, the Ship- but whatever General Montgomery shaw power house night have been may have anticipated at Mareth, he hit by the exploding hail of rocks was ready to meet the situation as it and earth and a year's work might developed and turn it to his own ad - have been lost. 1 vantage. The high standard of train - The entire Shipshaw project will rug in eachunit, and the experience cost about $105,700,000. It is not as of his division commanders enabled spectacular -looking as the massive Kinn to handle his army in a way Boulder Dam in Arizona, which has which would not have been possible a sheer drop of '750 feet of smooth with less seasoned formations. Seven cement. But Shipshaw required more months of user, with the intervals be- excavation than Bourder Dam, twice tween engagements fully occupied the labor force, but used only one- with training, has produced a very third the amount of concrete. Boul- efficient fighting force; air co- der Dam was completed in five years ,operation has been neveloped on a at a cost of $205,000,000. It is fed scale and to a perfection probably by a man-made lake, while Ship -unequalled 01 this war. The R. A. F. show's water comes from the ever and the American Army Air Force lasting reservoir of Lake St. John, with the Middle East Command have had the necessary equipment for long Canadian plants are supplying 90 range operations and for army to- per cent of the Empire's production operation, and the perfection of sup - of base aluminum, essential for port which the ground troops have planes and other war equipment, had has been largely a matter of ex- and have also contracted to supply periinent and practice, substantial quantities to supplement The four infantry divisions men- output in the United States. tioned as taking part in the battle To make aluminum you must have for the Mareth Line are: the Fiftieth power — continuous, dependable (Northumbrian), the Fifty-first (High- power in tremendous quantities, land), the Second New Zealand, and Turning out glistening ingots of al- the Fourth Indian Division, The Fif- uminum is nine -tenths a matter of tieth arrived in the Middle East two power. Bauxite, the ore of aluminum, years ago, and for the last year it is mined in the tropical region of has taken part in every notable ac - South America, where the company tion in North Africa. During' the built railways, docks, and towns to eighth Army's retreat to El Alamein the Fiftieth Division was on several oeCasions surounded by Axis troops, but each time it fought its ,way • More than 10,000 melnhet a aro enrolled in the blue.claci ranks of the Women's Division of 'the Royal Canadian Air Force For many months alta girls in blue have been releasing 10011 for service in the air, by working at engines and typewriters, in stores and offices and secret operations rooms, packing parachutes, charting weather and performing a host of other skilled tasks in Canada and al overseas headquarters in Britain. Now the announce, went has been made that another large contingent have arrivf,d nveraeaa to work on stations of the new Canadian Bomber Group, Here are three of the girls Who went, contemplating the Atlantic highway to adventure from the deck of the ship which took them over, They are Airwomen Gladys Nota Plaxton of Victoria, B.C., Edith M. Deebie of Chemaimts, Vancouver Island, and Nora E. 1, Wilkinson of Dmlcan, B.C, New C.P.R. , 'Tines Keep Canada's "War Goods Montag • C Edi tit' 1,x0tV The first of 20 powerful new freight locomotives of the Mikado 2-8-2 class being added by the Canadian Pacific Railway this year, Engine No. 5417 was delivered on March 31 and put into immediate service in the all- important job of keeping Can- ada'swar materials rolling on schedule. Completion of the con- tract held by Canadian Locomo- tive Company in Kingston, Ont., will biing to 84 the number of mew locomotives added by the Canadian Pacific since the out- break of the war, with all ox them solely' needed to meet busi- ness demands which in 1942 showed a 49.8 percent, increase over 1989. Their construction marking the use for the first time of consider- able Canadian -made boiler shell plate, so far as is known, the new Mikado -type locomotives also have 01 their makeup -Canadian- rnade tender tank plate in quan- tity for the first time. Beforre the war these materials came from the United States and from England but the substitutes AVP,I necessa17 to avoid delay in deliv- ery of the locomotives which were ordered in January of 1942. The first new Mikado -type lo- comotive is shown here, with a close-up of two of its G3 -inch driving wheels. It will Maui up to 5,500 tons or the equivalent of a 100 -car train, depending on the grades, and is so counter -balanced it can be used for heavy passen- ger work when required, such as the hauling of the long troop trains which must go through on time. Canadian Pacific Photo. through the enemy under the indom- itable leadership of Major General W. H, C. Ramsden. In the battle for the Mareth Line the Northumbrians were selected to deliver the frontal attack. They had 'to cross the Wadi Zigan to reach enemy • strong points on the opposite side. The moon was full and very bright, the Wide, a wide gully with precipitous sides. The at- tackers slithered down into the Wadi under machine-gun and mortar tire. The only way in which they climb up the opposite side was • by forming human pramids, which they had previously practised. Their next obstacle was a deep anti-tank ditch which they negotiated in the same way. From there they crawled for- ward and stormed enemy pill -boxes with bombs, machine guns and rifles. The attack was successful, but a heavy shower of rain filled the Wadi with mud and water through which it was impossible for supporting tanks to advance, and when the Fif- teenth Panzer Division counterat- tacked, the Northrmebrians were forc- ed back. Though it was not possible to exploit their initial success, the division hard contributed mucic to the ultimate victory by occupying a great part of the Axis strength which had to be employed to dislodge them from their hard-won position. The majority . of the men of the Fifty-first Division were under fire. for the first time at E1 Alamein. Rais- ed in the Scottish Highlands, it is composed of battalions of The Black. Watch, The Gordons, Seaforth High- landers, Cameron Highlanders and the Argyll and Sutherland Highland- ers, commanded by Major General Douglas N. Wimrierley from Inver- ness, The Highlanders at El Alamein acquitted themselves as wellas their forebears had done in the 1914-1918 war in France, where the Fifty-first were rated by the Germans as the most dangerous of any allied division on the Western Front. The teen-age girl approached . her mother one day looking very serious. "Mother," she said, "How do you talk to boys!" 'How do you mean " questioned her mother. "We11, when my boy friend comes over, I say, 'Hello, Butch,' and he says, 'Hiya, Stinky. What's coolcin'?' And then I don't know what to say next.." The darkies' club were having a big t"turn out." Speaker of the oc- casion was a Negro who at some time had had a little higher education. That he was rather confused might be implied from his talk, which went as follows: "Ladies and Gentlemun—Tonite ah feels somewhat like dat great Gen- eral Napoleon Bonaparte, when he stood on de banks ob dat great river, De Mississippi, overlookin' de Sah- ara Desert, wld de Alps in de dis- tance. It was him whut spoke dem memorable words in de Hebrew ton- gue --'E. Pluribus- Unum,' meaning 'Mah God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me!'" The mother kangaroo was loping happily through the Australian bush when suddenly she stopped to scratch her tummy, Then she proceeded hat= pily along once more. A second and a third time she stopped irritably to scratch. Finally she puf her paw into her pouch, took out her baby and smack- ed macked 11; soundly, "Now, then," she said crossly, "perhaps that will teach you not to eat biscuits in bed," uter kook 0 We Are Selling Quality Books Books are Well Made, Carbon is Clean and Copies Readily. All styles, Carbon Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Get Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Next Order. The Seaforth News SEAFORTH, ONTARIO,