After mistakenly identifying the Bren gun (a light machine gun that uses a gas propellant) in the previous post on Basic Training at Lansdowne Park, I was reminded that there is an archival photo series on the making of the gun. Little did I understand its fabled history, and its Canadian connection.

Historic Photos from Around Toronto - a daily selection from the City of Toronto Archives has a collection of pictures taken at the John Inglis Company - a Canadian manufacturer of the Bren gun, and other weapons. The plant was located in East Parkdale, now an urban renaissance neighbour that's been rebranded as Libertyville as a nod to its contribution to the war effort.

The Chinese Nationalists were a foreign client of the John Inglis Co. - here is 'Major General Whang Ping-hing inspecting BREN gun during visit of Chinese officials - Friday, February 27, 1942'.

They employed hundreds of women on the production line. 'Visit of Chinese officials to John Inglis Co. Ltd. - February 27, 1942.' In less than two years they produced 100,000 Bren guns.

'Chinese General P. Kiang and June Pattison, Miss Inglis, posing with Bren gun outside plant at 100,000th Bren gun ceremony, John Inglis Co. Ltd - August 20, 1943.'

'Lord Halifax [Foreign Secretary in Churchill's War Cabinet] and Major J E Hahn [an American who had bought the Inglis Co. in the early 1940s] watching female workers at John Inglis Co. Ltd.  January 24, 1944.'

At the 1943 100K celebrations 'Band awaiting in shorts at the 100,000th Bren gun ceremony.'

Unlike many Canadian war industries, peacetime businesses that had to be geared up for wartime manufacturing, the John Inglis Co. had been making weapons for many years. After the war the Inglis Co. became a swords-into -ploughshares story when they converted to making home appliances like washing machines and stoves. They moved away the Strachan Ave plant in 1981, which was left abandoned. Today it is being rehabbed for Libertyville stores and lofts.

There's a Bren gun set up in the Royal Canadian Regiment Museum in London, Ontario. The RCR fought up the boot of Italy.

The Bren was developed from a Czech gun by the British in the 1930s and made its way around the world. 'A member of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior) with his Bren gun, 1944.'

'Indian troops in the desert man a Bren gun on an anti-aircraft tripod, 1941.'

In Canada, The Bren gun was a centrepiece in the Wartime Information Board's mildly erotic feature on Miss Veronica Foster, also known as Ronnie,'the BREN Gun Girl'. No Smoking?

The juxtaposition of pretty girls and heavy machinery was irresistible to the WIB's photographers. 'Veronica Foster, an employee of the John Inglis Co. inspects a lathe at the Bren gun plant.'

The Bren Gun Girl series follows Miss Foster home, to get ready for a night out. Flickr has a photostream of the women who assembled the guns.

The Bren Gun Girl partying with co-workers at the Glen Eagle Country Club.