Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 34

Did You Know?
The DEW Line stretched more than 8,046 kilometres,
5,944 of which were in Canada. Construction required
more than 25,000 people and the largest commercial
airlift to date—45,000 commercial flights in 32 months.
Project: The DEW Line
facilitating the involvement of Canadian contractors and
suppliers, and maintaining a watching brief to ensure
that Canadian firms would benefit from the operation
and maintenance contracts.
The relatively southerly position of the Pinetree Line
brought with it some serious limitations for North
American defence, given that Soviet aircraft would
A view from Winnipeg and points north…
be approaching from the north. The development of
Manitoba, 1952 to 1956—Neil S. Wither
thermonuclear weapons—far more destructive than
(Neil notes that in 1952, when he was doing general
their nuclear counterparts—increased the concerns.
labour work and rough carpentry in Winnipeg, he joined
The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line in the Canadian
Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation as a rodman
Arctic, roughl y along the 70th parallel, was one solution.
for a survey crew without knowing what the term meant.)
By November 1954, Canada and the United States had
I soon found out that it meant holding a metal rod
agreed to construct the DEW Line. The United States
whilst someone with an iron ring squinted through a
would pay for the line, but was required to use Canadian
level and determined if the world was flat or round. It
contractors and labour.
also meant running endless circuits to ensure the world
itself had not shifted, in particular at Stevenson Field on
DCL’s involvement with the DEW Line project was
Whytewold Road, where it seemed that construction
limited in comparison with the other radar lines built
was endless (Stevenson Field was a combined civil-
in Canada—it provided short lists of suitable sub-
military airfield that in 1958 was renamed the Winnipeg
contractors, and represented the interests of smaller
construction companies during building and as part of
International Airport—in the mid-1950s, it handled
the maintenance that followed the line’s completion in
more military traffic than any other civil airport in Canada,
1957. The Corporation’s main tasks, therefore, were
and also served as a supply base for construction of the
DEW Line).
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BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA