This is what Toronto looked like during World War II

Toronto was a very different-looking city during World War II, a bustling manufacturing and transit point in the North American industrial powerhouse that contributed immense manpower and equipment toward the defeat of the Axis powers.

A visual trip back to war-era Toronto reveals a burgeoning metropolis on the precipice of a substantial post-war population and building boom, a time when Art Deco architecture and soot-stained church steeples dominated the local skyline, and just 650,000 residents called the city home.

Canada declared war on Nazi Germany on Sept. 10, 1939, kicking off a bloody campaign lasting over five years, where roughly 3,400 Toronto residents serving in the armed forces were killed, along with close to 40,000 other Canadians.

But back on the home front, it was a combination of Canada's vast natural resources, industrial power, and the contribution of women in manufacturing and other sectors that collectively kept the troops fighting overseas well-supplied in their battle for democracy.

Toronto Shipyards Launch

1944/Harry Rowed-National Film Board of Canada

Wartime rally at Maple Leaf Gardens

June 1, 1941/City of Toronto Archives

Victory Loans billboard at Old City Hall

May 13, 1945/City of Toronto Archives

Bren gun manufacturing

Ceremony at John Inglis Co., Ltd.
Photo: Alexandra Studio, August 20, 1943/City of Toronto Archives

RCAF parade on University Ave.

City of Toronto Archives

De Havilland Canada aircraft plant

Bernice Colter sanding aircraft parts at De Havilland Canada plant
Photo: John Boyd Jr., January 21, 1943/City of Toronto Archives

Wedding at Stanley Barracks

September 20,1941/City of Toronto Archives

Film star Sterling Hayden and troops at Old City Hall

1942/City of Toronto Archives

Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service at HMCS York

May 26, 1943/City of Toronto Archives

Buying food at Eatons using ration stamps

Photo: John H. Boyd
March 30, 1943/City of Toronto Archives

Miss War Worker Beauty Contest

July 18, 1942/City of Toronto Archives

Victory Gardens

June 5, 1943/City of Toronto Archives

Chorley Park Hospital

June 21, 1945/City of Toronto Archives

V-E Day celebrations on Bay St.

Photo: John H. Boyd
May 7, 1945/City of Toronto Archives

V-E Day celebrations on King St.

Photo: E.R. White
May 8, 1945/City of Toronto Archives

Toronto's population would explode in the postwar years, bringing a wave of new residents, the expansion of suburbs, and many more profound changes to life in the city.