Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit (NOFU)

The Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit (NOFU) recruited skilled lumberjacks to come to Scotland. Their job was vital to the war effort. Over 3,500 men chanced their luck and volunteered.

The island of Newfoundland is sited off the east coast of Canada. In 1949 it became part of Canada, but at the start of World War II it was its own country.

Unlike the Canadian Forestry Corps (CFC), which was sent to Britain at the same time, the NOFU was not a military unit. The men were hired on six-month long contracts and were paid the same as they were paid at home. This came to two dollars per day or twelve dollars a week.

Although not in the military, many of the men who volunteered to come over wanted to join the fighting. The work they were doing was as vital to the success of the war as the fighting itself.

Many of the men joined the Home Guard, while working at the camps and served locally. In 1942 the 3rd Inverness (Newfoundland) Battalion Home Guard was created consisting of over seven hundred men. It was the only Home Guard unit composed entirely of men from abroad.