Like the chill in most Canadian winters, the crowd’s collective breath creates a hazy mist over the frenzied festivities.

It’s the first time a passenger train has chugged its way into the Valley Town; most were destined for the Bertram Shops, Canada’s primary developer and manufacturer of armaments.

It’s Jan. 17, 1946, and after years of war and worry, rations and regrets, 140 soldiers from the 102nd (Wentworth) Field Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery have finally — and safely — returned home. Some of the brave young soldiers had spent a long, brutal four years fighting overseas.

Residents arrived en masse to welcome home fathers and sons as they marched past Town Hall, up King Street to the armories.

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This treasured, one-of-a-kind 8.5-minute video is the centrepiece of a fascinating new exhibit at the Dundas Museum and Archives called, Put Victory First, Dundas Fights on the Home Front. The exhibit tells some of the stories of Dundas during the two world wars — tales of sacrifice, loss, pain, and ultimately, victory.

It includes such personal and poignant items like a letter from signaller W. A. Moss, also known as Billy, who served with the 10th Canadian Machine Gun Company, British Expeditionary Force. The letter home is dated Feb. 12, 1917, Somewhere in France.

Young Billy writes, “On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of opening a parcel with 15 pair of sox (sic) knit by the people of my home town therefore they are good sox as everything that comes from Dundas is good.”

Dundas museum archivist Sandra Kiemele said the idea for the exhibit sprung from a vigil the museum hosted in the fall of 2007 called Giving Voice. Volunteers and staff read from diaries, letters and newspapers for eight hours to mark Remembrance Day.

“This summer we decided it was the perfect time to expand on that and make a larger scale exhibit based on material we have here at the museum,” said Kiemele.

The museum’s three primary sources of information were records from the Dundas Women’s Patriotic League, which was formed to assist soldiers by knitting socks and blankets, the Soldiers Memorial Committee that came together after the First World War to erect a monument that still stand sat King at Market streets, and the Civil Defense Committee, which protected the town from danger.

The result is a highly educational, well-researched, heart-breaking and eye-catching study of Dundas during the war years.

Along with the work of Kiemele and museum manager Carolyn Westoby, Put Victory First, Dundas Fights on the Home Front features the efforts of five volunteer guest curators who worked for three months with museum staff to develop, research and install the exhibit. Guest curators included students Alexandra Saly, Julia Stacey, Lisa DeCicco, Stephanie Smith, Emily Waugh and Alyssa Gomori.

Put Victory First, Dundas Fights on the Home Front includes, among many, many other unique items, a Lee-Enfield magazine rifle Mk. 1, purchased by the Canadian government in 1895; soldiers’ battle dress, dog tags and a shaving kit; shells produced by Bertram Shops, one roughly two feet tall; documents detailing the campaign to raise victory loans and bonds; a Nazi youth scrapbook and pennant, arm band, German money and helmet; scrapbooks kept by youngsters Dorothy Bayes and Ken Bennett from 1939-45; a Red Cross Club workbook from Rowena French Jeffreys, whose carefully written journal recites the words of The Maple Leaf Forever and The Land We Love; a fundraising quilt produced by the Greensville Women’s Institute.

And most heart-breaking of all, letters from soldiers, fighting far away from their loved ones in unforgiving conditions, and condolences cards to grieving moms whose boys would never return to the fold.

John Murphy, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 36 in Dundas, was one of the first to preview the exhibit when the Rotary Club of Dundas hosted its annual Remembrance Day meeting at the museum. Each year the local service organization invites veterans share in their weekly luncheon meeting.

“I think the exhibit is very well done, very tasteful,” said Murphy. “It shows the extent that Dundas gathered as a community and Canada as a country...how they came together to support the war effort, volunteer soldiers, women working in the plants doing their father's or husband’s and brothers’ work, everyone supporting the war bonds effort, it was amazing.”

When asked why the museum exhibit and other Remembrance Day observances are important, Murphy said, “Without their sacrifice, we would live in a different world. These men and women went to war to ensure we had a future, to ensure we have freedom of speech, freedom to believe in God...”

He also cites For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon.

“They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them."

Put Victory First, Dundas Fights on the Home Front, runs at the museum, 130 Park St. W. until Jan. 17, 2010. For more information, call 905-627-7412 or visit www.dundasmuseum.ca .