Missouri’s Contribution to the WWII Effort
Every state in the Union played its part in turning American industry into the mighty war machine that brought down the Axis powers. Missouri was a very important player in the war effort, supplying soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines with everything it could to do its part in this monumental undertaking.
The industrial base in the United States at the time relied heavily on the small businesses, so much so that ninety-five percent of American business in the 1930’s was done through small businesses. One hundred seventy thousand of the businesses and small plants produced seventy percent of all United States goods, while another one hundred large corporations produced the other thirty percent of products. By 1943, the tables had turned and those one hundred large corporations made seventy percent of the goods and those of the one hundred seventy thousand that had survived produced only ten percent of goods (62nd J.O.T.H. 410).
Industry was only a portion of what Missouri had to offer in the war. Missouri’s farms played as much of a part in the supply of American troops as Missouri industry.
Laws were enacted that allowed many skilled farmers and farm-hands to be exempt from selective service due to the dire need for their experience and skills they could provide in producing the much needed food for the country and the troops(62nd J.O.T.H. 411). Citizens were also asked to do their part in home front activities during the war. Cultivating home or “victory” gardens, increasing the cutting of timber that can be used for war, to recruit manpower for farms, to collect scrap metals, to set up councils of defense, and to encourage recruitment into the armed services were all activities that any American at home could do to contribute to the war effort (62nd J.O.T.H. 413).
In Missouri more than twenty-two thousand people went to trade schools and most of them were with a war training program. Vocational training for war production was a law that was enacted by Congress in June of 1940. Congress recognized that if the United States were to enter the war they would have the same problem that the nation had encountered in 1917, the nation was short of the millions of workers that were needed for war time production. Under Public Law 647 and 135, passed in 1942 and 1943, respectively, one hundred eighty million dollars was appropriated for war time production training. This program was known as VE-ND (Vocational Education for National Defense) and there were twenty-six centers set up in Missouri to teach Missourians the necessary skills for production. These twenty-six centers were entirely funded by the Federal Government, with no local or state money going to their set up or operation. Nationwide centers, like the ones in Missouri, trained over forty thousand men and women per year in various different jobs for war production (63rd H.A.S.J.A. 48&51).
St. Louis may have been the single most important city in the United States for war production. It held the largest percent of war contracts over any other city in the nation. St. Louis accounted for only around one percent of the nation’s population, but supplied about four and a half percent of work for the war. The war was very good for the St. Louis economy, bringing around a billion dollars into the area (Flynn, 485).
St. Louis’ Schlueter Manufacturing Company was one of two manufactures in the nation that produced the M1 helmet.
Schlueter was a peacetime maker of pots and pans who converted with the United States’ entrance into the war (GD 9/12/1943). Diagraph-Bradley Stencil Machine Corporation was another St. Louis industry that was one of few to produce their goods. Diagraph-Bradley was one of three manufacturers in the world of stencil cutting machines. The machines were important because of the logistical aspect of war and the shipped goods needed to be well marked to avoid confusion (letter from V/P of Diagraph-Bradley to STSOM, 6/14/1946).
St. Louis Ordnance plant may have been one of the most important war plants that Missouri had during the war.
The ammo produced there was used by the infantry soldier all the way up to the machine guns on fighter planes.
Ground was broken for the plant on March 28, 1941 on the northern edge of St. Louis’ industrial district. The plant sprawled across three hundred acres and by war’s end had over four million feet of floor space in its three hundred buildings after it was decided an additional plant that was one and a half times bigger than the first would be needed. The two plants combined would become the St. Louis Ordnance Plant, and the biggest industrial plant in the Midwest (BBTB). Much like the other ammunition plants across the nation, and the one on the other side of the state, St. Louis Ordnance was owned by the United States but was run by a private company; Western Cartridge,.
To illustrate the size of the operation there are some interesting facts about the plant that should be said. The plant used over six million gallons of water per day and also used forty-four hundred gallons of lubricating oil on their machinery per day. Four hundred twenty-eight trucks were required to bring in materials each day and sixty carloads of brass were used each day. The plant required nearly five hundred eighty thousand kilowatt hours of electricity, nearly five million cubic feet of gas, and eighty-eight tons of coal per day for energy. There were twenty-six cafeterias open around the clock. A first aid station and registered nurse were stationed in every manufacturing unit. There was also a fully equipped and staffed hospital inside of the plant’s area to provide care to any sick or injured workers (BBTB).
Ammunition was being produced just seven months after breaking ground for the plant and cartridges were first accepted by the Ordnance Department on December 8th, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. By the end of the war St. Louis produced nearly thirteen billion rounds of small arms ammunition. In other words, enough ammunition to circle the earth six and a half times if laid end to end.
. Small arms ammunition produced at the St. Louis Plant were the .30 carbine (made for the M1 carbine), 30.06 (used in the M1 Garand, 1903A3, and light machine guns), and the .50 caliber (used in heavy machine guns).
Emerson Electric Manufacturing Company was another important asset in Missouri’s production arsenal. Their production of power turrets was extremely important to the war effort because it allowed bombers and transport planes to protect themselves from enemy fighter planes. Like many other plants, Emerson’s turret plant was part of the Defense Plant Corporation, with Emerson building and operating the government owned plant. The plant started to be built in July of 1941 and was built for the sole purpose of producing power turrets. Machinery was operational and turrets were being built just six months after ground breaking.
Emerson made five different types of turrets during the war, all of which contributed to victory. They built the Sperry Ball Turret which was used on the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator, heavy bombers. They built the Sperry Upper Deck Turret which was used on the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Grumman Upper Deck Turret which was used on Grumman Avengers, a carrier based dive bomber. They also built the Martin Upper Deck Turret that was used on the B-24 Liberator, and the Emerson Electric Nose Turret which was used on the B-24 Liberator, heavy bomber (Emerson Electric catalog). The plant was so important to the war effort that the government classified it as one of seven irreplaceable war plants in operation.
Kansas City also played an important part in Missouri’s war production.
One out of every hundred American war dollars were spent in Jackson, Clay, and Wyandotte counties.
In total there were almost four hundred war plants in the Kansas City area.
Lake City Ordnance Plant was the backbone of government ammunition, becoming the first of its kind. American Aviation produced numbers of bombers for the war and became a significant asset to American war production.
Lake City Ordnance Plant played a major role in arming the troops with the ammunition they needed for the war.
To start, the Ordnance Department began by building three plants that would be able to meet their production goals of one million .30 caliber ammunition and six hundred thousand rounds of .50 caliber ammunition per day (Remington 3-4). It was expected that these plants would be operational in eleven months from ground breaking. Lake City was to be the first in operation followed by Denver and St. Louis. Remington Arms was given operational command over Lake City and Denver.
It took just ten months transforming a Missouri farm into a plant that was supplying ammunition to the forces.
The initial plan of one million rounds of caliber .30 was increased in the first contract with Lake City to two million rounds per day. The expected need for .50 caliber remained the same (Remington 6). This meant the plant had the challenge of producing nearly twenty-four .30 caliber rounds per second and seven .50 caliber rounds per second!
The plant required at least sixty-five hundred employees to operate at full production. During peak production the number of workers at the plant was over three times that number. In 1943 Lake City had an astounding twenty thousand people working at the plant.
The plant had to deal with problems such as health, transportation, safety, and any other needs a large group of people would need. Lake City had to provide and maintain its own water and sanitation facilities to provide potable water and take care of its sewage. The plant also had twenty-five miles of roads and had its own bus system to transport the workers. This was to combat some of the traffic that would congest the plant’s roads. With forty-five hundred cars entering and leaving the plant daily, traffic and parking were a large problem for the plant. There was also a large utilities operation on the plant’s premises. It had to distribute gas and electricity and provide telephone service throughout the compound (Remington 59).
The twenty thousand workers all needed to be feed, so the plant had six cafeterias that were open night and day. There was also a hospital staffed with ten doctors and nearly fifty nurses. The hospital had sections for men and women, a surgical unit, x-ray, laboratory, and an ambulance service. There were also seven first aid stations scattered throughout the plant that were operated 24 hours a day. Along with personal care, the plant had to provide its own security and protection. This was very important because of the type of production that was occurring at Lake City. At the time, Lake City’s police department was larger than Kansas City’s police department. The compound had twenty-four miles of fences, with police guarding the posts. Even more important to the plant than security, was the fire department. The fire department was very well equipped and was staffed by eighty-two men. Fire would be catastrophic if it made it to powder supply or loaded ammunition (Remington 59-61).
American Aviation, Inc. played a very important role in Kansas City’s war production efforts. American Aviation produced B-25 bombers that would put fear into the Axis forces. Leading up to the war, American Aviation produced many trainers for various countries, but the largest was for England, building six hundred trainers in 1939 for the newly made British purchasing commission (KCS 1/4/1941).
Ground breaking for the new plant was held on March 8, 1941 and the plant was turning out bombers three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). American Aviation’s plant was built to be used as a war plant and had features to protect itself from possible enemy attacks. It was one of the first “black out” plants that were built in the United States. This meant that the plant could operate twenty-four hours a day, without the risk of a possible enemy plane seeing the glow from the lighting at night. The entire plant was air-conditioned so the doors could be left closed and not let out light from the fourteen miles of fluorescent bulbs that were required to light the plant (KCS 1/4/1941). Kansas City and Inglewood, California were the only two plants that would produce the B-25 bombers. Much like other war plants, the American Aviation plant became its own city. It provided many of the amenities that the workers needed such as cafeterias. It also provided its own emergency electricity, police and fire departments, and anything else it needed to operate the plant without outside assistance or utilities in case of an emergency (KCS 1/4/1941).
The B-25 was the single most armed bomber in the world during WWII. The nose of the plane had an impressive eight .50 caliber machine guns pointing straight ahead. It had another two on each side of the fuselage, two more on the roof turret giving the plane the forward firepower of fourteen guns, all of which could be fired at one time. It also had door guns on the rear of the fuselage, and two tail guns. This gave the bomber eighteen .50 caliber machine guns in all to protect itself on missions. The B-25’s impressive arsenal gave in the nickname the “flying fifties”.
In 1943 more bombers were made in Kansas City than any other plant in the world. On April 3, 1945 the six thousandth bomber was delivered by American Aviation (KCS 6/24/1945). By the end of the war they plant had delivered nearly seven thousand bombers to the government. At the peak of production the plant employed over twenty-five thousand workers that worked shifts around the clock (KCS 8/17/1945). Two-thirds of all B-25’s were made at the Kansas City plant and at peak production the plant was turning out an average of thirteen bombers per day. In August of 1945, American Aviation produced three hundred bombers in twenty-three days.