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From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Research

machinehead61 Jun 13, 2012

Page 9 of 17

BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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Might find a few more diesel photos: http://griffincunningham.net/Griffin/MAIN/robstuff.htm#World_War_II_Units

BoxcabE50, May 20, 2013

#161
machinehead61 TrainBoard Member

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BoxcabE50 said: ↑

Might find a few more diesel photos: http://griffincunningham.net/Griffin/MAIN/robstuff.htm#World_War_II_Units
Click to expand...

My adobe pdf reader isn't working for some reason unknown to me. I can't open it up.

Steve

machinehead61, May 22, 2013

#162
machinehead61 TrainBoard Member

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paperkite said: ↑

Ken, thanks for listing the site ! The written history of the Battalion is just as valuable as the photos and maybe even more to the WWII buff ! As once again it shows the spirit, forbarence and determination of US military men and women in a call to support direct combat action in ETO against the Axis powers . Little did the Axis know they were up against the greatest fighting force in the world ... something the Japanesse were learning the hard way ... Never kick a sleeping dog !

May God bless our country !!
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They were up against the GREATEST MANUFACTURING FORCE IN THE WORLD.

In the beginning of WW II our military was ranked somewhere around 15th in the world.

The sleeping dog was our industrial might which we turned into the the greatest arsenal ever seen on the planet.

"Indeed, it was long recognized that the six Ordnance manufacturing arsenals could produce, in time of war, only about 4 or 5 per cent of the critical requirements for weapons, ammunition, fire-control instruments, aircraft bombs, and mechanized equipment. Now that we were in the midst of a war of unprecedented magnitude, Industry would have to take over 95 to 96 per cent of the armament manufacturing program.

Without the invaluable assistance of Industry, we of the Ordnance Department would be in the position of General Robert E. Lee when he heard that Stonewall Jackson had lost his left arm. General Lee's message was: "You have lost your left arm, but I have lost my right."

Lt. Gen. Levin H. Campbell, Chief of Ordnance, United States Army, 1942-1946
The Industry-Ordnance Team, 1946
p. 5
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The Robert Bosch Company of New York was created in 1906 to produce and sell magnetos, pumps, and other products of the Robert Bosch Company of Stuttgart, Germany, an old-line enterprise founded in1887. By 1930, the American company had a virtual monopoly on the U.S. Production of magnetos and fuel injection systems. Though American Bosch posed as an independent U.S.Company, in fact it had a contract with its German parent that required its permission as to what it produce, how much it produced,and to whom it sold its products. In the months leading up to U.S.entry into the world war and throughout 1942, American Bosch choked the U.S. production of diesel engines needed by the navy and others by delaying its production and delivery of essential fuel injection systems. In 1941 before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the navy desperately asked American Bosch to license its fuel injection technology to the Caterpillar Company. No answer was forthcoming. As soon as U.S. authorities understood that American Bosch was under German control; the Alien Property Custodian took over the company.The shortage was soon eliminated.

Pat Choate
Hot Property, The Stealing of Ideas inan Age of Globalization, 2005
p. 132-133
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Until World War II, Swedish steel was used almost exclusively in manufacturing automotive valve spring wire. As in the case of razor blade steel, American steel circles realized that the war would compel this country to find a substitute for the Swedish steel.
In 1940, metallurgists of the American Steel & Wire Company successfully tackled the problem. They perfected a process which produced valve spring wire of superior quality. In grueling tests, valve springs made of the wire outlasted Swedish steel by a decisive margin. The Wire Company's accomplishment was a major war contribution, for valve springs of rugged dependability were imperatively needed to keep our jeeps, trucks ,tanks and planes in operation during the conflict.

Douglas A.Fisher, Office of Assistant to Chairman, United States Steel Corporation
Steel Serves the Nation, 1901-1951, The Fifty Year Story of United States Steel, 1951
p. 163
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When the natural rubber supply from Southeast Asia was cut off at the beginning of World War II, the United States and its allies faced the loss of a strategic material. With U.S. Government sponsorship, a consortium of companies involved in rubber research and production united in a unique spirit of technical cooperation and dedication to produce a general purpose synthetic rubber, GR-S (Government Rubber-Styrene), on a commercial scale. In Akron and other U.S. locations, these companies, in collaboration with a network of researchers in government, academic, and industrial laboratories, developed and manufactured in record time enough synthetic rubber to meet the needs of the U.S. and its allies during World War II....

The onset of World War II cut off U.S. access to 90 percent of the natural rubber supply. At this time, the United States had a stockpile of about one million tons of natural rubber, a consumption rate of about 600,000 tons per year, and no commercial process to produce a general purpose synthetic rubber. Conserving, reclaiming, and stockpiling activities could not fill the gap in rubber consumption.....

The partnership of the government, industry, and academe expanded the U.S. synthetic rubber industry from an annual output of 231 tons of general purpose rubber in 1941 to an output of 70,000 tons a month in 1945.
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“Today there are few who remember the near-disaster we faced in the winter of 1943 because of the shortageof fuel oil and gasoline. It was the coldest winter in memory. Temperatures were consistently sub-zero and many fuel oil dealers were receiving as many as two hundred calls a day from customers pleading for emergency delivery.

On January 5, 1943, I issued a public statement to underscore the magnitude of the crisis and the need for care. “Right now,” I said, “there is only one day's supply of fuel oil in dealers' supply tanks in the State of Connectitcut. Since mid-December there has never been more than three days' supply of fuel oil on hand at any one time.”

The fuel oil and gasoline shortage was largely caused by transportation difficulties. The pipe lines to carry petroleum products from Texas and Oklahoma to the East Coast had not yet been completed and the only means of transportation was by tankers, which were an easy target for German submarines. I was told one night fourteen blazing tankers were visible from the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras.

Our office, which had now moved to Ann Street in Hartford, was not exempt from these privations. In mid-December a headline appeared in the Hartford Times, “Penetrating Cold Penetrates OPA Office.” The article reported that some of our OPA employees had been sent home because we lacked oil to heat the office.

Our house in Essex was built in 1939 for a large family and a heavy flow of guests, and it normally consumed a lot of fuel. However, when fuel rationing began, we shut off all the heat in two-thirds of the house and lived in the rest. Our dining room became our living room, the nearby front hall was piled high with firewood, and with an open coal fire going day and night we, like millions of other families, nursed our sharply reduced oil supply through the winter.”

Chester Bowles
Promises to Keep: My Public Life:1941-1969,
Harper & Rowe, 1971
p. 24-25
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BIG INCH PIPELINE

The manufacture of large diameter pipe was another research accomplishment of U.S. Steel for peace time service to our country which turned out to be of providential aid in World War II, when there was a serious shortage of oil and gasoline on the Atlantic seaboard due to the diversion of oil tankers for military service and the submarine menace. To overcome the shortage,the Big Inch line, the world's longest pipeline, was built from Texas to the New York-Philadelphia area. National Tube Company possessed the only plant in the country capable of making 24-inch seamless steel pipe.

During the war emergency, Big Inch transported almost 362,000,000 barrels of petroleum liquids. In the words of Harold L. Ickes, then Deputy Petroleum Administrator, “It would be difficult to overestimate the part which Big Inch has played in defeating the Axis powers. It would be equally difficult to make a precise appraisal of its contributions to the victory of the United Nations and the well-being of their citizens. With other means of transporting oil inadequate, Big Inch definitely became the facility which made it possible for us to meet the petroleum requirements of the Allied armies and thus shorten the war. It likewise prevented an oil shortage on the Atlantic seaboard.”

Douglas A. Fisher, Office of Assistant to Chairman, United States Steel Corporation
Steel Serves the Nation, 1901-1951, The Fifty Year Story of United States Steel, 1951
p. 176-177
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The traditional method for making tinplate has been to dip a sheet of steel in molten tin, This is known as the hot-dip method. Since the United States is dependent on foreign sources of tin, the known reserves of which are limited, the Corporation many years ago began to concern itself with the problem of tin conservation. It launched itself upon the formidable task of developing a process whereby tin could be deposited on steel sheets electrolytically, with a more economical use of tin. After the successful operation of an experimental pilot plant, U.S. Steel in 1937 installed the first commercial electrolytic tinning line in America, at Gary, Indiana. The anticipated savings in tin were fully borne out. The new process was found to use 60 percent less tin than the hot-dip method. An electrolytic tinning line is a complicated apparatus about 200 feet long and costs millions of dollars.

A GODSEND TO THE COUNTRY

The electrolytic tin plating process proved to be a godsend to this country in World War II. The rapid conquest of the Malay States and the Dutch East Indies by the Japanese cut off 92 percent of our tin supply. The situation became serious. Our armed forces and those of our allies required very large quantities of canned foods. The limited stock pile of tin in America was not enough for both military and civilian needs, and the Army and Navy naturally had first claim on the existing reserves. So critical was the situation in 1942 that the Government planned to send all canned goods exclusively to our armed forces and to allied armies through Lend-Lease. The home front would have had little or no foods preserved in tin cans but for U.S. Steel's foresight and labors of research, which were responsible for the successful commercial application of the new process.

In the emergency, U.S. Steel suggested to the Government that more electrolytic tinning lines be built as rapidly as possible and offered to share its knowledge about the new process with other tin plate manufacturers. U.S. Steel built nine new electrolytic lines and other companies also installed them, making a total of 27 electrolytic tin plating units in this country during the war.

It has been estimated that U.S. Steel's electrolytic process saved sufficient tin in four years, from 1942 to 1945, to produce more than four and a half billion cans for packing food. That enabled the Government to spare tin for civilians, and that is why the home front, although strictly rationed, was able to buy any foods preserved in tin cans.

Douglas A. Fisher, Office of Assistant to Chairman, United States Steel Corporation
Steel Serves the Nation, 1901-1951, The Fifty Year Story of United States Steel, 1951
p. 146-147
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And I could go on and on . . . .

Steve

Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2013

machinehead61, May 23, 2013

#163
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machinehead61 said: ↑

My adobe pdf reader isn't working for some reason unknown to me. I can't open it up.

Steve
Click to expand...

What version do you have installed? They are now up to v11.0.03.

BoxcabE50, May 23, 2013

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I almost forgot about aluminum . . .

“Hitler's great worry about the amazing production of aluminum (Hitler sent Nazi saboteurs to America via U-boats to destroy aluminum plants – Steve) in America was because of its essential role in the Allied aircraft program which was spelling defeat for the Nazis. Production of military aircraft had increased from 6,000 planes in 1939 to 86,000 in 1943. A grand total of 304,000 military airplanes were turned out in the United States in the five and one-half years of defense preparation and of the war itself. It required 3,500,000,000 pounds of aluminum to produce them. The average aircraft of 1943, exclusive of engine, propeller and landing gear, weighed approximately three times as much as the 1939 airplane. Three fourths of this weight was aluminum. At the war peak, it was estimated that more than 85 per cent of Alcoa's output was going into the aircraft program.....

Civilian manufacture of aluminum products was either drastically curtailed or was nonexistent during the war......

February 1941 – Aluminum put on priorities to give all capacity to defense.....

...the Company (Alcoa) was producing in its own or Government-owned plants about 90 per cent of the aluminum requirements...

1943. The aluminum industry will have a capacity of over 2 billion pounds, seven times prewar. Alcoa has more than doubled its metal producing and fabricating capacity through a self-financed expansion program. The expansion by private industry has been augmented by a vast Government program where the kind, amount and time of expansion has been at the direction of the Government. In addition to operating its own twenty plants, Alcoa has been honored with the responsibility for constructing and operating 40 Government projects in 25 different locations....

Altogether, between the start of the defense program in May, 1940 and V-J Day, Alcoa produced 11.4 billion pounds of alumina, smelted 5.5 billion pounds of aluminum, and fabricated 2.7 billion pounds of sheet, 450 million pounds of extruded shapes, 500 million pounds of forgings, and 400 million pounds of castings.

At the end of World War II ownership of aluminum-producing facilities in the United States presented a vastly different picture from that which existed before the war. The Government emerged in the immediate postwar period as the largest owner of such facilities. It had $672,000,000 invested in 50 wholly-owned aluminum plants for either aluminum production or aluminum fabrication as compared to Alcoa's net investment of $474,000,000, a portion of which was borrowed money. Not all of the Government investment was useful for peacetime production...

It will be recalled that the Government program for building aluminum-producing plants was divided into two phases. The first phase included the building of plants which were located with an eye to their possible peacetime use. The second phase provided for the construction of aluminum producers in large industrial centers where the use of high-cost electrical energy made these particular plants definitely war-emergency projects."

Charles C. Carr
Alcoa, An American Enterprise, 1951
p. 247-261
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And the steel industry in general . . .

….on May 10, 1939, when Hitler's blitzkrieg struck Western Europe like a thunderclap, the steel mills of this country had reached an annual capacity of 81,600,000 tons of steel.....

By the summer of 1941, however, when Britain was the last bastion of liberty in Europe, and ominous warlike signs were evident in Japan, the American Government with great urgency asked the steel industry to expand its capacity by 10,000,000 tons in the shortest possible time.....

It takes two to three years to build a steel mill....

In response to the government's request in 1941, the steel industry of America pitched in and built new furnaces, rolling mills and finishing equipment. Completely new steel mills were constructed. Some obsolete mills were called back into service. Year by year the steel capacity rose until it reached a record-breaking total of 95,500,000 tons in 1945.

This was 20,000,000 more tons than the maximum steel capacity at any time of our combined enemies.

Steel production mounted in proportion. To supply the basic metal for war, the steel plants of America by 1944 had increased their output 70 percent over 1939 and produced from January 1, 1940 to August 15, 1945, a grand total of 467,300,000 tons of steel.

Douglas A. Fisher, Office of Assistant to Chairman, United States Steel Corporation
Steel Serves the Nation, 1901-1951, The Fifty Year Story of United States Steel, 1951
p. 49-50
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Note how total capacity increased from 81,600,000 tons in 1939 to 95,500,000 tons in 1945.

That is only a 17% increase.

Why?

Because “It takes two to three years to build a steel mill....”

But yet:

“...the steel plants of America by 1944 had increased their output 70 percent over 1939.”

How?

"At the beginning of the national emergency steel mills generally were operated far below maximum rated capacity. Chicago's, for example, were operated at 36% of rated capacity in the "bad" year of 1938; at 63% in 1939. By 1940 production was up to 82.6% of capacity, the national average to 81.97%. The peak was reached in 1942 when Chicago's average was 102.8% (late in May the area had a weekly average of 107), the national average, 98.1. The Chicago area had far surpassed its own and the national records in steel production for war. And at the end of the war it claimed precedence over Pittsburgh as the leading steel-producing center in the nation."

Mary Watters
Illinois In The Second World War, Volume II - The Production Front, 1952
p. 86
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“Just before World War II, the West Coast region produced only 28 per cent of the 2,200,000 tons of finished steel which it consumed. Three years after the war, it produced 56 per cent of its finished steel consumption....

During World War II, the need arose for a greatly increased supply of steel plates and special forms of structural steel for the construction of ships on the Pacific Coast where the largest volume of merchant ships was being built, To meet the emergency demand, the government decided to build a large, integrated steel mill in Utah and called upon the engineering and operating experience of U.S. Steel to construct and operate it. The site chosen was Geneva, near Salt Lake City. There, U.S. Steel constructed and operated for the government, without charge or fee, the largest steel mill west of the Mississippi.”

Douglas A. Fisher, Office of Assistant to Chairman, United States Steel Corporation
Steel Serves the Nation, 1901-1951, The Fifty Year Story of United States Steel, 1951
p. 43-44
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May we never forget that our nation's strength lies in its manufacturing.

Steve

Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2013

machinehead61, May 23, 2013

#165
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Just got a better photo of this one from the gift shop in the Rochelle train park:

Thanks to Ross Frier, Rochelle tourism.

Steve

machinehead61, Jun 3, 2013

#166
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I wonder what sort of protection that steel really offered? Small arms fire? Or more?

BoxcabE50, Jun 3, 2013

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BoxcabE50 said: ↑

I wonder what sort of protection that steel really offered? Small arms fire? Or more?
Click to expand...

It only amounted to 3 tons of armor which like you said, would stop small arms fire but not much else. Any aircraft with a 20mm cannon would open it up like a tin can. If the Axis had used .50 calibre machine guns like the Americans, they would have torn up these locomotives also. You should see the gun camera footage of a P-47 blowing up locomotives with its 8 - .50 calibre machine guns. One shot from a tank and it would be DOA.

It's why they disguised them as boxcars so they would survive air attack and never ran them up to the front lines unless by mistake. If the enemy had over run their lines - which Rommel did do - and they accidently ran a locomotive into combat, if they couldn't escape they'd try to destroy the engine before getting out of Dodge. It happened in North Africa.

What the crews did run into were demolition teams that the Nazis would smuggle behind lines. These teams besides carrying demolition charges also carried small arms and occasionally got into shoot outs with train crews. The train crews would carry small arms also. The Allies also learned quickly to guard the trains with MP's. The local Arabs would steal anything off the trains right in front of the crews. After North Africa, the MRS Battalions were issued their own MP units to ride with all trains throughout the ETO until the war ended.

Steve

machinehead61, Jun 4, 2013

#168
machinehead61 TrainBoard Member

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Here is an excellent WW II film (3 parts) of a P-47 Thunderbolt unit in Italy. After their bomb runs they would go low and hunt for ground targets to empty their 8 - .50's into and heaven help any locomotive that they caught.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3juQiY4ocPg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBSh4peQ8o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBSh4peQ8o

At the beginning of the 3rd part is gun camera footage of Thunderbolts straffing trains. They'd get the locomotive first which stopped the train, then they would turn around for more passes and strafe the rest of the cars in search for ammo. When they hit an ammo car the results were spectacular as the video shows.

Thunderbolts - nicknamed Jugs - were about 7 tons and about the heaviest single seat fighter the Allies had in WW II. They were extremely tough and could take a lot of damage which made them ideal for ground attack which draw a lot of ground fire. P-47's had air-cooled radials compared to Mustangs which were water-cooled. One small arms bullet into the cooling system and a Mustang would come down. The P&W R-2800 double radial air-cooled could have a jug shot off and still fly home.

At the 9:15 mark in the 3rd part is gruesome footage of a Thunderbolt that crash lands in a fireball. They drag out the charred remains of the pilot. Wasn't much left of him. They didn't attempt to glorify the war in this film.

Steve

machinehead61, Jun 4, 2013

#169
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From Baldwin Locomotives magazine, December 1942 issue.

Steve

machinehead61, Jun 12, 2013

#170
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JACKPOT !

For me, the Holy Grail of Whitcomb locomotive photographs would be of the camouflaged 65 ton Military Railway Service units serving in North Africa.

I have found such a photograph.

I did not know if any ever existed since the military was probably cautious about leaking out how we were doing it.

After Pearl Harbor was attacked, I've been told that no photography of the rail service from the ammo depot to Pearl Harbor was permitted for the duration of the war. Thus no Whitcomb photographs at Pearl Harbor exist from 1942-1945.

From a library loan - University of Chicago - comes this - Baldwin Magazine Third Quarter 1944:

I will attempt to produce a better quality photo of the lower left image.

Also - Baldwin Magazine Second Quarter 1945 confirms that Whitcomb 65 ton locomotives were the first to enter liberated Rome, Paris, Belgium, and Germany.

Also will try to produce a better photograph tomorrow.

Steve

machinehead61, Jul 3, 2013

#171
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I am very surprised by all that you have unearthed. I had no idea tenacity would pay off this well.

BoxcabE50, Jul 3, 2013

#172
machinehead61 TrainBoard Member

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BoxcabE50 said: ↑

I am very surprised by all that you have unearthed. I had no idea tenacity would pay off this well.
Click to expand...

I also searched Northern Illinois University Library archives and had uncovered 9 unpublished Whitcomb photos - 2 from 1940 and 7 from 1949 shot in DeKalb just 20 miles east of Rochelle:

http://www.ulib.niu.edu/Reghist/Regional Collections.cfm#e

My adobe keeps screwing up so I can't see the Embree, W.W. collection but that is where this comes from.

The (2) 1940 photos are of a switcher in the DeKalb rail yard in brand new paint and "Whitcomb made in Rochelle" on the side.

The (7) 1949 photos are of an entire train load of crated Whitcombs on flat cars headed for Argentina stopped in the DeKalb rail yard.

They want $4 per photo to scan and copy to disc so $36 for the 9 photos. Our local museum has agreed to pay for it so hopefully tomorrow I can get that done.

Steve

machinehead61, Jul 3, 2013

#173
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I need a better camera than my Canon PowerShot A4000. It has auto focus and I can't over ride its flash choice. Time to save for a better camera.

This is my first attempt at a better image - not in the best focus and flash wouldn't go off.

I have a friend with a high end digital camera who has offered to help me out - I need it.

Steve

machinehead61, Jul 3, 2013

#174
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Where was that last photo taken? Looks like perhaps North Africa?

BoxcabE50, Jul 3, 2013

#175
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BoxcabE50 said: ↑

Where was that last photo taken? Looks like perhaps North Africa?
Click to expand...

Exactly, North Africa during WW II. This is one of the camouflaged Whitcombs of the MRS that operated through Tunisia and Egypt in the campaign to push Rommel out of Africa 1942-1943.

Steve

machinehead61, Jul 5, 2013

#176
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These images are from Baldwin Magazine Second Quarter 1945.

Due to the binding, I could not scan these pages without blurring at the center. Thus these are all camera photos.

This article confirms that Whitcombs were the first Allied locomotives to enter liberated Rome, Paris, first supply and hospital trains into Belgium, first train into Germany, besides powering the first military train during WW II (North Africa).

Steve

machinehead61, Jul 6, 2013

#177
BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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Maybe some day we will see a model of these in N scale....

BoxcabE50, Jul 6, 2013

#178
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BoxcabE50 said: ↑

Maybe some day we will see a model of these in N scale....
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I found this but I can't read nor understand the page, Italian?

http://www.lineamodel.it/benvenuti_in_lineamodel.htm

I can't find the price but I'll bet it's expensive being in brass.

I think I found the price -

169 Euro = $216.84 US Dollar

That is an expensive model for me.

Steve

machinehead61, Jul 6, 2013

#179
machinehead61 TrainBoard Member

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Just found this in a photo album here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/1155...544476866841256427/albums/5888961522809097713

Back of the photo states somewhere in France 1945.

Appears to be a pair of Whitcomb 65-ton diesel locomotives damaged by what I would guess was a collision. Photo taken from what appears to be a third Whitcomb.

Steve

machinehead61, Jul 13, 2013

#180

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