{"id":49,"date":"2021-05-06T02:05:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T02:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/?p=49"},"modified":"2021-05-13T17:52:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T17:52:08","slug":"tanks-cars-and-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/uncategorized\/tanks-cars-and-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanks, Cars, and Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 WWII was the first war to see the effective use of tanks as demonstrated by the German blitzkrieg of 1939. In response, the U.S. had to race to develop its own arsenal of armored vehicles, which was limited to just sixty-four tanks in the summer of 1940. To aid the government in its efforts,\u00a0Busch-Sulzer Diesel Engine Co.\u00a0made engines for minesweepers and patrol boats. Other factories like Carter Carburetor were major suppliers of army trucks. By far the two biggest contributors to the army\u2019s transportation needs were the\u00a0St. Louis Car Company\u00a0and\u00a0American Car and Foundry Company of St. Charles, which\u00a0produced tanks. The output of the later factory, along with its sister plant in Pennsylvania, helped manufacture seventeen percent of the total number of tanks made for the army. This was greater than any other single plant in the U.S. As the war continued, tank production throughout the country would soar from 3,964 in 1941, to 24,754 the next year. The number jumped even higher the following year to 29,495.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            At the start of the war, American tanks suffered from a host of design flaws, due to the fact that tanks were a relatively new invention and hadn\u2019t been used extensively by the U.S. military. By 1941, the most common tank used by the army was the M3 and it had several significant design flaws. First, its treads were good for normal roads but slid in muddy conditions. In addition to this, there were problems with the engines. Normal automobile engines weren\u2019t powerful enough to operate the tank, so air-cooled aircraft engines were used instead. However, these engines needed cool air to operate, which would be extremely difficult when they operated in the deserts of North Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The most concerning defect however dealt with the tanks armor. At the time the armor was held together using metal rivets. The problem was that these rivets became lethal pieces of shrapnel whenever the tank was hit by enemy shells. Eventually these problems were resolved by using two Cadillac engines to operate the tank and welding the armor plates together instead of using rivets. The invention of the M4 Sherman tank made older models like the M3 obsolete. It should be noted however that the M4 was still considered to be inferior compared to Russian and German tanks for the rest of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The M3 tank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The improved M4 Sherman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In addition to making tanks and trucks for the army, St. Louis also supplied the materials that supported them in the field. While tanks could drive without the assistance of roads, the same could not be said for the legion of trucks and support vehicles that kept the armies supplied in Africa and later Europe. In many cases, roads and bridges were destroyed either by retreating enemy forces or attacking Allied armies. To counteract this,\u00a0Gruendler Crusher\u00a0provided construction equipment for building roads in North Africa. In order to replace bombed out bridges Mississippi Valley Structural Steel produced 114 portable railroad bridges in four months. These bridges were used to replace the destroyed bridges throughout the European theatre. Another bridge company was\u00a0Stupp Bros. Bridge & Iron Co. Their bridges were used in both theatres and consisted of more individual parts, making were more flexible in their assembly. This also meant it took longer to put them together, and the army almost turned them down until it was discovered that the bridges width of 129 inches made it the only bridge capable of accommodating the T23 tanks\u2019 width of 124 inches. Making for a tight, but possible means of crossing rivers and gorges in the various military theatres for the precursor of the Pershing Tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many St. Louis companies were too small to assemble entire bridges or military vehicles, so instead they prefabricated the parts and support facilities that the bigger plants could assemble. Firms such as McCabe powers Body Company built mobile engine shops, which were capable of repairing vehicles even in combat conditions. In addition to this, Century Electric and Barrett Electrical Supply produced hydraulic brakes. Then there was National Slug Rejectors and Standard Steel Spring Co. who made truck axels. Finally, companies there were companies like Nixdorff Krein that made simple objects like tow chains for vehicles that couldn\u2019t move on their own. Without companies like these, American troops would have not only had a tougher fight to Reach Tokyo and Berlin, but they would have been forced to walk the whole journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 WWII was the first war to see the effective use of tanks as demonstrated by the German blitzkrieg of 1939. In response, the U.S. had to race to develop its own arsenal of armored vehicles, which was limited to just sixty-four tanks in the summer of 1940. To aid the government in its efforts,\u00a0Busch-Sulzer\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umsldigitalhumanities.org\/StLouisInWorldWarTwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}