Tuesday 9 September 2014

St Louis Car Company

I have already posted a report on the visit to the Chrysler factory that assembled Sherman tanks, but even smaller factories that produced less exciting tanks weren't skimmed over. Andrei Ulanov has a report on the St Louis Car Company, which produced LVT amphibious tanks.

"On June 21-22nd, we visited the St. Louis Car Company train factory, located on the outskirts of St. Louis in order to familiarize ourselves with American amphibious tanks. This factory made streetcars before the war, and, along with the streetcars, began producing amphibious tanks for the Navy and training airplanes for the Army. With the end of the war, the production of airplanes ceased, and the factory continued building amphibious tanks and streetcars.

This factory is a regular American assembly factory. It is small, and well equipped with tools required for assembly and production of some small parts. The factory employs about 900 workers, who work in two shifts. The factory makes 8 LVT-4 amphibious tanks daily. The company engineer that accompanied us claimed that in 1942, the factory made only two tanks per day, but gradually increased production due to increasing supply until they reached 8. If necessary, the factory can make 12 tanks per day."

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