General Electric made howitzers in Erie during World War II. Employment at the Erie Works of General Electric jumped from 5,675 people in 1940 to 9,544 persons during World War II. Between 1946 and 1951, employment averaged 15,031 workers per year.
Machines previously used for making electric motors for street cards and locomotives were used by skilled machinists at the General Electric Erie Plant, producing the latest 75-millimeter pack howitzers for the United States Army.
The size of the howitzer — only 47 inches long — permitted boring operations to be performed on turret lathes already in the plant, and with a few changes, other tools on hand were adapted for the work. As production was stepped up it was necessary to add some new machines; special rifling equipment had to be installed. But assembly-line production had been underway for some months before the upgrades, with the men who formerly made motors now making howitzers.
Maximum portability and striking power for its weight and complete interchangeability of parts were features of the pack howitzer. Originally designed for mule transport, the modern howitzer was towed on pneumatic tires by motorized troops. Some batteries have even been carried by airplane on maneuvers.
This weapon hurled a 15-pound shell nearly three inches in diameter more than five miles. One of its special features was its ability to drop its projectiles accurately behind hills, buildings or other obstructions. It was quickly disassembled and reassembled with interchangeable parts.
All through production, parts were made to exact measurements, as the howitzers were to be assembled in the field with few or no tools. Parts were required to be definite fits, and enormous stresses was to be withstood in firing, thus providing a continuous job for the Army inspectors. These men saw the individual parts as they were finished; they inspected them after they have been given their final polish; they were present at the last tests before the guns are put in packing cases.
At the final tests the individual parts were assembled and reassembled at random to prove their interchangeability, and three rounds of primers in empty shell cases were then fired in each howitzer to check the breech mechanism. The guns were then ready to be shipped out for their mountings, recoil mechanisms and other parts that were not made in Erie.
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| A row of 75 howitzers are being assembled while inspectors watch. A total of 23 are shown. These 75-mm howitzers are being produced largely on machinery formerly used for making streetcar motors. |
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| Cutting threads sectors on a howitzer with a shaper. A dividing head provided with a clamp which fits over the muzzle end of the tube has been adopted for indexing. |
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| As a test, three rounds of primers in empty shell cases are fired in each howitzer to check the breech mechanism. |
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| A standard turret lathe being used for boring operations on seventy-five millimeter pack howitzers at the Erie, Pennsylvania, General Electric plant. A set-up for finish reaming the bore and roughing and finishing the powder chamber is shown with seven tubes in the foreground. These howitzers are being produced largely on machinery formerly used for making streetcar motors. |
