Bibliographical Note
As a starting point for their research on this volume, the authors turned to the extensive collection of World War II records, both classified and unclassified, in the Historical Branch of the Executive Office, known as the Ordnance Historical Files (OHF). Here they found a comprehensive series of typewritten historical reports submitted quarterly during the war to the Historical Branch. These reports had been prepared by the division and staff offices in the Office Chief of Ordnance and by scores of Ordnance field installations, including arsenals, depots, district offices, proving grounds, plants and works, and decentralized headquarters such as OCO Detroit and the Field Director of Ammunition Plants in St. Louis. They were made on a quarterly basis for the war years (1942-45); those from the older installations include introductory sections outlining the prewar history, some going back for more than one hundred years. In spite of their uneven quality, these reports were of inestimable value as records of major events and as accounts of the more important problems and achievements. Their appended documents, photographs, maps, charts, and statistical tables were particularly useful to the historians, as were some of the historical narratives prepared by contractors to supplement the histories of the Ordnance district offices.
Closely related to these periodic reports are many historical monographs—generally referred to as project papers or project supporting papers. These monographs had been prepared during the war, or soon after its close, by members of the Historical Branch or by specialists in other branches of the Office Chief of Ordnance. Each monograph covers a longer time span than do the individual quarterly reports and endeavors to treat a broad topic in analytical fashion.
The Ordnance Historical Files also include a useful set of personal narratives known as Key Personnel Reports. These reports had been written at the end of the war by Ordnance officers and civilians to describe their wartime experiences. Of comparable importance are the minutes of General Wesson’s regular 11 o’clock conferences at which he discussed with his staff the major problems facing the Department during the 1940–42 period. For Field Service in the 1940–41 period, Col. James K. Crain’s diary was invaluable. Of special importance for the chapter on motor transport vehicles was the collection of notes and documents assembled by Herbert R. Rifkind of the Historical Branch, Office of The Quartermaster General, and turned over to the Ordnance Historical Branch.
After exhausting the OHF material on a given subject the authors turned to a variety of other sources. Most important was the collection of retired Ordnance
records, dating back to 1940. At the time of research, these records were in the custody of Departmental Records Branch (DRB) of The Adjutant General’s Office. Subsequent to their use for this volume, however, this collection of records was transferred to the custody of the Federal Records Center, Region 3, General Services Administration, in Alexandria, Virginia. These records—letters, memos, reports, conference minutes, and the like—were voluminous and were not always systematically arranged for ready reference. For pre-1940 Ordnance records the authors went to the National Archives. They also made intensive searches in the retired files of the Office of the Under Secretary of War, the Army Service Forces, the G-4 Division of the War Department General Staff, the Office of The Inspector General, the Transportation Corps, the former Motor Transport Service of the Quartermaster Corps, and the War Production Board. The series of volumes known as the Quartermaster Corps Historical Studies proved useful, and the hearings of Congressional committees were invaluable. The authors also consulted copies of lectures, committee reports, and research projects in the library of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and in the General Reference Section of the Office, Chief of Military History. One of the most useful works for the purposes of the present volume, produced by the latter Office, was The Army and Economic Mobilization, by Dr. R. Elberton Smith, published in 1959.
Special mention needs to be made of Army Ordnance (now Ordnance), the bimonthly publication of the American Ordnance Association, whose pages included articles written by persons with firsthand knowledge. The Historical Branch possessed a complete set of this remarkable periodical beginning with the first issue of July–August 1920. There is scarcely a chapter in this volume that is not indebted in one way or another to material first published in Army Ordnance.
Final and most rewarding sources for the authors were interviews and correspondence with persons who held key positions during the war, whether in Ordnance or in other branches of the Army, and some industrial contractors, all of whom had intimate personal knowledge of events. This correspondence was carefully preserved, along with interview notes, and made a part of the Ordnance Historical Files.
Center of Military History
United States Army
Washington, D.C.
United States Army in World War II
Stetson Conn, General Editor
Advisory Committee
(As of 1 December 1959)
Fred Harvey Harrington, University of Wisconsin
Maj, Gen. Hugh P. Harris, U.S. Continental Army Command
Oron J Hale, University of Virginia
Maj. Gen. Evan M. Houseman, Industrial College of the Armed Forces
W. Stull Holt, University of Washington
Brig. Gen. Bruce Palmer, Jr., Army War College
Bell I. Wiley, Emory University
Brig. Gen. Frederick R. Zierath, Command and General Staff College
T. Harry Williams, Louisiana State University
Col. Vincent J, Esposito, United States Military Academy
C. Vann Woodward, Johns Hopkins University
Office of the Chief of Military History
Brig. Gen. James A. Norell, Chief
Chief Historian
Chief, Histories Division Chief, Publication Division Editor in Chief
Chief, Cartographic Branch Chief, Photographic Branch Stetson Conn
Lt. Col. James C Griffin Lt. Col, James R. Hillard Joseph R. Friedman Elliot Dunay
Margaret E. Tackley