{"id":29118,"date":"2019-10-09T17:55:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T21:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=29118"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:58","slug":"arsenal-of-democracy-cannons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/showcase\/2019\/10\/arsenal-of-democracy-cannons.html","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal of Democracy: Cannons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So far, we have talked about how the Dodge Brothers built a reputation<\/a> for being badasses at everything they did and took a look at how they contributed to America\u2019s first motorized attack<\/a>. This brings us to The Great War years and where we continue the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States entered The Great War years\nafter the fighting began. President Woodrow Wilson maintained the neutrality he\ncampaigned on for as long as he could, but when German U-boats began clipping\ncivilian commercial and passenger ships at an impressive rate, America entering\nthe fray became inevitable. At the beginning of 1917, Congress passed an arms\nappropriations bill totalling $250,000,000. Once that bill was signed, the\nU-boats sunk 4 more U.S. merchant vessels in a matter of weeks. With his hand\nforced, President Wilson declared war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the ordnance budget passed, domestic\nmanufacturers lined up in D.C. trying to seal the deal on lucrative government\ncontracts. Our country wasn\u2019t just building up its own military from relatively\nnothing, but the nation\u2019s industry was being called upon to aid in supplying\nall the Allied Forces with weapons and ammunition. $250M was just a start; the\nnumber quickly escalated into the billions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dodge Brothers took a slightly different\napproach than their contemporaries. Horace and John told military officials,\nvia mail, that they were \u201cat the government\u2019s disposal whenever it was found\nnecessary to use them.\u201d Instead of selling the government on what DB would like\nto build for them, the brothers basically said \u201cwhen you run into something\nnobody else can do, we\u2019ll do it.\u201d At the\nend of 1917, the most difficult task America was faced with was put upon the\nbrothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"letter\"
Letter from the government received by the Dodge Brothers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

France was renowned for their artillery expertise.\n155mm Schneider Howitzers and 155mm Filloux (or designated G.P.F. in\nthe States) rifles were French designed, and up until this point, only\nmanufactured by French craftsmen. They were built by hand to exact\nspecifications, and the tolerances were almost nil, specifically for the recoil\nmechanism or \u201crecuperator.\u201d Germany had, in fact, captured many of these field\nguns, but they simply couldn\u2019t reverse engineer the recuperators. Even in\nFrance, where they had a 20-year head start, only five could be made each day.\nThey just couldn\u2019t keep up with the need. The French begged the U.S. to build\nmore, giving them the formerly secret blueprints and offering to send their\nexperts to train American workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In simple terms, the guns are cannons that consist\nof three main parts: the carriage (which is the base that also allows for the\ncannon\u2019s mobility), the rifle (or barrel) and the recuperator. The recuperator\u2019s\njob is an important one: to absorb the force of a blast that sends a projectile\nout of the barrel miles down range. It was far and away the most challenging\npart to build. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before inviting John Dodge to Washington to\nask for his assistance, Secretary of War Newton Baker had already been turned\ndown by other manufacturers who deemed the project impossible. \u201cNo heavy\narticles ever before turned out in American workshops required in their finish\nthe degree of microscopic perfection the recuperators called for.\u201d Secretary\nBaker and a delegation of French officials met with John upon his arrival in\nD.C. The ensuing conversation is legendary, and went something like this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Do you know anybody who can do this kind\nof work?” they asked John. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We can make all you want of anything you\ncan give us a blueprint of” was his confident, if not a little cocky, reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The man is mad!” the delegation\ntold each other and Secretary Baker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He thinks that this is a production job,\nthis delicate mechanism,” they continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French had figured on setting up satellite\nschools and spending months teaching the art of building recuperators. Now this\nguy in Detroit is telling them he\u2019s gonna do it on his own? They were in\ndisbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Do you want these things or don’t\nyou?” bellowed John. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But this is not a mass-production\ntask!” came from Baker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John shot back: “The hell it isn’t,\nthat\u2019s nonsense!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Look here, Mr. Dodge,” Baker said\nsternly, “I’m not accustomed to being spoken to in that kind of\nlanguage.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The war would be a hell of a lot better\noff if you were!” John quickly replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once going over the prints with Horace, John\nestimated they could make up to 50 a day. John knew D.C. was in no position to\nbargain, but there was just one major stipulation that needed to be met before\nhe\u2019d sign on the dotted line: The government needed to leave Dodge the hell\nalone. Typically with these large military contracts came attached federal\nofficials crawling all over every part of the process. In this case, the\ngovernment agreed to only worry about the final inspection. Sec. Baker accepted\nthe deal on October 27, 1917. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"hand
Hand drawn chart of time for equipment capacity and production capacity as Lynch Road geared up. on DAC stationary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, all the brothers had to do was build large\nprecision mechanisms based on blueprints in French, in quantities thought\nimpossible, using machines not yet built, in a factory that didn\u2019t exist, for a\nwar that needed them yesterday. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within 36 hours of the deal being finalized,\nconstruction on the massive manufacturing facility in Detroit began. Time was\nof the essence because of both the war and the weather. Detroit construction\nworkers raced to get cement poured ahead of what proved to be one of the most\nsevere winters Michigan has endured. And yet the factory went up quickly, with\nrough machining operations starting in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"men<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To give context for the size of what they\u2019d be\nbuilding there, the two pieces of billet steel that made up the barrel and the\nrecoil mechanism of the howitzer weighed almost 6 tons combined. For that gun,\nDodge did both the rough and finish machine work; after which, they weighed a\nthird of that. The howitzer, when completely assembled, weighed 4 tons. The\nG.F.P. cannon weighed close to 10 tons when completely assembled.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cannon\"
155mm Howitzer in firing position (top) and travel position (bottom)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"cannon\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the Lynch Road plant was going up, the Dodge automotive factories were busy putting together 129 specialized machines, most designed by Horace. But that wasn\u2019t all they needed, and in a time of national machinery shortages, there were drastic measures taken to help Dodge gear up. \u201cTrainloads\u201d of equipment headed cross country was requisitioned. A train full of special machinery commissioned by the Russian government, in port ready to sail, was caught and redirected to Detroit. There was even a nautical mission undertaken when a giant planer, a machine used to cut and flatten steel, went overboard as it was being taken by barge to a steam freighter. Government divers rescued the planer and sent it on its way to the Dodge Brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cannon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

April 1919 was when the earliest rough\nforgings arrived in Detroit. In June, or about 7 months from the Lynch Road\nfacility breaking ground, Dodge had 155mm Schneider howitzer recoil mechanisms\nready to deliver. After August testing of the full assembly, there were minor\nissues that needed to be fixed, but by November of 1918, the factory was making\n20 of the giant mechanisms a day, eventually peaking at 35 a day when combined\nwith the 155mm G.P.F. numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite several reports to the contrary, Dodge\ndidn\u2019t make the recuperators for the 75mm guns, although it is likely that they\nassisted the Rock Island Arsenal and Singer (yes, the sewing machine\nmanufacturer) in their respective uphill efforts. Combined, those two did the\nfinal machining and assembly of 59 75mm recoil mechanisms by the end of April\n2019, as they struggled to get their mechanisms to pass quality checks. In that\nsame timeframe, a total of 2,481 155mm recuperators had been completed by the\nDodge Brothers at Lynch Road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cannons
155mm Howitzers at Aberdeen Proving Grounds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"building
155mm GPF in process at Lynch Road in Detroit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once the war contracts ended, John and Horace\noffered to buy the factory at Lynch Road. While they facilitated the\nconstruction, equipping and operation of the plant, it was technically the\ngovernment\u2019s property. The military first balked at the selling price, but then\nended up removing much of the machinery and relocating the assembled cannons\nthat were left to the Rock Island Arsenal. After spending more money on moving\nand storing the plant\u2019s contents than they did building the place, they sold\nthe factory to Dodge in 1920. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"machine
Assortment of artillery returned to APG after World War I<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Dodge Brothers and Graham Brothers\neventually entered into a partnership, building trucks at Lynch Road before\nChrysler bought the brand in the late 1920s. Chrysler moved truck production to\nDodge Main in Hamtramck, a city completely within the borders of Detroit. The\ncorporation then moved all of their axle production to the Lynch Road complex.\nIt became known as Detroit Axle, where they built axles until 2010. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next: Other large contributions that John and\nHorace made to World War 1 efforts and what might have been if the Armistice had\nnot been signed; and how the story above inspired and shaped the military and\nindustry\u2019s relationship going into World War II. Also to come: The tale that led\nme to tug on the string of the Dodge Brothers\u2019 early defense work, the one that\nconnected the two World Wars and drew me to this Great War era of Dodge\nhistory, isn\u2019t even true. A modern-day game of \u201ctelephone\u201d where facts are\nbetter than fiction!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A HUGE thanks to Madelyn Rzadkowolski, archival curator at Meadow Brook Hall for granting access to original documents from the era, including hand-written notes by John Dodge himself.
Sources:
\u201cThe Detroit Brothers\u201d by Charles K. Hyde
\u201cAmerica\u2019s Munitions 1917-18\u201d by Benedict Crowell
\u201cLiaison: The Courier of the Big Gun Corps\u201d
\u201cHow Detroit Became the Automotive Capital\u201d
\u201cTanks are Mighty Fine Things\u201d by Wesley Stout
\u201cDodge Dynasty\u201d by Caroline Latham and David Agresta
“Why Germany Quit\u201d by Cleveland Moffett
Detroit Saturday Night newspaper
\u201cA Mechanical Triumph\u201d Dodge booklet
\u201cHandbook of artillery: including mobile, anti-aircraft and trench mat\u00e9riel\u201d 1920
https:\/\/gphistorical.org\/autobarons\/dodge\/dodge2.htm<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past Arsenal of Democracy Installments:
Arsenal of Democracy: Dodge Brothers Build a Reputation<\/a>
Arsenal of Democracy: America\u2019s First Motorized Attack<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n