The Tragic Tale of the Quad Cities Tank Arsenal and the M7 Medium

[@Omegasupreme1078]

Also, "toolroom methods" was and still is the term for the processes of "making the tools to make the tools"... e.g. you start from scratch, build a prototype basically by hand out of basic materials like bar stock, (so you can wind up milling out things that would normally be brought in as finished castings ready to be plugged in to the product) and then (once validated) use the prototype as a basis for making the dies, jigs, and other stuff you would need for full-scale production.

[@swmark78]

"Toolroom methods" is also why German tanks like the Tiger cost so much. While plane production was fairly modern, tank production hadn't been modernized in the 30s. Nor did Germany have the capacity to produce the machine tools needed.

[@genericpersonx333]

Yeah, the toolroom were the guys that my Uncle, an engineer specialized in water systems, spent many happy hours learning from so he could understand how to design stuff that would work better for the company's needs. After seeing a half-dozen of his first designs for the company shot down as too complex, he went to the toolroom and asked them to explain why the stuff was too complex. They showed him what the tools could do, he adjusted his designs, and soon, he had a reputation for the most cost-effective and efficient designs in the company's long history, designs still being used to this day all over the world despite his being dead for several years now.

[@captiannemo1587]

The first 10 production T26's from November 1944 were all done by this method.

[@markfryer9880]

@@genericpersonx333 Clever bloke your Uncle. Smart enough to design stuff and humble enough to learn from the people who have to make his designs work, on how they make things and how he could make things easier by simplifying his designs. Now, if we could have more people like your Uncle in this world, working on problems from both sides in cooperation then a lot more things would get done a lot more affordably. It's a universal problem for everyone except perhaps the Taliban.

[@20chocsaday]

@@swmark78 In the 1960's Germany was touted as a great place to buy machine tools.

[@Omegasupreme1078]

There's a machine shop near me, the owner of which once told me he had four Bridgeport milling machines with consecutive serial numbers, all dated to late 1941, that he had bought out of the Springfield Armory's R&D shop in the late 60s. Probably most of the machine shops at least in the Northeast have one or more machine tools left over from war production.

[@garycb8592]

I used to work at a machine tool shop in the late 70's. I had to stop at another shop to pick up prints which was around during WW2. They had rows of various machines in like new condition that all had War Department brass tags on them.

[@edstoutenburg3990]

When the lockheed plant in Marietta, GA had a open house tour abt 10-ish-?- yrs ago,so public could go thru . The plant was still producing F-22s on one production line and new C-130s on the other.Amazing to see the varioys stages of assembly. Many of the machine tools. For stamping & milling still had their early-to mid-1940s mfg data plates on them. The actual final stamping/ machining jigs can be chaned out for whatever assy is required for parts. Quite interesting. The machines were still in use,and a wall sign that tool dies had originally been in use when Bell Aircraft was license building the B-29 superfortresses there staring in 1944 iirc.

[@Misericorde9]

@@lostalone9320 I knew an old timer whose first job had been at Westinghouse. He once described to me how (before his time) certain parts manufacturing was done on huge machines that would run 24/7 for weeks or months. Local men would work on production runs as gigs, more less, with whatever time off they chose to take in between.

[@KuK137]

@@lostalone9320 They were not. Modern material science is vastly better. We can make five times as durable drills that cost half and use 30% less material. Old stuff was overengineered and heavy because it was made out of crap parts. There is this story we can't make F1 engines anymore - because they were hand welded junk made out of 6000 parts and now no one sane makes them like that. Redesigned F1 engine with the same dimensions was built out of just 300 parts, weighted 20% less and had 50% more power. Modern stuff is vastly superior, it's the capitalist crap planned obsolescence that keeps it from blowing old out of the water...

[@arena_rock_man9030]

@@KuK137 Like anything, it's not the system that's the problem, it's how it's implemented. Your are right though, things are too a degree, designed to fail so customers come back sooner.

[@dmcarpenter2470]

"International Harvester was a big name in its field." Well played

[@Kaboomf]

Well plowed?

[@williamgandarillas2185]

@@Kaboomf c’mon man, that was a seedy joke

[@marcusfiero3724]

@@williamgandarillas2185 I dont know . It took some time for it to germinate.

[@jeffreyskoritowski4114]

I think that all of you need to apologize and show yourselves out.😅😅😅

[@razor1uk610]

IH reaping government issued contracts like wheated sacks left behind amongst the chaff of industrialised growing output from The Arsenal of Democracy.

[@JohnDoe-vm5rb]

"This is a boring story" A mark of a good presenter is making what they're talking about interesting.

[@Anolaana]

Chieftain made watching paint dry work, this is a cakewalk in comparison!

[@snowstalker36]

"It is a boring story." No, this is exactly my jam.

[@seanmalloy7249]

The story is, however, missing the appropriate background music: Julius Fucik's "Entry of the Gladiators" ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXOTdKyFdrRrr5I ). You may recognize the theme from another industry with which it is more commonly associated.

[@matthewcoleman1919]

Amateurs talk tactics, professionals, eh you know the rest.

[@trekaddict]

My jam as well.

[@regisgoat]

Influencers are boring. Tanks are not.

[@Legitpenguins99]

Its like nick forgets we are all a bunch of nerds

[@robbob401]

Having grown up all my life in Moline and doing a few research projects on the Rock Island Arsenal all I knew is that there was some experimental tank built during ww2. I had no idea there was such a crazy story behind it. Thank you for sharing!

[@stevenessex1932]

I live in davenport and had no idea of this stuff. This is all interesting

[@markcantemail8018]

@@stevenessex1932 We had Davenport Screw Machines in the Shop that I worked in right after High school .

[@stevewilson4514]

A little off topic but I read a piece about the Rock Island Arsenal Commanding Officer who in Dec 1941 decided that the hobos living on Silvin Island which is attached to Arsenal Island were a security threat. So they mobilize company’s of the Moline Militia and Rock Island Militia. They were sent to Silvin Island where they burned the hobo camp to the ground and ran them off.

[@lanagro]

Being from a farm, brought-up with International Harvester equipment and tractors, educated background in defence technology, and now working back in agriculture....as an IH fan, thanks for covering this!

[@CSSVirginia]

Love an IH 140. Family still owns 1.

[@JimmyEatDirt]

And I own a '48 Farmall. Kinda like the tank of the cornfield

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Living in Chicagoland we see remnants of IH all over. McCormick place, Cantigny Park, Harvester Park and the current CNH facility in Burr Ridge to name a few. There are old IH tractors all over in parks and in front of old IH locations. One could argue IH was one of the main forced to form modern Chicago and put it on the map.

[@jarink1]

In other Quad Cities\Tank news, a Liberty Mark VIII tank was returned to the Rock Island Arsenal earlier this summer. It was built there in 1919.

[@deptusmechanikus7362]

Must have been one hell of a vacation

[@jayklink851]

Is Rock Island Arsenal affiliated with Rock Island Armory?

[@ericgrace9995]

Was it's warranty still enforceable...and it needed repair ?

[@christopherb9667]

@@jayklink851 No

[@jayklink851]

@@christopherb9667 Roger that, "Rock Island"--> fill in the blank, is a rather appealing name. I suppose it makes since that companies adopt it when they can.

[@ekscalybur]

This reminds me of the unit I was sent to in '09, just standing up. We got turret rings and gun shields for HMMWVs we didn't see until the end of 2010. Hell, at the time we received them we didn't even have the scouts to man the HMMWVs we didn't have, our 'Troop' had all of 12 troopers. But we had turret rings! Though 2 were olive drab instead of FDE.

[@ryansharpe3564]

I don’t care about KZbin analytics, I find learning about the manufacturers of tanks and other necessities of war much more fascinating than the weapons themselves.

[@Bird_Dog00]

YT ANALlytics can go F themselves. I love hearing about the shenanigans that happend behind the curtains in war.

[@Neuttah]

Turns out the entertainment factor of studying logistics is...hugely underrated.

[@Probookuser03]

@@Neuttah it’s almost ironic

[@markfryer9880]

@Peter David Not necessarily Peter. I have a book on the B-29 that I loaned to my big boss the Finance Director, because of a reference to using electronic valves in an armoured box to run the Fire Control Computer system for the machine gun turrets on the B-29, and he has built his own valve powered Hi-Fi to listen to his music from his MP3. When I collected my book, he commented on just how fascinating it was that the US were building so many factories to build the B-29 from scratch. It was and still is amazing just how much infrastructure had to be built in order to build all of the ships, the tanks, the jeeps, the trucks, the guns and the aircraft needed for the war. Not forgetting all of the components that went into each item. Anyone with a thinking mind would find it a interesting and complex puzzle.

[@redaethel4619]

Having worked in the field, it's fun to see some things never change. It's nice to see acquisition nightmares that nobody's yelling at you about.

[@Simon_Nonymous]

Interesting, and informative - as a Brit, it answers a lot of those "why didn't they just build this?" type questions about British armour development in the early war period, or why building a viable tank in the Great War took so long. You need field tested workable designs but you also need the tooling to build them.

[@DERP_Squad]

@hognoxious It is easier when you are building one, but when the army asks you to build several thousand, even in WW1, the factories needed tooling.

[@krissfemmpaws1029]

That sounds exactly like couple of projects I was involved in. The designs would change about half way through building the prototype. We would get ragged on for slow production... then I showed them the changed drawings and new instructions. After the third change someone in the upper office was apprised by me, so they had every engineer on the project on the shop floor grinding welds out and moving metal to make way for their changes. A couple of engineers refused to do the work so they were fired on the spot on the shop floor. After that engineering talked with the floor about changes or projects comming into the shop.

[@mudcrab3420]

"That sounds exactly like couple of projects I was involved in." Yupp.... Sigh.

[@bryceanderson4864]

Wish they would have the designers/engineers at my job put in the work on the shop floor for the changes they made.

[@jacobmiller3675]

Born and raised here, and I never new any of this. Love the chieftains content.

[@thegodofhellfire]

Video about a factory was still more interesting and informative than 90% of KZbin.

[@thetexanbuzzsaw3145]

"International Harvester was the best in their field." Pun intended?

[@chaseman113]

I hope so

[@kangmw94]

Interesting..

[@Bird_Dog00]

Most likely

[@Masada1911]

I hope so too

[@Simon_Nonymous]

Yup, the first tank where you baled out instead of bailing out, and leaders in training for combined arms tactics..... I'll get my coat.

[@korbell1089]

Ordnance Board talking to Ford: "Yeah, as soon as we finish with GM, just back your truck up and we'll start shoveling mony in!" Ordnance Board talking to IH: "New phone, who dis?"

[@RexKarrs]

Mr. Ford: "See that little building down there?"

[@electrolytics]

Don't forget Chrysler. They had a tank factory.

[@viandengalacticspaceyards5135]

Your "I hope you found it informative"-standards are met. Actually, it gave me a whole new angle on WW2.

[@jimrobinson4786]

As life long (while not in service) Quad Cities resident thank you for this full length video! I work at the Isle Casino Hotel the former location of the tank factory in Bettendorf.

[@richardc7721]

My step dad worked at R.I. from just after the war , retiring in 66 after 20 years there. He had interesting stories he couldn't tell. 😁

[@nukkinfuts6550]

Thanks Chieftain! You knocked it out of the park with this one!

[@nomadicartsarchery]

I actually had a opportunity to use one one of machines from this period . It was "shadowgraph" ! It was quality control machine used to test size and shape of finished product/part by carefully placing part in front of light beam that would bounce back to , sort of, screen where drawing of that part would be placed . It was impossible not to notice plaque "Made in USA for war effort 1942". It was in constant use for 60 years at least. I wander if all machines had similar plaque.

[@michaelmarks5012]

Sounds like what's called a comparator today.

[@nomadicartsarchery]

@@michaelmarks5012 yes , I believe so.

[@randymagnum143]

"This unit conforms to the orders of the war production board, and fit and finish do not reflect to care usually taken by the (insert manufacturers name here)" The castings were not dressed and ways were not flaked as well as standard, and there was no flaking on cosmetic surfaces. They were incredibly well made, but not as aesthetically pleasing as was common. The radial drill delivered on time was likely a cannedy-otto......they were chicago made, and, well.......utter crap. Everyone would have wanted Carlton radial drills, (Cincinnati Ohio) and they would probably have been hard to come by! 🤣

[@joelbeaudoin2761]

Listening to this while driving a International Harvester tractor!

[@Lintary]

Your way to deliver these tales remains just amazing, the good mix of dry and humour just makes it always enjoyable.

[@cirian75]

My old man is a retired toolmaker, toolmakers never ever get the equipment they really need, they are always forced to make do.

[@kennethreese2193]

This was awsome and is the sort of stuff that rarely gets discussed. Thank you for producing it

[@billd.iniowa2263]

As a former machinist I was able to follow you just fine. The building of a complex thing as a tank shouldnt be done by committee. Not sure if this story was a comedy or a tragedy. But my philosophy was simple: Just give me the tooling I need, the material you want it made of, and a print I can read. Then go away. You'll get your parts quicker that way.

[@benlubbers4943]

As a 20 something young 'un running around a shop, allow me to add that's still very valid to this day.

[@ScottKenny1978]

@@benlubbers4943 make sure you add "and a penalty for you changing your mind in the middle of production!"

[@danielbackley9301]

Worked in a shop where they gave me a drawing of a part with no tolerances young apprentice asked 4 different people for the print or at least tell me the tolerances. Shop specialized in military parts (close tolerances true position all that sort of stuff ) finally got an answer plus minus 1/8 inch . After I picked myself off the floor was told that the part I was supposed to turn a shoulder on cut 2 chamfers and face to length from a piece of black iron pipe was the exhaust for a lawnmower.

[@ScottKenny1978]

@@danielbackley9301 hope you bought a few brews for the headache that fall gave you!

[@ReformedSooner24]

100%

[@sparkyfromel]

We need tools to make tools for the tools , absolutely brilliant exposure of what a country at war is like while this sad story has value as an example , glory to the US industry to have somehow overcome all difficulties

[@RexKarrs]

"This is the motor city, and this is what we do."

[@warrenokuma7264]

We don't have the tools and need tools, so why don't we make them? Nah, just bitch and moan.

[@AKUJIVALDO]

Easy to do when your country isn't bombed to stone age or trying to move its industry eastwards for thousands of kilometers.

[@warrenokuma7264]

Oh true, but in the quad cities, the bombing was done by bureaucrats.

[@fiskie49]

Fantastic review of the issues involved in wartime fabrication. This brings back the memory of a gentleman who gave you a hard time in the Q&A for one of your presentations a number of years where he insisted that the US should have built a tank that could meet the Panther and Tiger I head-to-head with equivalent armor and firepower. Like you could just snap your fingers and Voila, there's a new tank. Creating a new and complex vehicle in a short period of time faced all of the problems that you describe. That's why the Pershing came in so late in the war.

[@dylanmilne6683]

Anything which is vaguely like pentagon wars (but actually true) will do it for me Chief!

[@bryangrote8781]

The logistics and infrequently discussed technical details of the machines, their production, and distribution to units in the field is what I crave and is never boring. I long ago tired of the re-hashed “coffee table war book” version of things. Videos like this greatly increase our understanding and appreciation for what all is involved in actually being able to prepare for war or any other great endeavor. Good video👍

[@petesheppard1709]

Yes, I _did_ find it interesting and informative.😎 Thank you! Even this tiny glimpse into the behemoth of US wartime manufacturing is eye-opening.

[@neekniggit3606]

It's the Rock Island Arsenal [RIA] as it is federal property established on the island named Rock Island. In all my 52 years have I ever heard anybody call it the Quad City Arsenal. Love what you do and thanks for your service.

[@TheChieftainsHatch]

Two different facilities. Rock Island Arsenal is the federal facility on the island. Quad Cities Arsenal was the one International Harvester built just across the river to the NorthEast. The former still exists, the latter does not.

[@tsufordman]

Thanks for the geography lesson. Being for Texas, my brain puts all cities hundreds of miles apart. This makes lots of things about the rust belt make sense now.

[@christopherb9667]

Jerry, all across the old northwest territory/upper midwest (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota) you get clusters of related manufacturing. John Deere, International Harvester/Farmall, Case, and White were all started within about a 200 mile radius of the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois.

[@ScottKenny1978]

Along the Oregon Trail, towns are only 4-8 miles apart, especially in what is now Oregon state along US 20/26. Basically where people got tired of walking all day.

[@jeffbybee5207]

@@ScottKenny1978 in Utah I would of said 5 to 10 miles from pioneer Park which was the desonation for new immigrants from the east. The colonizing party's were sent out by the church and towns were spaced half a days journey apart near as could be based on local geography like streams and road conditions the idea being to be able to lunch at one town and overnight at the next mormans generally got along with local native Americans but there was lot of friction as whitesbbegan to farm the best land Shoshone chief walker was famous for horse stealing raiding mexican California before the mormans came in 48

[@tylerjerabek5204]

Nothing east of the Mississippi has towns that far apart, no desert, much smaller mountains, more rivers….

[@philipkelly7369]

Hearing stories like this makes you wonder how its even possible to make anything with any sort of volume, ever

[@doughudgens9275]

Remember, The Chieftain did a video about watching paint dry and it was quite entertaining. The trials and tribulations of war production is usually just glossed over in history books. This was interesting to learn about, especially since it was a “failure”. Those of us with government/bureaucracy experience identify with what IH went through trying to help the war effort.

[@jonathan_60503]

I found this fascinating and would happily watch any other such tales you come across and might care to share with us.

[@matthayward7889]

Absolutely!

[@mcfontaine]

That was actually brilliant. So much detail, thank you Sir.

[@ES90344]

I love this type of stuff. Stories you never knew you needed to hear.

[@T3hderk87]

Damn the KZbin statistics, full episode ahead!

[@prjndigo]

Vertical Borers... basically a giant drill press that requires huge thrust bearings compared to horizontal borers that use cylindrical automotive bearings and comparatively small thrust bearings. You can even Babbit (lead alloy oil pressure bearing poured in place) much of a horizontal borer. Vertical borers also have to be stood up on delivery whereas large horizontal systems could simply have their wheels taken off and the gooseneck used for a workbench at the end.

[@TacoSallust]

I learned a lot from this one, I'll definitely have some new sight-seeing to do in my next trip to the Quad.

[@stevenessex1932]

Lol literally no one calls it the quad. I live in the quad cities

[@TacoSallust]

@@stevenessex1932 Lol everyone in Iowa calls it the Quad because nobody gives a damn about what we rate a third-rate city. It's not a fair rating because the Quad Cities are cool, but they're no CDR, Iowa City, DSM or Waterloo/Cedar Falls unless you LIVE in the Davenport or Bettendorf.

[@agviator]

I need a drink after listening to this story. Well told- but dear god. How many other story’s out there like this are there,

[@tomhutchins7495]

Fascinating story excellently told: you tell it like a WW2 version of an MBA case study, which it could easily be.

[@ScottKenny1978]

I'd be very surprised if it hasn't been used for more than a few MBAs...

[@andrewpfeiffer9898]

As someone who lives in the Quad Cities, it is interesting to hear all these familiar names and buildings being talked about by my favorite tanker. Definitely NOT a boring video by any means.

[@TalkingDeadGuy]

Chieftain I have to say this is a fascinating video. I'm an industrial technology graduate and I just eat this stuff up. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this video as much as I did but by about five minutes in I realized I understood all the technical aspects of tank manufacturing that you're explaining because it is no different than the regular manufacturing (of forklifts in case your interested) that I study everyday for my job.

[@ScottKenny1978]

I'd halfway expect that a company building sufficiently large forklifts (the off-road 26ton monsters, say) could probably retool into tank production without too much effort.

[@moss8448]

You being a tanker and discussing tanks makes these discussions relevant and on top of that the humor danced with brings a grin.

[@futurerandomness1620]

Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. Too often the focus is on the vehicle, or the piece of equipment coming out of the factory to fight the war, and not at the design and hard work done behind the front lines to actually get the material built. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people past, current and in the future who put the time in to build the factories, and machines of the arsenal of freedom. To the brick layers, roofers, custodians et al thank you.

[@Jccarlton1400]

There are advantages to not having your tank factory next door to the Army's tank development arsenal. While most of this seems to be that IH didn't make the connections and get their machine tool priority raised, a lot of the problems were probably caused by army types going over and looking at the things during lunch and slow afternoons.

[@billwilson3609]

The M7 was a prototype that was still under development. The Army had a habit of having a good number produced for testing so they could modify the designs to get the final desired product. The M7 was an experiment in up-arming a light tank that now had thicker armor so was low on the machine tool priority list.

[@Alpostpone]

Why and how do you think having the arsenal nearby had any effect on anything?

[@ScottKenny1978]

@@Alpostpone "good idea fairies" visiting. "The 37mm is too small, redesign for the 57mm (that is itself not in production yet)" "The 57mm is not a good tank gun due to lack of good HE shells. Redesign for the 75mm, just like the Sherman has!"

[@Alpostpone]

@@ScottKenny1978 That was due to the official requirement changing, not some enterprising officer popping over during lunch break. The whole story is about why it's a bad idea to set up a production for a design that is still being, you know, _designed._ The features you mentioned are sound and ended up in M24 Chaffee. The "good idea fairy" is involved in design choices that are anything but.

[@keithplymale2374]

A very good look at what is involved in basically manufacturing anything new whether under war time pressures or not.

[@Zack_Wester]

another problem was we need tanks. tanks need factories and special tools. we dont have enough factories to make the tools. US at least had enough factories that they could make Tool factories to make said tools. some nations during WW2 did not even have enough factories to build tool factories whit. if you play Hearts of Iron 4 you know the Dont have enough civilian factories to make Civilian factories dilemma even less Military factories to make guns and tanks whit or what it now is your nation need to build anything.

[@stevewilson4514]

I remember driving by the IH works in Bettendorf in the early 80’s and thinking that the facility and headquarters building looked like WWII construction and wondered what they made there during the war. Now I know. The old French and Hecht building in downtown Davenport was torn down years ago but I recall seeing that too. That’s for the interesting history on our Quad Cities.

[@SgtMustang]

I’ve been waiting for coverage of the M7 for years, awesome!

[@dylanmilne6683]

It's not uncommon that I feel somewhat sad for the droves of designers and factory workers whose work came to relatively naught. "well son I worked in the Sherman factory in the war" versus "well son I worked on a tank which was never used, stifled by production issues and fated to be forgotten by history"

[@sealpiercing8476]

No shame in it. The business of doing everything as fast as possible starting from scratch implies a certain amount of waste.

[@wilsonj4705]

Beats never used, stifled by production issues, and fated to be forgotten by history because the factory and surrounding city was bombed into oblivion

[@johnalt4792]

Well, as with everything, it could be worse. Like working in a factory that built crap products that got people killed. There was no shortage of those from any of the combatants in WW2.

[@kemarisite]

My maternal grandfather spent the war in an essential industry, driving a log truck for the lumber mill, a job he continued doing for several more decades until retirement. His brother-in-law was a B24 crewman in the Mediterranean, KIA when his aircraft was shot down (supposedly by an Italian fighter jock flying a capture American P-38).

[@ConvairDart106]

I am sure, that they were happy as hell, to have the work! Remember, we were still recovering from the Great Depression!

[@Mohawk62]

Growing up just south of the Quad Cities, in the little town of Viola IL. I found this pretty cool! I remember my dad and grandfather, a WW2 Vet. talking about this stuff once in awhile. I think back to how we had our different groups of school boys fussing over which is best, IH, Case, or John Deere. All of which were, and John Deere still is, made in the good ol Quad Cities U.S.A. Thanks for the video!

[@Alpostpone]

This was a fascinating story. I've wondered about this history ever since I first heard Chieftain mention how a whole production complex was set up for M7 and it boiled down to nothing. The most intriguing part was about machine tools. That was a window into even wider topic of gearing up the whole war economy and what complications that might involve. How the preceding situation with Great Depression affected it and how mind-bogglingly monumental task was setting up the whole international Allied war machine. Getting practical details from the factory floor is far more revealing than just reading about numbers that aren't tied to anything concrete. Getting the two together like here is immensely educational. Thank you for this piece, I'm eagerly waiting to get more content about the logistical side of things.

[@douglasfenbert1020]

Absolutely the Chief's finest narrative. Scintillating, tantalizing, edge of your seat thrills! Great job!

[@admiraltiberius1989]

Always love videos like this from Chieftain. It's absolutely fascinating.

[@xxxlonewolf49]

I'll always love these ww2 history videos, well done & enjoyable. Scouts out!

[@c7zr179]

I greatly appreciate this video, Chieftan. Analysis of tank specs, history, and performance will never be complete without understanding history of the process from concept to prototype to production vehicle.

[@hughbarton5743]

Tremendous! What a marvelous deep dive into how the production of complex gizmos becomes so complicated...also a wonderful commentary on the thousands of varied manufacturers who some how, inexplicably, were able to somehow gather their skills and capabilities to bulld the equipment that inexorably assured Allied success... It seems through the hazy lens of history that this was a foregone conclusion...but it could have gone horribly sideways. Great work, sir!

[@craigmorris4083]

I found it highly informative and very interesting. Procurement, like logistics, is something overlooked, and yet close attention must be paid to these to critical areas, or your war machine grinds to a halt.

[@ulrichkalber9039]

from what i read about german tank production the lack of machine tools has been a large hindrance in germany as well. Drawings and design changes were also a similar problem.

[@ScottKenny1978]

Another significant issue was a heavy use of "file to fit", so parts generally couldn't just be bolted into place. This slowed both production and repair. This was also an issue for the US building Bofors 40mm guns. The US had to completely redraw the prints and re-work the tolerances so that parts from any manufacturer could be bolted on instantly. Because when you're building a million or so units and need them yesterday, well, there you go.

[@stevenfox7407]

A very entertaining and informative piece. I've long had an interest in the M7 (courtesy of Hunnicutt, along with Chamberlain and Ellis) and wished to be able to add one (or several, given the possibilities of variants) to my collection of (badly) built 1/35 WW2 vehicle models. Thank you for doing this, and please continue benefitting us with your knowledge and humor.

[@parker1ray]

In the early 70's, I toured a foundry in Waterloo, Iowa that was owned by John Deere. Supposedly they had casings in the basement that were used in the Sherman production.

[@Hadanelith1]

Considering my interests in manufacturing and logistics, this video is absolutely my jam, and wasn't boring at all! A fascinating look into the complexities of war time production.

[@simonrook5743]

Nice to have something different, thanks Nick. I’m sure it’s not for everyone but I enjoyed it.

[@louiel8711]

This kind of video is right up my alley, keep it up Chief and great video.

[@csnocke5]

I like this guy. He knows his stuff and brings interesting content. Thx friend

[@edwardstd52]

I just came across this video and none of this surprises me. I was involved with the Armor & Engineer Test Board at Fort Knox during one of my tours at that lovely location and witnessed this kind of chaos first hand. Amazing...

[@TheKRU251]

This was a great watch. Excellent to see the thoughts and working (non working) processes. Cock-up city. Amazing ineptitude from the USA.

[@TheRAFlemingsMr]

Now we understand why there is only 1 chef in a professional kitchen and everybody else says, "Yes, Chef" to what they're told. Anything done by committee is doomed. And agreeing w @Peter David, this is great stuff and is as much a part of the war story as Agincourt or Kursk. Keep up the great work!

[@davidbrennan660]

Chieftain sits like a peacock with his tail displayed... useful as it also supports the storage of books. Learning how things happen is illuminating.....nothing is easy.

[@richardstephens3327]

Production and the production to make the production is often a more wild ride then the vehicle coming off the line are able to duplicate. Great story!

[@ronchappel4812]

That was fascinating!Well done Chieftian

[@chriskortan1530]

Excellent insight about the war effort. It's amazing anything got done.

[@ryankoroll5421]

The axis could blow up as many tanks as they want, but the beaurocracy shows them that the best way to end a tank is paperwork. Awesome video.

[@TheQuakeIV]

i see even back in the day the government neurotically changed requirements until the program died

[@mpetersen6]

There's a ship building firm in Sturgeon Bay WI that used to do work for the US Navy. Auxiliary vessels, minesweepers etc. They told the Navy years ago that they would longer submit bids or accept contracts on Navy vessels. The reason. Constantly changing specifications on vessels while under construction.

[@warrenokuma7264]

And that's why you have to anchor in the specs in writing and put in penalties for changing the specs.

[@xmlthegreat]

That's literally the case in every field. I once had to send 25 versions of a 1 minute ad video. The fact that they were being charged per cut didn't faze them or reign in their unnecessary tinkering and indecisiveness. Those people are the worst. Clearly I wasn't charging them enough.

[@markrobinson9956]

Really enjoy these kinds of deep dives into production. Excellent work with primarily sources.

[@danielallenbutler1782]

Brilliant video, Nick. Long-ish? Well, yes. Niche? Certainly. Dense? Unqustionably. Informative? Absolutely. This story of the gestation and (near) productiuon of the M7 provides a remarkably deep insight into just how complex was the process and task of designing and producing a workable and useful tank (or not, in the case of the M7). Too many World War Two buffs and tank enthusiasts seem to be under the impression that producing the various light and medium tanks, TD's, SPA's, armoured cars, and personnel carriers (tracked and wheeled) churned out by American industry during the war was simply a matter of someone plonking down sets of blueprints in front of the manufacturers and saying, "Go build 'em, boys!" Then hey, presto! within a few months completed vehicles began rolling off the assembly lines in endless droves. Very few give any thought to just how those assembly lines came into existence, or what an intricate -- and not always successful -- process it was. Thank you very much for taking the time to research and produce this video!

[@jabonorte]

Really interesting little story. Just reading Dick Taylor's book 'The Second World War Tank Crisis' so this fits in well. The shortage of draftsmen and tools comes up a lot. It's very easy in the age of email/computers/photocopiers to pick fault in the manufacturing process, but when you consider the problems they had at the time, it was an amazing effort to build those pilots.

[@danielburgess7785]

As a former long time contractor to various Federal agencies S.o.W. alterations were always viewed as new revenue streams. These usually involved all the management project leads down to group leads as the changes impacted *everything and everyone*. Of course the timeline was reevaluated and resubmitted to the Contracting Officer. Good times.

[@wacojones8062]

Vertical mills are used to make the big drive wheels on steam locomotives, turret races for tanks and the huge end units for industrial washers and driers among many other similar designs. 90 inch and 120 inch are the working diameters they can cut to. They are huge machines in their own right.

[@williamlloyd3769]

Hilarious! Still going from green field site to initial production in 18 months is spectacular. Wikipedia entry - “At least one M7 Medium Tank survives to this day. It is kept at the U.S. Army Center for Military History Storage Facility in Anniston, Alabama. “

[@RexKarrs]

Perhaps on or near the same aisle as the Lost Ark?

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

@@RexKarrs any fule no that’s in Groom Lake…

[@Nipplator99999999999]

It's comforting to know that military Contractor relationships have remained very close to identical after all these years.

[@peterdeutscher]

This is truly fantastic content. Wartime coordination is an underrated story, and you bring it to life!

[@Username67357]

Very good story, sir. Well delivered, too.

[@Tuning3434]

Yep, as a mechanical engineer current doing NPI (New Product Introduction) work for products that actually have to leave the prototype stage in the first place, this video is hitting home.

[@Eulemunin]

Just the fact that you are willing to do this kind of content means I will watch, and like. And even comment.

[@Lithui]

Keep it up! This may not appeal to your entire audience man, but after nearly a decade as an engineer I had a fairly easy time following (I've had to deal with politics and production despite having a product to fit the demand), and it's really quite fascinating to hear this side of war production. Normally we hear about the massive victories, it's not often we hear about the challenges and paper pushing BS that went on and I really enjoyed this, it humanizes the entire subject a great deal.

[@michaelporzio7384]

Thanks Chieftain. Hard for us to imagine getting all this done in an era without the internet or any other form of data transmission other than pieces of paper. Remarkable how quickly so much war material was produced despite the failures here and there. Compare that to how long it takes today to field a new weapons system. It takes years for the army to procure a new pistol with factories already in place. I kept thinking of the German Panther tank when IH replaced the herringbone gears with spur gears in the M7 final drives. Just takes a single point of failure to turn a war winning design into a failure.

[@pedenharley6266]

Great, fascinating and ever so slightly frustrating video!

[@johnnieangel99]

I had always thought there might some shenanigans going on behind the scenes. when it came to production. Thanks for confirming it

[@basher20]

One more example of the dictum "Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics," this time on a strategic level. AS to setting up a factory, the rule of thumb I learned is that for every engineering hour spent designing and developing the product, expect to spend a minimum of ten hours designing and developing the production process, (jigs, fixtures, and methods) and a similar effort developing the quality and accounting systems to regulate the production process.

[@looinrims]

Did anyone mention that factory workers and industrialists don’t study tactics and military commanders don’t study machine tool supplies? That’s it by the way, they needed to be built, there’s no ‘logistics’ as a military would define

[@womble321]

I'm sure the US production of the Merlin would benefit from the same treatment. Packard got the drawings from Rolls Royce.. Looks at them contacts Rolls Royce supposed to be Britains best engine manufacture. "You havnt sent the right drawings". "What do you mean". "There are no torque wrench settings". A very puzzled senior engineer "What's a torque wrench?" they litteraly had no idea, they were not used in the UK. Every thing required the skill of a trained fitter. Packard eventually had to completely redesign the entire engine. Oh I checked torque wrenches were not available to RAF technicians. I have several RAF manuals not a torque setting in sight.

[@billwilson3609]

RR first asked Ford about producing the Merlin and sent them an engine along with the blueprints. Ford was working on a V12 aero engine to compete with the Allison and Merlin so turned down the offer, saying they needed the exact specifications for each part that was required for mass production. Ford sent the engine and blueprints to Packard that told RR the same thing. RR asked Packard to do that for them so they did and redesigned the motor while at it to improve the reliability of components and reduce the number of parts it used (the similar Allison V12 used 50% fewer parts). Torque wrenches were invented around 1918. Chrysler began producing their own improved beam-style torque wrenches in the late 1920's and early 1930's. The US military provided their mechanics with torque wrenches after their inception. In the 1930's Blackhawk Tools made a beam-scale torque wrench that would flash a light when the set torque was reached. Britain imported torque wrenches so in 1942 allowed two Brits to start manufacturing copies of US torque wrenches. Standard torque specs were determined by bolt/stud size and thread pitch which often came listed on a sheet with each new wrench.

[@womble321]

@@billwilson3609 we definitely didn't use them before I have a number of maintenance manuals for RAF planes. Absolutely no mention of torque wrench settings. I know you can work it out from a table if you know what the bolt material is. I wonder if in those days even that was standardised. Some years ago I watched a documentary on Cosworth F1 engines perhaps 1980s not a touque wrench in sight!

[@billwilson3609]

@@womble321 I don't know what the British did. Common sense would suggest using torque wrenches during assembly then an approved tightening sequence out in the field due to shortage of torque wrenches. The US Army supplied torque wrenches to the mechanics at the repair depots and field repair stations. Had a neighbor that was a mechanic with a 3rd Army armor recovery unit and said they had 1/2" and 1/4" drive torque wrenches that were "liberated" from a repair depot so they could replace the cylinders, heads, oil and fuel lines on the radial engines to ensure that the gaskets and fittings didn't develop leaks.

[@womble321]

@@billwilson3609 hi early in the war they simply didn't exist. Everything was done by feel.

[@ScottKenny1978]

@@womble321 I know that by the 1990s that was part of the US Federal Aviation Regulations. Had a table in the book but I don't remember if it was in Part 43 (general design) or Part 65 (maintenance). Annoyingly, my books took a walk about 20 years ago. And the FARs are basically all the WW2 standards.

[@neodym5809]

There are few things I enjoy as much as confusing algorithms! So you got me with your introduction.

[@Panzermeister36]

Thank you as always for the great content!

[@dirus3142]

I think a machine tool museum, and history archive not only would be very interesting, but have a great value. Culture, historical value.

[@timbo66]

That was really interesting.

[@christopherb9667]

As an Iowa farm boy who grew up driving red tractors (Farmall/IH) and then moved to Louisville (another IH town back in the day), this was great!

[@brotomann]

You have plenty of subscribers that enjoy the nitty gritty details of tank production and logistics. I have always felt like the US production power in WW2 gets glossed over as "America is big and rich so they made vehicles bigly and richly" but without as much discussion into how and why the US was able to ramp up wartime production to such insane levels in such a short amount of time.

[@dewayneweaver5782]

I learned to use a stick shift in an International Harvester pickup my Dad owned. Great pickup but we had trouble getting spare parts for it.

[@kemarisite]

Scout II here.