The American Automobile Industry in World War Two
An American Auto Industry Heritage Tribute by David D Jackson

Overview      Lansing Michigan in World War Two   The U.S. Auto Industry at the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944    The U.S. Auto Industry and the B-29 Bomber   U.S. Auto Industry Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   The Complete listing of All Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   Sherman Tanks of the American Auto Industry   Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry    M26 Pershing Tanks of the American Auto Industry   M36 Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry   Serial Numbers for WWII Tanks built by the American Auto Industry   Surviving LCVP Landing Craft    WWII Landing Craft Hull Numbers   Airborne Extra-Light Jeep Photos  The American Auto Industry vs. the German V-1 in WWII   American Auto Industry-Built Anti-Aircraft Guns in WWII   VT Proximity Manufacturers of WWII   World War One Era Motor Vehicles   National Museum of Military Vehicles  
Revisions   Links

 Automobile and Body Manufacturers:  American Bantam Car Company   Briggs Manufacturing Company   Checker Car Company   Chrysler Corporation   Crosley Corporation   Ford Motor Car Company   General Motors Corporation   Graham-Paige Motors Corporation   Hudson
Motor Car Company   Murray Corporation of America   Nash-Kelvinator   Packard Motor Car Company      Studebaker    Willys-Overland Motors

General Motors Divisions:  AC Spark Plug   Aeroproducts   Allison   Brown-Lipe-Chapin   Buick   Cadillac   Chevrolet   Cleveland Diesel   Delco Appliance   Delco Products   Delco Radio   Delco-Remy   Detroit Diesel   Detroit Transmission   Electro-Motive   Fisher Body   Frigidaire   GM Proving Grounds   GM of Canada   GMC   GMI   Guide Lamp   Harrison Radiator   Hyatt Bearings   Inland   Moraine Products   New Departure   Oldsmobile   Packard Electric   Pontiac   Saginaw Malleable Iron   Saginaw Steering Gear   Southern California Division   Rochester Products   Ternstedt Manufacturing Division   United Motors Service   Vauxhall Motors

 Indiana Companies:  Bailey Products Corporation   Chrysler Kokomo Plant   Continental Steel Corporation  Converto Manufacturing    Cummins Engine Company   Diamond Chain and Manufacturing Company   Delta Electric Company   Durham Manufacturing Company   Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation   Haynes Stellite Company   Hercules Body Company   Horton Manufacturing Company   Howe Fire Apparatus   J.D. Adams Company   Kokomo Spring Company   Magnavox  
Muncie Gear Works   Pierce Governor Company   Portland Forge and Foundry   Reliance Manufacturing Company   Republic Aviation Corporation - Indiana Division   Ross Gear and Tool Company   S.F. Bowser & Co.   Sherrill Research Corporation   Tokheim Oil Tank and Pump Company   Warner Gear   Wayne Pump Company   Wayne Works

Commercial Truck and Fire Apparatus Manufacturers:  American LaFrance   Autocar  
Biederman Motors Corporation   Brockway Motor Company   Detroit General   Diamond T   Duplex Truck Company   Federal Motor Truck   Four Wheel Drive Auto Company(FWD)   International Harvester   John Bean   Mack Truck   Marmon-Herrington Company   Michigan Power Shovel Company   Oshkosh Motor Truck Corporation   Pacific Car and Foundry   "Quick-Way" Truck Shovel Company   Reo Motor Car Company  Seagrave Fire Apparatus   Sterling Motor Truck Company    Ward LaFrance Truck Corporation   White Motor Company

Aviation Companies:  Abrams Instrument Corporation   Hughes Aircraft Company   Kellett Aviation Corporation   Laister-Kauffman Aircraft Corporation   Naval Aircraft Factory   P-V Engineering Forum, Inc.    Rudolf Wurlitzer Company-DeKalb Division  Schweizer Aircraft Corporation   Sikorsky Division of United Aircraft Corporation   St. Louis Aircraft Corporation   Timm Aircraft Corporation

Other World War Two Manufacturers: 
Air King Products   Allis-Chalmers   American Car and Foundry   American Locomotive   American Stove Company   Annapolis Yacht Yard  
Andover Motors Company   B.F. Goodrich   Baker War Industries   Baldwin Locomotive Works   Blood Brothers Machine Company   Boyertown Auto Body Works   Briggs & Stratton   Caterpillar   Cheney Bigelow Wire Works   Centrifugal Fusing   Chris-Craft   Clark Equipment Company   Cleaver-Brooks Company   Cleveland Tractor Company   Continental Motors   Cushman Motor Works   Crocker-Wheeler   Dail Steel Products   Detroit Wax Paper Company   Detrola   Engineering & Research Corporation   Farrand Optical Company   Federal Telephone and Radio Corp.   Firestone Tire and Rubber Company   Fruehauf Trailer Company   Fuller Manufacturing   Galvin Manufacturing   Gemmer Manufacturing Company   General Railway Signal Company   Gibson Guitar   Gibson Refrigerator Company   Goodyear   Hall-Scott   Hanson Clutch and Machinery Company   Harley-Davidson   Harris-Seybold-Potter   Herreshoff Manufacturing Company   Higgins Industries    Highway Trailer   Hill Diesel Company   Holland Hitch Company   Homelite Company   Horace E. Dodge Boat and Plane Corporation   Huffman Manufacturing   Indian Motorcycle   Ingersoll Steel and Disk   John Deere   Johnson Automatics Manufacturing Company   Kimberly-Clark   Kohler Company   Kold-Hold Company   Landers, Frary & Clark  Lima Locomotive Works   Lundberg Screw Products   MacKenzie Muffler Company   Massey-Harris   Matthews Company   McCord Radiator & Mfg. Company   Metal Mouldings Corporation   Miller Printing Machinery Company   Morse Instrument Company   Motor Products Corporation   Motor Wheel Corporation   National Cash Resgister Company   Novo Engine Company   O'Keefe & Merritt Company   Olofsson Tool and Die Company   Oneida Ltd   Otis Elevator   Owens Yacht   Pressed Steel Car Company   Queen City Manufacturing Company   R.G. LeTourneau   R.L. Drake Company   St. Clair Rubber Company   Samson United Corporation   Shakespeare Company   Sight Feed Generator Company   Simplex Manufacturing Company   Steel Products Engineering Company   St. Louis Car Company   Twin Disc Company   Victor Adding Machine Company   Vilter Manufacturing Company   Wells-Gardner   W.L. Maxson Corporation   W.W. Boes Company   Westfield Manufacturing Company   York-Hoover Body Company   Youngstown Steel Door Company  
   

 Boyertown Auto Body Works in World War Two
Boyertown, PA
1911-1990

This page updated 7-3-2022.

The Boyertown Auto Body Works presents a unique opportunity in the study of the American industry's contribution to winning World War Two.

  • The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles is located in the same factory building that the Boyertown Body Works occupied during World War Two.

  • The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles has one of the two surviving International Harvester M-1-4 1/2 4x4 trucks that the Boyertown Body Works made into ambulances by adding the body to the truck chassis.  The Boyertown Body Works-converted ambulance is on display in the same former factory building in which it was converted into the ambulance configuration.

  • The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles has the original Army-Navy "E" flag on display in the same former factory building that the Boyertown Body Works occupied when it won the awards.  The flag had been stored for many years in the museum attic, and a docent discovered it by accident.  What a find!  In my study of Army-Navy "E" flags to date, I have only found twelve of the 4,283 that were awarded.  None of the other eleven "E" flags are on display in the same building where they were awarded. 

I know of no other instance like this where a former factory has one of its World War Two products on display with the company's "E" flag.  This is truly a unique situation.

The Museum:


The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles as it looked in June 2019.  This is the former location of the Boyertown Auto Body Works factory at Third and Walnut Streets in Boyertown, PA.  First impressions can be misleading, as the entrance to the museum is two indistinguishable doors in the middle of the block.  Without the flags to identify the entrance, a visitor might wonder where the entrance to the museum is located.  But first impressions can be misleading, and that is definitely the case here.  Author's photo.


How cool is this?  The same location as my photo above; but this World War Two era photo is of workers posing on Walnut Street with ten M-1-4 4x4 1/2-ton ambulances.  Comparing the photos shows hardly any change in the buildings from World War Two to the present.
 


This photo shows the former factory and present museum building along Third Street in Boyertown.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Once inside the museum, one realizes this is a first-class vehicle museum with lots of cars and trucks to view.  It is an unassuming museum building outside, but there are lots of displays inside.  The interior square footage is well utilized and packed not only with vehicles but relevant displays.  All of this is in a former factory that built important products for the effort during World War Two, and consequently won the coveted Army-Navy "E" Award five times.  This museum has character.

Today, many new museums being built are to a large extent large chrome and glass structures. They look impressive on the outside but are hollow on the inside.  They are sterile, and feature state-of-the-art interactive displays, but not much in the way of hardware.  I like looking at hardware, and the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles has lots of hardware.  It is true gem of a museum.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


There is a section of the museum that shows how the original carriage shop may have looked when it was in business.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.

The Army-Navy "E" Flag Awards: 


Another photo of the plant at Third and Walnut Streets.  This photo was taken on May 24,1943, after the presentation of the
"E" Flag.  The company employees are marching southeast on Third Street towards the Boyertown Body Works annex plant on Warwick Street.  Here, they would all be served lunch.  Winning the "E" Flag was a big event for a small company like this.  Note there are no stars.  They would come later, as the company continued to win reoccurring awards each six months until the war ended. 


The "E" flag luncheon at the Boyertown Auto Body Works Warwick Street Annex.  My research indicates a luncheon was not the normal routine for a company after an "E" Award presentation.  Normally, the workers just went back to work.  Boyertown Auto Body Works went the extra mile in rewarding its employees with this luncheon.  In the long run, it paid off.  The employees would contribute to the company winning four more awards before the war ended. 


The Boyertown Auto Body Works "E" Flag on display in the museum.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


The bottom of the glassed "E" flag display case has several photos and memorabilia from the awards.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


In May or June of 1944, the company received its second star.  Once again the workers are walking through town with the "E" flag at the head of the procession.  If the workers are going to another luncheon, this would be really rare.  Normally when companies started receiving multiple stars, it was business as usual.  Normally, there were no special events with them. 


Boyertown Auto Body Works has been awarded its fourth star, not its second as the caption states.  It is so obvious that there are four stars, it appears that the person who did this wasn't paying any attention to detail.  Also, the date doesn't make any sense.  If the flag was first awarded May 1943, how can you receive the third award or second star two years earlier?  I did not notice this while at the museum.  If I had, I would have pointed it out to the person at the front entrance. 


Boyertown had no direct connection to the World War Two jeep.  The Ford-build jeep is on display to represent the Pennsylvania-built Bantam jeeps.  American Bantam Car Company in Butler, PA, north of Pittsburgh, had the winning design but not the required production capacity for the volume needed for the upcoming war effort.  Author's photo.

Boyertown Auto Body Works World War Two Production:  1,470 Mobile No.1 Machine Shops, 892 M-1-4 1/2-ton 4x4 ambulance conversions, 140 Mobile Shoe and Textile Canvas Repair Shops, 40 Mobile No. 2 Machine Shops, 30 Mobile Hospital Operating Rooms, 18 Mobile Tire Repair Shops, 3 Mobile Dental Prosthetic Labs, 2 Mobile Boxing and Waterproof Packaging Shops, 1 Mobile Radio Communications Unit, and 1 Mobile Recruiting Service Unit.

The company had $14,396,000 in major war contracts during World War Two.  All of the contracts were with the U.S. Navy as shown in Table 1.  Of interest, is that all of the contracts were for trailers.  The 892 ambulance conversions for the USMC and USN shown in Table 2 must have been subcontracted to the truck manufacturer, International Harvester.

Table 1 - Boyertown Auto Body Work's Major World War Two Contracts
The information below comes from the "Alphabetical Listing of Major War Supply Contracts, June 1940 through September 1945."  This was published by the Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Statistics Division.  Table added 7-3-2022.
Product - Customer Contract Amount Contract Awarded Completion Date
Trailers - Navy $138,000 10-1940 4-1941
Trailers - Navy $169,000 7-1941 12-1941
Trailers - Navy $511,000 1-1942 7-1942
Trailers - Navy $129,000 4-1942 9-1942
Trailers - Navy $145,000 7-1942 11-1942
Trailers - Navy $174,000 8-1942 12-1942
Trailers - Navy $193,000 8-1942 9-1942
Trailers - Navy $233,000 10-1942 2-1943
Trailers - Navy $102,000 10-1942 1-1943
Trailers - Navy $92,000 11-1942 12-1942
Trailers - Navy $249,000 12-1942 6-1943
Trailers - Navy $191,000 12-1942 3-1943
Trailers - Navy $948,000 1-1943 6-1943
Trailers - Navy $933,000 2-1943 2-1944
Trailers - Navy $288,000 4-1943 8-1943
Trailers - Navy $480,000 4-1943 1-1944
Trailers - Navy $180,000 5-1943 11-1943
Trailers - Navy $59,000 5-1943 8-1944
Trailers - Navy $180,000 6-1943 5-1944
Repair Shop Trailers - Navy $119,000 6-1943 12-1944
Trailers - Navy $2,533,000 6-1943 3-1945
Machine Shop Trailers - Navy $653,000 7-1943 5-1944
Machine Shop Trailers - Navy $1,115,000 9-1943 12-4194
Machine Shop Trailers - Navy $560,000 4-1944 10-1945
Shoe Repair Trailers - Navy $115,000 4-1944 7-1944
Machine Shop Trailers - Navy $2,047,000 4-1944 12-1945
Machine Shop Trailers - Navy $495,000 5-1944 5-1945
Machine Shop Trailers - Navy $498,000 5-1944 6-1944
Mobile Machine Shops - Navy $302,000 6-1944 3-1945
Mobile Shoe Repr Trailers - Navy $154,000 7-1944 12-1944
Hospital Trailers - Navy $195,000 11-1944 2-1945
Tire Rpr Shop Trailers - Navy $139,000 2-1945 6-1945
Shoe Rpr Trailers - Navy $77,000 5-1945 9-1945
Total $14,396,000    

 

Table 2 - Boyertown Auto Body Work's Half-Ton 4x4 Ambulance Production Data
IHC Model Number Type Quantity IHC Serial Numbers Customer
M-1-4 (214) Ambulance 9 501-570 USMC
M-1-4 (233) Ambulance 60 571-697 USMC
M-1-4 (233) Ambulance 28 698-725 USN
M-1-4 (233) Ambulance
100 759-858 USMC
M-1-4 (233) Ambulance 80 859-938 USN
M-1-4 (233) Ambulance 25 939-963 USN
M-1-4 (233) Ambulance 100 964-1063 USMC
M-1-4 (233) Ambulance with Radio Suppression 490 1064-1553 USMC
Total   892    


Boyertown Auto Body Works was an important supplier of tactical field ambulances and mobile field shop trailers for the United States Marine Corps.  Boyertown was the only company supplying 1/2-ton 4x4 ambulances to the USMC during the war.  International Harvester built the chassis and then shipped them to Boyertown.  Boyertown Auto Body Works would then build and install the ambulance body on the rear of the chassis.  Boyertown built 900 during World War Two.  This is one of two Boyertown-built ambulances that still exist in the United States.  This one is on display in the same building in which the body was built and installed.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


 Author's photo.


Author's photo.


The ambulance body is of mostly wood construction.  This saved on steel needed for other uses.  Author's photo.


The International Harvester M-1-4 1/2-ton 4x4 is a robust truck.  These served in the Pacific island-hopping campaign with the USMC and US Navy Seabees.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.


The ambulance could carry four litter cases in the Boyertown Auto Body Works body.  Author's photo.


It should be noted the USMC has no medics of its own.  The U.S. Navy provides corpsmen for the Marines during their operations.  Therefore, in this photo, and the one below, Navy Corpsmen are shown.  In this photo there are two levels for two litters each.


This photo shows the top layer of litters being loaded or unloaded from the ambulance. 


Here is a Boyertown-built USMC/US Navy Mobile Machine Shop trailer.  Note the hand crank for starting the generator engine.


This is what the unit looked like when it was opened up.  Boyertown Auto Body Works built 1,470 of these.  Not only did it build the body, but it purchased and installed all of the equipment and tools. 


How cool is this?  While Devin Baumgardner was camping in the Utah desert, he found this World War Two era U.S. Navy mobile repair trailer.  Photo courtesy of Devin Baumgardner added 7-3-2022.


The U.S. Navy ID is at the top of the photo.  Photo courtesy of Devin Baumgardner added 7-3-2022.

Post-War Products:  Below are a few samples showing the variety of civilian products the company built after World War Two.


Boyertown Auto Body Works built this fire pumper on a 1955 Ford chassis.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.


In 1976 the Boyertown Auto Body Works built this and fourteen other trolleys on Dodge motor home chassis.  They were built for use in the 8,000 acre Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA during the Bicentennial.  Author's photo.


This Mister Softee ice cream truck was built on a 1958 Ford chassis.  It was donated to the Museum by the original business owner of the vehicle who bought a Mister Softee franchise in 1959.  Starting in 1956, Boyertown Auto Body Works built thousands of the bodies for not only Mr. Softee, but other ice cream truck companies as well.  This was good business for them.  Maybe when you were a kid you bought a whippy dip from a truck with a Boyertown Auto Body Works built body.  Author's photo.
 

 

 

 

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