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   General Electric Kokomo Plant   Haynes Stellite Company   Hercules Body Company   Horton Manufacturing Company   Howe Fire Apparatus   International Machine Tool Company   J.D. Adams Company   Kokomo Spring Company   Magnavox   Muncie Gear Works   Pierce Governor Company   Portland Forge and Foundry   Reliance Manufacturing Company-Kokomo Plant   Reliance Manufacturing Company-Washington Plant   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    Frankfort Sailplane Company   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   Burke Electric Company   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   Gerstenslager 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 Traile    Hill Diesel Company   Holland Hitch Company   Homelite Company   Horace E. Dodge Boat and Plane Corporation   Huffman Manufacturing   Indian Motorcycle   Ingersoll Steel and Disk   Iron Fireman Manufacturing Company   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   Pressed Steel Tank Company   Queen City Manufacturing Company   R.G. LeTourneau   Richardson Boat Company   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   York-Shipley, Inc.   Youngstown Steel Door Company  
   

 Matthews Company in World War Two
Port Clinton, OH
1890-1906 Bascom, OH as Matthews Boat Company
1906-1974 Port Clinton, OH

This page added 4-25-2022.

In 1890, Scott J. Matthews started his own boat building company in the very small town of Bascom, OH which is a small land-locked town in northwest Ohio.  According to the historical record, Scott J. Matthews built a 70 foot yacht at this location and then sailed it with his family on a 9,000 mile journey.  Nothing is mentioned about how he moved it 31 miles from Bascom, OH to Lake Erie.  After the successful trip with the 70 foot yacht, businessmen in Port Clinton provided Mr. Matthews with free land to build a factory.  In 1906 Mr. Matthews moved to Port Clinton as the Matthews Company.  During World War One the company built subchasers and during World War Two it built a variety of small boats including the LCP and LVCP landing craft.  In 1974 the company went bankrupt  In March 1997 much of the former Matthews plant was destroyed by an arson fire.


SC 173 and SC 174 were two of the subchasers the Matthews Company built in World War One. 


Six subchasers are being fitted out in the Matthews Company shipyard. 

Matthews Company World War Two Products:  The U.S. Navy purchased $7,827,000 in major war contracts from the company during World War Two.  Matthews produced both the LCP and LVCP landing craft along with launches and small boats. 

Table 1 - Matthews Company'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. 
Product - Customer Contract Number Contract Amount Contract Awarded Date Completion Date
Launches - Navy Nos 84973 $65,000 4-1941 11-1941
Launches  Craft Small - Navy Nos 90586 $122,000 8-1941 1-1942
Boats - Navy Nos 97781 $719,000 2-1941 10-1942
Landing Craft - Navy Obs 826 $1,274,000 10-1941 12-1943
Crafts Landing - Navy Obs 1036 $1,198,000 4-1943 3-1944
Landing Craft - Navy Obs 1247 $2,379,000 8-1943 12-1944
Landing Craft LCP - Navy Obs 1954 $810,000 9-1944 3-1945
Ship Parts - Navy 407Xss 6471 $56,000 10-1944 11-1944
Landing Craft LCVP - Navy Obs 2008 $803,000 12-1944 6-1945
Landing Craft LCVP - Navy Obs 2046 $401,000 1-1945 10-1945
Total   $7,827,000    

Estimated Number of boats and landing craft built by Matthews Company:  One of the challenges of reporting on the Matthews Company is a determination of how many landing craft and other small boats the company built during World War Two.  One source in the historical record showed that the company built 555 LCVPs and had 69 cancelled at the end of the war.  Another source gave 496.  Neither had any primary sources listed to substantiate the numbers given.  Many historical sources note a number of LCVPs built by a boat company, not realizing there were other types of landing craft built during World War Two.  Not all landing craft were LCVPs as most persons believe.

Table 2 shows the production of different types of small landing craft in World War Two.  This can be used as a guide for attempting to determine what types of the unspecified landing craft in Table 1 were.  

Table 2 - World War Two 36-foot Landing Craft Production
The information below comes from the Navhips NUMBER OF VESSELS AND TONNAGE COMPLETED
SINCE 4 MARCH 1933 TO 30 SEPTEMBER 1945 INCLUSIVE
AND PREDICTIONS FROM 1 OCTOBER 1945 TO 31 DECEMBER 1947 INCLUSIVE for landing craft - Small.
Type 1941 1942 1943 1944 Jan-Jul 1945 Total / % at end of July 1945 Projected Jul-Dec 1945 Total / % a the end of Dec 1745
LCP(L) (same as LCP) 564 307 282 547 440 2,140 / 7.2% 110 2,250 / 7.3%
LCP(R)   1,663 24 705 250 2,642 / 8.9% 63 2,705 / 8.8%
LCVP   215 8,027 9,290 4,960 22,492 / 75.9% 906 23,398 / 76.1%
LCV 110 18,91 365     2,366 / 7.9%   2,366 / 7.7%
Total 664 4,076 8,698 10,542 5,650 29,630 1,079 30,719

Table 2 gives the projected production after July 1945.  However, production for the small landing craft most likely were all cancelled after August 15, 1945. However, the figures normally given in most references include the projected last six months of production. 

Contracts NObs 1954, NObs 2008, and NObs 2046 specifically identify the landing type awarded on the contract. 

Shipbuildinghistory.com indicates that Matthews built the LCP, LCP(R) and LCVP.

The Navy contract Obs 826 for Landing Craft was awarded a year before the LCVP and the LCP(R) went into production, so contract Obs 826 must have been for some other type of landing craft.  This contract is most likely for the LCP which was in production in 1941. 

The Navy contracts Obs 1036 and Obs 1247 are more problematic as the LCP, LCP(R), and LCVP were all in production in 1943 and 1944. 

Using data from known Chris Craft contracts, I can estimate the cost of landing craft purchased by the U.S. Navy.  While there will be some variation between manufacturers related to the number of landing craft built, the Navy knew the cost of building them and the cost of the boats should be similar.

Calculation Method:  Chris Craft had LCP contract NObs 1731 for $2,640,000 which divided by the 550 units in the contract yields $4,800.  This value was used for Matthews contracts NObs 826 and NObs 1954.

Chris Craft had LCVP contract NObs 827 for $9,996,000 which divided by the 1,700 units in the contract yields $5,880. This value was applied to Matthews contracts NObs 2008 and NObs 2046 as they were identified as LCVPs. 

Chris Craft had LCP(R) contract NObs 1881 for $736,000 which divided by the 150 units in the contract yields $4,906. This value was applied to Matthews contracts NObs 2008 and NObs 2046 as they were identified as LCVPs. 

For Matthews contract NObs 1036 and NObs 1247, I calculated the estimated number of landing craft for the LCP, LCP(R), and LCVP types.  This is because it is not clear which types they are.  In looking at the Chris Craft contracts, there was no chronological pattern as to what landing craft type was ordered.

Table 3 - Matthews Company's Estimated Number of Boats Built
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. 
Product - Customer Contract Number Contract Amount Estimated Cost Type Estimated Boats Built
Launches - Navy Nos 84973 $65,000   Unknown  
Launches  Craft Small - Navy Nos 90586 $122,000   Unknown  
Boats - Navy Nos 97781 $719,000   Unknown  
Landing Craft - Navy NObs 826 $1,274,000 $4,800 LCP 265
Crafts Landing - Navy NObs 1036 $1,198,000 $4,800/$4,906/$5,880 LCP/LCP(R)/LCVP 250//244/203
Landing Craft - Navy NObs 1247 $2,379,000 $4,800/$4,906/$5,880 LCP/LCP(R)LCVP 495/484/405
Landing Craft LCP - Navy NObs 1954 $810,000 $4,800 LCP 169
Ship Parts - Navy 407 NXss 6471 $56,000   N/A  
Landing Craft LCVP - Navy NObs 2008 $803,000 $5,880 LCVP 137
Landing Craft LCVP - Navy NObs 2046 $401,000 $5,880 LCVP 68
Total   $7,827,000      

From this exercise, it appears Matthews Company built at least an estimated 434 LCPs.  It also built at least an estimated 205 LCVPs.  Until I find more information, this is all that can be determined.  It would appear that NObs 1036 or NObs 1247 could be LCP, LCP(R), or LCVP contracts to match the numbers given by other sources.  However, according to Shipbuildinghistory.com, one or both of NObs 1036 or NObs 1247 is an LCP(R) contract.  However, until more information is obtained, I will not guess as to which type they are.

The following three photos show two different LCVPs that the company built during World War Two.  Note that the one in the first photo, which is being tested on Lake Erie, has a different ramp than the one in the following two photos.  It has a large opening at the top of the ramp.  Both boats have a ribbing that runs along the top from the stern to the armor plating.  All three photos and the subchaser photos are from a very nice display at the Maritime Museum of Sandusky, OH.  Unfortunately, the display did not give any production numbers. 

Landing Craft, Personnel, Large (LCP(L)):  The LCP and LCP(L) were the same 36 foot landing craft without a ramp.


Matthews built a number of LCP(L) landing craft, the number of which is unknown due to lack of records.  This outline drawing and the one below are from the "Operators Manual, 36-foot "Eureka" Landing Motor Boats," revised June 1944 by Higgins Industries.  Matthews and other manufacturers of the LCP(L) built them from outline drawings like this along with a full set of details drawings and parts lists. 




The final product looked like this, which is a 1944 Higgins-built LCP(L).  It is on display at the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans, LA.  Author's photo.

Landing Craft, Personnel, (Ramp) (LCP(R)):  The LCP(R) is an LCP with a three foot wide ramp.  Matthews built an undetermined number of these.


This is the configuration of the LCP(R).  Photo courtesy of the Algonac-Clay Township Historical Society.

Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP):

"Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
From a poem by Francis Pharcellus Church in the September 21, 1897, New York Sun.  This was in reply to eight-year-old Virginia O'Hallon who wrote a letter to the newspaper asking whether there really was a Santa Claus.

Like the famous editorial reply by Francis Pharcellus Church to Virginia O'Hallon in the September 21, 1897, New York Sun when asked if there really was a Santa Claus...

"No Virginia, not every LCVP during World War Two was built by Higgins Industries."
The builders of the LCVPs during World War Two need to be clarified, because when I go to museums with World War Two LCVPs and ask who built it, the answer is always "Higgins."  Then the docent will always add that Higgins built all the LCVPs of World War Two.  This is categorically incorrect.  Higgins built only 52.8% of the total LCVP production; and was one of six known companies that built the LCVP during the war.


This ramp hoisting gear layout drawing gives a general idea of the outline of the LCVP.  Matthews would have built its share of the LCVPs from a full set of prints provided by Higgins Industries.  Engineering drawing courtesy of C. Robert Gillmor added 1-9-2020.


The final product would look similar to this, which is a replica built from Higgins engineering drawings just like Matthews used to build its portion of LCVPs during World War Two.  This replica is on display at the National World War Two Museum.  It is in the main lobby by the ticket booths. Author's photo.

 

 

 

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