Army-Navy E Award Winners

Manufacturers, configurations, Shovels, Axe, Wrenches, Oiler, F/E etc.
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gpw_42
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Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by gpw_42 » Mon Dec 21, 2020 8:14 am

Recently, the recipients of Army-Navy E Awards came up as a topic in a different thread. Finding little to no info on the G, I found this site: https://www.usautoindustryworldwartwo.c ... Awards.htm which has a scan of a 1945 document listing all the different recipients of the E-Awards, arranged by state.

Criteria for the Army-Navy E Award:
"Quality and quantity of production in the light of available facilities are the factors which will be given the greatest weight in selecting recipients of the award. Other factors to be weighed may include-
a. Overcoming of production obstacles.
b. Low rate of absenteeism.
c. Avoidance of work stoppages.
d. Maintenance of fair labor standards.
e. Training of additional labor forces.
f. Effective management.
g. Record on accidents, health, sanitation, and plant protection.
h. Utilization of subcontracting facilities
i. Cooperation between management and labor as it affected production and
j. Conservation of critical and strategic materials."

Approximately 5 percent of plants doing work for the War or Navy Departments were recognized with Army-Navy E (or Army A or Navy E). That 5 percent represents 4,283 plants, which shows a little of the scope of wartime production - there were around 85,660 plants doing work for the war effort.

Below are some charts with different categories of manufacturers and the number of E awards they received. This is TOTALLY non-scientific, non-comprehensive, incomplete and reflective of MY INTERESTS. The most comprehensive section is the hand tool manufacturers, but even that is not complete, as some of you will undoubtedly find on your first review.

Comments:
- it's surprising to me which of the big name tool manufacturers did not earn an E award (Barcalo, BHM, D-I, Fairmount, S-K, Plumb, Vlchek, etc.), while others did (Crescent, Moore Drop Forge, New Britian, Plvmb, etc.).
- these E awards were big time advertising "bona fides" during the war, for any manufacturer who earned one or more awards.
- any attempt to be truly comprehensive would require a lot of effort to deep dive on big manufacturers. Examples: Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, GM, and maybe the Plvmb empire, as these big companies had plants in several states, where we might not think of them. I was surprised to find GM mentioned in New England, for example. Or Ford produced the GPW in CA, TX, KY and MI, to be G503-focused. Did all of those plants earn an E award, or none, or only some? I haven't gone that far into this. Yet.
- the scope of war production is staggering...of course. The more I learn about it, the more intriguing it gets.
Attachments
Machine Shop MFRs.jpg
E-Awards Vehicle MFRs.jpg
E-Awards Misc MFRs.jpg
E-Awards Firearms MFRs.jpg
20201221_ArmyNavy E Awards Tools.jpg


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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by Ez8 » Mon Dec 21, 2020 8:58 am

Speaking as a modern manufacturing professional I'm extremely interested in this topic. A lot of these "production E" requirements are the same as what we strive for in our operation, but no one is giving us an award except ourselves. Happy to see Ross Gear in Lafayette IN on there - the plant is still there only it's called ZF now.
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by zepher11 » Mon Dec 21, 2020 9:27 am

That's pretty fascinating. I have a couple of the "E" pennants, and a couple of the sterling silver "E" pins. I'm always keeping an eye out in old WWII era factory photos to see if I can spot one of the pennants.

Thanks for posting the information. Seems like it was a big deal during the war:
WWII E Pennant 01.jpg
WWII E
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by Ed Roberts » Mon Dec 21, 2020 11:15 am

GPW_42, thanks for this, and I found it quite interesting. Makes me curious about the award evaluators and objectivity involved. (Since there could be money to be made by a manufacturer receiving the award, how about side deals involved?)
Curious if all manufacturers regardless of size were judged equally or adjustments made? Also noted only 5% qualified, meaning 95% did not. There seems to be a lot of factors and criteria to explore. Looking forward to whatever else you determine.
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by d42jeep » Mon Dec 21, 2020 12:15 pm

Great thread. I happened onto this article while I was poking around the Internet.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/l ... html#press

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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by Hartofoak » Mon Dec 21, 2020 1:37 pm

Here are a few images of E Award adverts that I've collected over the years. Neither Walworth nor Camillus is listed but the adverts include a pennant. Not sure about the underware but it's a nice image!
Attachments
New Britain 1945 advert.jpg
New Britain 45
Newbritian 1943 ex John Barton.jpg
New Britain 43
E Award Burkey.jpg
Burkey
Willys E Award Stamp.jpg
Willys
Camillus Cutlery 1945 E Award & knives.jpg
Camillus 45
Bonney Advert.jpg
Bonney
Bonney Advert 1944.jpg
Bonney 44
1944 Walworth Advert.jpg
Walworth 44
Last edited by Hartofoak on Mon Dec 21, 2020 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by d42jeep » Mon Dec 21, 2020 2:19 pm

I found this photo online.
-Don
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C80ADEE4-9442-46A6-BC6C-C8E2E2CE7157.jpeg
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by Ed Roberts » Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:59 pm

Don, thanks for the post. Answered some of my questions. It does, however, look like a bureaucratic nightmare for a company who felt eligible for the award and was not awarded. 95% is a big number. Looking forward to more on this.
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by gpw_42 » Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:21 am

Ed Roberts wrote:
Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:59 pm
Don, thanks for the post. Answered some of my questions. It does, however, look like a bureaucratic nightmare for a company who felt eligible for the award and was not awarded. 95% is a big number. Looking forward to more on this. Best, Eddie
Thanks all for the participation and follow-on discussion. Cliff and Don, you posted some of the advertising I thought about while writing the first post, and didn't have time to run down. Cliff, I found Camillus listed, with 3 stars (so 4 awards) on the "New York, North Carolina" page; I think this shows a pitfall of the organization of that website, having to break up some large states (like NY) onto multiple pages. Also, I added them to my "miscellaneous" chart, but haven't updated the first post.

I'm curious to attempt to dig into some of what Eddie and Ez8 addressed about how companies were nominated. The details are on the link which Don posted (which is a transcription of the document linked in my initial post); that transcription is MUCH easier to read than the scan! In short, it was on the Armed Services to nominate a factory for the E-award, based on the criteria pasted into the first post. However, my suspicion is that enterprising and aggressive plant leadership would "make it easy for" the military officer(s) to submit a packet. How widespread was this? I have no clue, but it seems that the advertising benefit would be worth assembling a packet for the procurement (Army) or inspection (Navy) people.

I'm also really surprised about the emphasis placed on fair labor and management/labor cooperation, in the award criteria. Of course, the USG wanted plants producing, not involved in labor issues, so it was in Uncle Sam's favor to encourage the two to work together.
Last edited by gpw_42 on Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by gpw_42 » Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:54 am

This chart lists the automotive companies and plants which received E-awards: https://www.usautoindustryworldwartwo.c ... inners.htm It's too long to copy/paste here, but well worth your time to review, someone has already done a big part of the "deep dive" I mentioned in the initial post. But especially take a look at the GM entries (I'm a Dodge guy, for what it's worth) for the breadth of the GM manufacturing effort.

Zeph, I found a page recently which has an E award presentation ceremony broken up into several sound clipshttp://industrialhistory.org/histories/the-army-navy-e-award-world-war-2/
And here's a YT video of John Deere receiving an E award, in 1942: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4U19l-uXi8

Picked up these souvenirs of Wartime production recently. The Army-Navy E pins and the Navy E pin for Carnegie Illinois (steel manufacturing) were yesterday. The Bullard pennant came earlier this month, with the pins attached; it was billed as a pennant for a 2nd shift worker. I was attracted to the it because Bullard made the vertical turret lathe which has been on the USS NORTH CAROLINA since the ship was built. I like the Navy E pin because it's not generic - the specific plant it was made for is part of the pin; the Army-Navy E pins are generic. I'd like to obtain at least one of the Army E pins, to display alongside the Navy and Army-Navy pins.
Attachments
20201222_E Pins.jpg
20201222_Navy E Award, Carnegie Illinois.jpg
20201222_Bullard Front side.jpg
20201222_Bullard Pin.jpg

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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by zepher11 » Tue Dec 22, 2020 7:09 am

gpw_42 wrote:
Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:54 am
...

Zeph, I found a page recently which has an E award presentation ceremony broken up into several sound clipshttp://industrialhistory.org/histories/the-army-navy-e-award-world-war-2/
And here's a YT video of John Deere receiving an E award, in 1942: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4U19l-uXi8...
Now that's a neat clip. I don't know why, but I have always been fascinated with the ramped up production during the war. One can see it was a big deal, but it seems like the "E" production awards program has been somewhat lost to history now. I have a lot of ads like those above on my garage wall with the "E" flags depicted on the advertisement.
WWII E Pennant 04.jpg
E-Keep 'em Flying
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by GPW1263 » Tue Dec 22, 2020 10:24 am

Regarding war production and going in the opposite direction for a moment, take a moment to watch the 15 minute Periscope film on THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR II PRODUCTION HISTORIC FILM 74642.. Pretty amazing to imagine all that manufacturing coming to a screeching halt with companies changing their production so as to be able to remain in business in a post-war world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoAsDmTnhpE

Enjoy!
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by Steve Webb » Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:06 pm

The emphasis on labor relations was because of what happened in WW 1. Imagine that during WW 2

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.n ... ers%20each.

Headed it off somewhat

https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/en ... rld-war-ii
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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by gpw_42 » Thu Apr 08, 2021 6:40 am

Hartofoak wrote:
Mon Dec 21, 2020 1:37 pm
... Neither Walworth nor Camillus is listed but the adverts include a pennant. Not sure about the underware but it's a nice image!
Cliff, thanks for sharing those ads! They add to this thread, and help illustrate my point about advertising value.

Here's a link to Walworth, with 4 stars (5 awards), about 1/2 way down page 28: https://www.usautoindustryworldwartwo.c ... page-5.htm Assuming they made correct size pipe wrenches for GMTKs, that's a useful brand to be aware of when searching the flea/boot for GMTK tools.

Camillus, about 3/4 of the way down page 43, with 3 stars: https://www.usautoindustryworldwartwo.c ... page-9.htm

Finding any particular company's info takes a bit of detective work, and is not necessarily straightforward. It's also easy to overlook...

I need to dig back into this - lost the bubble after Christmas.

Steve

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Re: Army-Navy E Award Winners

Post by d42jeep » Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:47 pm

That’s good information about Walworth. Due to the ease of dating, both of my keeper sets exclusively have Walco pipe wrenches. I think Len has a nice collection of them too.
-Don
Attachments
49804CB2-EFA6-4ADD-961B-055075CB1B24.jpeg
Walco pipe wrenches with FSN numbers.
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