Traveling
Tuesday: New Jersey During WWII
I’m a native Baltimorean, but spent a large portion of
my “growing-up” years in New Jersey, first in Edison, then in West Milford.
Despite living in the state for so long, until recently I knew very little
about the contributions New Jersey made to WWII. Here is just a bit about my “adopted”
home:
War
Production: Already a heavily industrialized state and
home to countless factories, New Jersey manufacturing plants produced shells,
cartridges, fighters and bombers, propellers, gyroscopes, tanks and tank
destroyers, trucks, cannons, machine guns, sub-machine guns, motors, fuses, ball
and roller bearings. (A full list of items produced by GM can be found here)
Picatinny Arsenal ran three shifts of over 18,000
employees to turn out bombs and artillery shells. In addition, research at the
facility was responsible for the invention of a delay fuze for skip bombing and
special bombs for dams and oil fields. In 2012, during renovations at the
Arsenal murals were uncovered in one of the buildings. You can see photos here.
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation produced 139,000
aircraft engines (more than any other firm in the U.S.) Shipyards in Camden and
Kearney built destroyers, and Bethlehem Steel and Todd Shipyards repaired over
8,000 ships. According to one website the number of people employed in New
Jersey doubled from 1939 to 1945!


Some
famous and not-so-famous NJ citizens:
- Newark Evening News war correspondent Warren Kennet, referred to as “Newark’s Ernie Pyle.” He was the first journalist ashore at Normandy.
- William Foley, a rifleman in the 94th Division whose wartime sketches (seen here) led to a post war career as a professional artist.
- Albert Meserlin was a combat photographer for most of the war, then he became Eisenhower’s personal photographer during the final months which allowed him to witness Germany’s surrender in May 1945.
- Sergeant Curtis Culin’s idea of attached steel prongs to tanks created the “Rhino Plow” that enable troops to cut through dense Norman hedgerows.
And not to be forgotten are the over a half million
men and women who served in the armed forces throughout the state, 12,507 of
whom lost their lives.
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