The war plant: Doolittle's tanks and the whole second war

1941 – 1945

The fuel cells: The plant joined the war effort in 1941 fabricating self-sealing fuel containers, in the marker's account — rubber bladders that sealed themselves around a bullet hole, made by the thousand for the bombers and fighters of two air forces. The work's documented summit is the mission the City of Mishawaka's own historic-markers account preserves, and it is the settling source for the story: in February 1942, working around the clock, the plant's employees designed and built three fuel tanks for each of the Army's B-25 bombers — a 225-gallon bulletproof fuel cell for the bomb bay, a 160-gallon synthetic bladder for the crawlway, and a 60-gallon tank in place of the lower gun turret — extending the bombers' range to some 2,400 miles for a mission whose purpose remained top secret while the tanks were built. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle visited the plant during production. On 18 April 1942 sixteen B-25s flew from the carrier Hornet and bombed Tokyo; Doolittle afterward sent the plant's employees a telegram of congratulations, in the city's account. The raid's fame has attached itself to the carriers and the crews; the Mishawaka share of it — three rubber tanks in every airplane, designed and built in eight weeks of round-the-clock work by people who were not told why — stands in the city's own marker record.

The whole war line: Peter J. De Kever's city history, Mishawaka: A History, published by the city, itemizes the plant's war production beyond the fuel cells: Army raincoats, Navy deep-sea diving suits, aviator boots, and fuel cells for the B-17, B-25, B-26, and B-29 bombers, the Navy's PBM-3 patrol bomber, and the A-20C. The laboratory footnote in the Indiana Magazine of History's memoir literature adds gas masks and the nylon-resin "Vboard" that supported the fuel cells. One first-hand worker's account fixes the work at bench level: Bernard L. Rice, hired in 1940 straight out of Mishawaka High School as a physical testing technician in the plant's laboratories, at fifty cents an hour, tested materials for flying boots, rubber fuel tanks — some of them, he records, for Doolittle's raiders — raincoats, diving suits, and tennis shoes, before his own service as a combat medic. His "Recollections of a World War II Combat Medic" appeared in the Indiana Magazine of History in December 1997.

The peak, printed in its two forms: De Kever's history gives the plant's all-time highest employment as 9,446, reached in 1943. The marker on the ground rounds the figure as "nearly 10,000 workers during WWII," and the Tribune's 2000 retrospective likewise speaks of 10,000 Uniroyal workers at the height. The exact and the rounded stand together: 9,446 in 1943 on the city historian's count, "nearly 10,000" in the plant's public memory. In 1943, the marker states, women were more than half the labor force, working among other rotations the "victory shift" — the workforce fact that the postwar decades and the Chrapliwy case, carried below, both turn on.

Sources:

1. City of Mishawaka, historic markers account of the Doolittle Raid tanks — the February 1942 design and construction, the three tanks and their capacities (225-gallon bomb-bay cell, 160-gallon crawlway bladder, 60-gallon turret tank), the 2,400-mile range, Doolittle's visit during production, and his telegram of congratulations after the raid of 18 April 1942.
2. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (published by the city) — Army raincoats, Navy deep-sea diving suits, aviator boots, fuel cells for the B-17, B-25, B-26, B-29, PBM-3, and A-20C, and the all-time employment peak of 9,446 in 1943.
3. Ball-Band Factory marker — self-sealing fuel containers from 1941, nearly 10,000 workers during the war, and women more than half the labor force in 1943 on the victory shift.
4. Bernard L. Rice, "Recollections of a World War II Combat Medic," Indiana Magazine of History, vol. XCIII (December 1997) — hired 1940 at fifty cents an hour as a physical testing technician; the laboratory's testing of flying boots, fuel tanks, raincoats, diving suits, and tennis shoes; the magazine's footnote adding gas masks and the nylon-resin Vboard.