The first farm implement company selected by the Army was the International Harvester Company – a firm that was making half-tracks, artillery tractors, trucks of all sizes, wheeled and crawler tractors, scout cars, ambulances, tank transmissions, cannon, gun carriages, ammunition, torpedoes and even blood bank refrigerators.
IH got the request on June 24, 1942, began enrollment in the unit on the 29th, and had surpassed the enlistment quota by July 6. Volunteers came from the main office, the various factories and sales branch houses and dealers.
Not only mechanics were enlisted, but machinists, blacksmiths, welders, carpenters, painters, chauffeurs, electricians, warehousemen, clerks, engineers, supervisors, radio experts, toolmakers, and leather and canvas workers.
The 900 plus men who were chosen from more than 1,000 volunteers were to report to Camp Perry, Ohio, on July 15 and were to be commanded by Lt. Col. D.L. Van Syclye of the Army Ordinance Corps. Organized as the 134th Ordinance Maintenance Battalion and assigned to the 12th Armored Division, the unit later joined General Alexander Patch’s 7th U.S. Army in November of 1944, and ended up in Austria at war’s end.
The J.I. Case Company was asked at about the same time for a heavy maintenance company, a request that, as at IH and Deere, was met with enthusiasm by employees of the factories, branch houses and dealers. In a short time the 200 man company was recruited, organized, and mustered into the Army as the 518th Heavy Maintenance Company. Case was making artillery shells, military tractors, and bomber wings, among other military products.
The 518th was stationed at Knockmore, in County Mayo, Ireland, from Nov. 20, 1943 until May 8, 1944, and then was part of the First U.S. Army, initially under General Omar Bradley in the June 1944 invasion of France known as Operation Overlord, and then later under General Courtney Hodges as the 1st Army fought its way across Europe.
Next up was Deere and Company, who received the same request in September. https://www.farmcollector.com/looking-back/military-equipment-maintenance-zb0z1702zhur
In WW2 John Deere factories produced tail wheels for the P-47 fighter plane, bomb bay doors for the Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber, MG-1 military tractors, and complete mobile laundry units.
On August 15, 1942, less than a year after the United States entered World War II, Deere and Company issued a bulletin to John Deere employees and dealers and their employees. “The War Department,” it stated, “has asked us and our dealers to form a U.S. Army Battalion, made up entirely of men enlisted from our organization, for service as a maintenance unit for keeping mechanized combat equipment constantly in order at an established base.”
Nearly 950 men applied, including 642 who eventually enlisted. More than two-thirds came from John Deere dealerships. Robert Tarbell of the John Deere Plow Co., in Syracuse, New York, was appointed commanding officer.
The John Deere Battalion was comprised of five companies: Headquarters, E, F, G, and Neal Sullivan was assigned to Company F for the duration of his service.
Sullivan was an electrician at a John Deere dealer in Rolla, North Dakota, and compiled four scrapbooks charting his entire time of service with the Battalion. Sullivan’s photographs and scrapbooks, which meticulously document his time as a member of the John Deere Battalion during World War II, were sent to the Deere and Company Archives.
They trained in the Indio desert and learned how to work on a variety of equipment, including the M3A1 light tanks, M4A2 medium tanks, M6 Heavy Tanks, 105MM Howitzers, and dozens of other tanks, jeeps, and motorcycles.
In early November 1942, they boarded the Queen Elizabeth, an 85,000-ton transport ship with 18,000 soldiers aboard, sailing from New York Harbor to Scotland, then to Warminster, England, their base for the next year-and-a-half.
Company F resided in a four-story building that once housed a brewery, and they reported daily to a network of shops where they overhauled equipment.
Their initial work supported Operation Overlord, which came to be known as D-Day, the Allied invasion of France, on June 6, 1944.
After the Battle of the Bulge, Company F joined a convoy that moved through France and into Belgium.
Sullivan and the rest of Company F left Le Havre, France, in October 1945, aboard the ship Sedalia Victory. Ten days later, on November 6, they arrived in Boston Harbor and travelled to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for discharge.
Neal Sullivan returned home to North Dakota on November 14, 1945. By his count, he had spent three years, one month, and twenty-five days in the Army. Two years and three days were spent in Europe.
(Sidebar) 90% of the John Deere company, six factories and eight branch locations accepted at least 10% of their paychecks in war bonds
https://johndeerejournal.com/2019/06/the-untold-story-of-the-john-deere-battalion
The Allis Chalmers company, the National Automobile Dealership Association, and the American Road Builders Association were also on the list of organizations the War Dept hit on to recruit specialized men for specific battalions, and at least one railroad company, the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe formed a railway operating battalion, the 713th ROB
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/16349-wwii-nada-ordnance-regiments-toe/
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