Greetings and salutations fellow Rotarians,
Here are the highlights from our July 23rd, 2019 meeting.
From the Podium
President Tara Welch announced that our new District Governor Tom Miles would be joining us on August 13th for our regularly scheduled meeting.
Also, Gena Gates will be re-inducted into our club after a long absence. Gena served as our club President in 2006, and is a Paul Harris Fellows recipient.
Eric Jylha Discusses the GLBR's Contribution to WWII
Eric is a distinguished member of our club and former TV5 Meteorologist best known for predicting the weather correctly 50% of the time (just kidding Eric). Since retirement, Eric has devoted much of his time researching local history, and giving presentations to various groups.
At this week's meeting Eric enthralled the club with stories about the Great Lakes Bay Region's numerous contributions to the war effort during WWII.
Eric's presentation, titled "WWII On The Home front…The Margin Of Victory", was a detailed account of local people and companies which aided in the war effort.
Before going into detail about the contributions made by local companies Eric paid tribute to those people who gave their all to win the war. According to
Eric 613,000 individuals from Michigan fought in WWII. Of those 60,000 were from Bay City, Saginaw and Midland. A total of 10,263 were killed in action, and 29,321 were injured.
Eric then spoke of the many things built and manufactured by GM, Defoe Ship Builders, and Dow Chemical in the Tri-City area for the war.
Some of the highlights include:
GM -
1. A-4 Browning tripod which was fixed to vehicles and fired 400 rounds per minute
2. A-6 shoulder stock bi-pod used up cliffs in Italy campaign, and D-Day
3. M-1 .30 caliper “the Saginaw Carbine”, which had 'SG' carved on walnut stock that stood for Saginaw gun
4. 37mm armor piercing round for tank mounted guns
5. Bay City Chevrolet Plant made engine parts for the Pratt and Whitney radial aircraft engine.
6. GM made everything from tiny ball bearings to tanks, ships, and 1,300 planes. A quarter of all aircraft engine came from GM.
Defoe Ship Builders-
1. Created the 'Roll Over' method of ship construction. It was much like the Ford assembly line, and utilized 'down hand welding' and a 3-minute roll over to finish the top structure developed during construction of the 173 foot PC’s. Crews could roll a 1700 ton vessel with its own weight.
2. Built 17 DE’s (tin cans) and 56 PC’s 1943 to end of war. 154 vessels were constructed between 1935-1945 including troopships, landing craft, and subchasers. This amounted to approximately 1 ship being built every 7 days.
3. Made 47 (one every five days) LCIL large infantry landing craft used at Normandy in the Pacific in conjunction with GM in Detroit.
Dow Chemical-
1. Developed and manufactured Magnesium Chloride, a strong and lightweight material used for aircraft
2. Developed the “mining the ocean” technique, which was considered the greatest chemical engineering feat ever. It used lots of electricity. Production began in Bay City in 1937 with 3,300 workers. 1,500 pounds a day were manufactured by the end of war.
3. Synthetic Rubber out of styrene and butadiene
4. Ethylene used for water proofing and seamless pipe and shipping wrap, later called Saran Wrap after creator's wifes
Sarah and Ann
5. Created and manufactured a mixture to float English channel bouys, later becomes Styrofoam
6. Formed Dow Corning to make DC-4 along with a resin used as a high temp engine insulator and a defoamer for hydraulic fluid
Aladdin Homes-
1. Aladdin was contracted to build and supply a "5-man hut" for $1.8M. In 1916, 200 Aladdin homes (The Chester) were shipped to make Austin Village which was the factory town for Austin, who had switched his car production to war production. This is near Birmingham, England. In 1917, another shipment of homes were sent to construct a second town aboard, and was ultimately sunk by the Germans.
POWs-
Eric concluded his presentation by discussing the POW camps located in the GLBR during WWII.
1. Over 6,000 German and Italian POW’s were held in Lower Michigan, and another 1,000 in UP. There were
25 camps in Michigan. One of the major POW camps was the US
Freeland (located were Clement's Airport is now). There were also camps in Hart, Owosso, Dundee, and Romulus. They were all run by the Army and inspected by the Red Cross.
2. POWs were required to work a 6 day/48-hour week for 80-cents a day. They were each given a bologna sandwich and an apple each day for their meal.
3. The POWs built roadways, felled trees, erected silos, painted, and took part in light non-military manufacturing. They also constructed tract housing and did troop laundry.
4. Approximately 36% of all Michigan crops during 1944 were handled by POWS.
5. The Red Cross inspected camps and no one escaped.
6. Owosso had a camp at the former racetrack, and 200 POWs worked alongside residents in a canning factory.
Upcoming Presentations & Events
July 30th - Junior League of the GLBR Annual Festival of Trees
August 6th - Morning Rotary Driathlon
August 13th - District Governor Tom Miles joins us
More programs are needed. If you, or some one you know, who like to give a presentation please contact Tara, Carrie, or Paul.
Upcoming Meeting Location Changes
July 30th - Courtyard by Marriott
September 17th - location to be determined
NO meetings on December 24th or 31st due to the holidays.
Well, that's it for this addition of The New Rotary Breezes everyone!! I hope you enjoyed it!!
Enjoy the rest of your week!!
