program description
interviews
quicktime

SEGMENT 1
SEGMENT 3

FROM THE OPENING OF THE PLANT UNTIL IT CLOSED IN LATE 1945, LAKE CITY DELIVERED 5.9 BILLION ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION TO THE ARMED FORCES. A SHORT DRIVE FROM KANSAS CITY, THE MUNITIONS PLANT ALSO PROVIDED AFFORDABLE WARTIME ENTERTAINMENT FOR FAMILIES.

PRECISION IN PRODUCTION WAS ALSO IMPORTANT AT SUNFLOWER ORDNANCE WORKS, NEAR DESOTO, KANSAS. THE HERCULES PLANT SUPPLIED EXTREMELY ESSENTIAL, YET EXTREMELY VOLATILE CANNON & ROCKET POWDER. AND DESPITE HIGH SAFETY STANDARDS, FIRES AND ACCIDENTS DID HAPPEN -- SOME LOST THEIR LIVES. BUT THAT DIDN’T PREVENT SUNFLOWER FROM BECOMING THE LARGEST ROCKET POWDER PRODUCING PLANT IN THE UNITED STATES BY THE END OF WWII. BUTLER MANUFACTURING WAS ALREADY MAKING STEEL BUILDINGS AND REFUELING TANKS FOR THE GOVERNMENT WHEN WAR BROKE OUT. BUT THEIR MOST REMARKABLE PRODUCT WAS THE BUTLER LANDING MAT. THESE 10-FOOT BY 15-INCH INTER-LOCKING STEEL PLANKS WERE USED AS SIDEWALKS, FLOORS, FOOTBRIDGES AND RAMPS ON INVASION BEACHES.

LARGER COMBINATIONS OF THE MATS WERE LAID OUT, ALLOWING THE BIG BOMBERS TO LAND ON THE SANDY PACIFIC ISLANDS. BY WAR’S END, BUTLER HAD PRODUCED OVER 29 MILLION SQUARE FEET OF LANDING MATS.

THE FLEDGLING AVIATION AND ELECTRONICS INDUSTRIES HAD BECOME VITAL FOR MODERN WARFARE, AND KANSAS CITY WAS AT THE CORE OF PRODUCTION. PRATT & WHITNEY CAME TO TOWN TO MANUFACTURE THEIR DOUBLE WASP AIRPLANE ENGINE FOR THE NAVY. 23,000 PEOPLE BUILT & ASSEMBLED THE INTRICATE MACHINE IN THE HUGE COMPLEX AT BANNISTER & TROOST, CALLED THE WASP NEST.

Cantrell…when I first went there I seen all these parts all laid all over every place. And I told them, "My god there’s a lot of parts." And they kind of laughed at me a little bit… it all stayed in the same building and went over to the assembly. And over in the assembly they would put it together and then they would put it in their test cells and test it out. And then where it went then I had no idea.
Dungans… I remember sometimes when I would have to go down and take something somewhere, walked through were all the test cells were, that was a wild noise. …
Cantrell … And we put out an engine faster more engines, and cheaper, and better than what they was doing in Hartford, Connecticut, the parent plant.

KANSAS CITY’S SOLE PRIME DEFENSE CONTRACT WAS FOR THE FAMOUS B-25 BILLY MITCHELL MEDIUM BOMBER. BUILT BY NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION, OVER 59,000 PEOPLE TOILED AT THE FAIRFAX PLANT, DOING WHATEVER IT TOOK TO CREATE EACH MASTERPIECE.

Ellis … the part of the plane that we worked on was the center section and there were three gas bays on each section where the wing would eventually join on. And I would get stuck down in those gas bays, head first down or any other way you could in there…and all these rivets going like machine guns everywhere. I don’t know how I can hear anything to this day but I have good hearing.

AT ANY ONE TIME, APPROXIMATELY 100 AIRPLANES WERE IN SOME STAGE OF PRODUCTION

B-25'S WERE ALSO BROUGHT BACK TO KANSAS CITY FOR MODIFICATION, ADDING MACHINE GUNS, CANNONS OR THE LATEST IN ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT.

TO THIS DAY, THE BOMBER BUILDERS STILL GET A THRILL WHEN THEY SEE ONE OF THEIR OLD FRIENDS.

UNLIKE THE B-25, THE WACO GLIDER WAS MEANT TO BE SILENT, SO YOU WERE LUCKY IF YOU CAUGHT A GLIMPSE OF ONE SOARING ABOVE FAIRFAX AIRPORT.

CONSTRUCTED IN THE AMERICAN ROYAL BUILDINGS, THE RUGGED INVASION GLIDER HAD A WING SPAN OF 84 FEET, 50% GREATER THAN THE B-25.

TOWED BY C47S INTO ENEMY TERRITORY, GLIDER PILOTS MADE DEAD-STICK LANDINGS, CARRYING JEEPS, BULLDOZERS, FIELD ARTILLERY AND TROOPS.

SENATOR HARRY DARBY WAS ALSO INSTRUMENTAL IN BRINGING DEFENSE WORK TO THE MIDWEST. AT HIS STEELWORKS, HE BUILT LOCOMOTIVE BOILERS AND 1000- AND 4000-POUND BOMB CASINGS. BUT THE TRUE HEROES WERE AT KAW POINT WHERE THE AMPHIBIOUS LCTS AND LCMS WERE BUILT. 2000 OF THESE LANDING CRAFT WERE LAUNCHED INTO THE CONFLUENCE OF THE MISSOURI AND KANSAS RIVERS, MAKING THE 1000 MILE JOURNEY TO NEW ORLEANS, AND THEN TO POINTS BEYOND.

IN LATE ’43, NAVY OFFICIALS DESPERATELY NEEDED SIXTY OF THE DARBY LCTS, YET RIVER LEVELS WERE LOW. WITH NO CHANGE AFTER RELEASING WATER FROM A DAM UPRIVER, THE GOVERNMENT DEMANDED THAT THE HUGE VESSELS BE TRANSPORTED BY HIGHWAY, BRIDGES WERE TO BE DESTROYED ALONG THE WAY.

THE FOLLOWING JUNE, THE REASON FOR THE FRENZIED ORDERS BECAME CLEAR...D-DAY. FOR FEAR OF THE MYTHICAL "FIFTH COLUMN," NO ONE AT DARBY COULD KNOW THE TRUE REASON FOR THE HASTE. SECURITY AT EVERY DEFENSE PLANT WAS A MUST.

IN CONTRAST, THE DEFENSE WORKER WAS ALSO REWARDED FOR HER HARD WORK WITH THE PRESTIGIOUS ARMY NAVY "E" AWARD, GIVEN TO COMPANIES FOR MEETING PRODUCTION & SAFETY GOALS. BUT THE HONOR MERELY REFLECTED THE TRUE GOAL BEHIND THE VALIANT WORK ETHIC.

KANSAS CITY ULTIMATELY RECEIVED 450 WAR CONTRACTS, ACHIEVING A MAJOR FINANCIAL GOAL WITH ONE PERCENT OF EVERY AMERICAN DOLLAR GOING TO FIRMS IN JACKSON, CLAY AND WYANDOTTE COUNTIES. AMERICAN FARMERS COULD ALSO BE PROUD OF THEIR WARTIME EFFORT, PRODUCING ENOUGH TO FEED NOT ONLY OUR MILITARY AND CIVILIAN POPULATIONS BUT MILLIONS OF OUR ALLIES OVERSEAS.

CROPS WERE BOUNTIFUL, BUT A LABOR DROUGHT AROSE AS SONS AND FATHERS WENT TO WAR. A GREAT DEAL OF FARM WORK WAS DONE BY THE WOMEN’S LAND ARMY, PUTTING IN AS MANY "MAN" HOURS AS POSSIBLE. BUT BY 1944, THE LABOR SHORTAGE HAD BECOME SEVERE. THE SOLUTION WAS AN UNUSUAL ONE. FROM 1942 THROUGH 1946, MORE THAN 400,000 GERMAN, ITALIAN AND JAPANESE PRISONERS OF WAR WERE INTERNED IN THE UNITED STATES. SCATTERED AMONG 150 MAIN CAMPS AND 500 BRANCH CAMPS, THESE MEN PROVIDED MUCH NEEDED LABOR ON FARMS AND IN NON-WAR-RELATED FACTORIES. SEVERAL OF THESE SUB-CAMPS WERE LOCATED AROUND KANSAS CITY. IN LIBERTY, THE MILLER FAMILY CONTRACTED THEIR TURKEY FARM TO THE GOVERNMENT TO HOUSE 600 OF ROMMEL’S ELITE FIFTH AFRICAN CORPS.

THE GERMAN POWS IN LEAVENWORTH WERE CAPTURED AFTER D-DAY, AND WERE AMAZED WHEN THEY ARRIVED IN THE U.S.

60 TO 70 ITALIAN POWS WERE STATIONED AS CLOSE AS THE RIVERSIDE RACETRACK.

THE ITALIAN POWS EVEN ATTENDED MASS AT HOLY ROSARY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

HOWEVER THEIR TIME WAS SPENT, THEY WERE ALWAYS GRATEFUL FOR A FRIENDLY FACE.

PERHAPS IT WAS EASY TO BEFRIEND THE GERMAN AND ITALIAN PRISONERS BECAUSE WE HAD NEIGHBORS OF THOSE NATIONALITIES. THE SAME CIVILITY, HOWEVER, WAS NOT EXTENDED TO THE AMERICAN-BORN JAPANESE, OR NISEI. DUE TO THE FEAR OF SABOTAGE, ENTIRE POPULATIONS OF NISEI WERE FORCED INTO INTERNMENT CAMPS. DOCTOR WILLIAM LINDSAY YOUNG, THE PRESIDENT OF PARK UNIVERSITY, THEN PARK COLLEGE, WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THE COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THESE CAMPS. THROUGH A GOVERNMENT AGENCY, HE WAS ABLE TO HELP SOME OF THEM ATTEND SELECT MIDWESTERN COLLEGES ---- FIFTEEN NISEI CAME TO PARK. WELL-KNOWN FOR INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH, THE PARK STUDENT BODY EMBRACED THE NEWCOMERS. THE CITIZENS OF PARKVILLE, HOWEVER, DID NOT.

THE NISEI GRADUATES WENT ON TO GREAT CAREERS, AND LOOK BACK ON THEIR TIME AT PARK FONDLY, ILLUSTRATED BY A DONATION LETTER TO THE COLLEGE FROM DR. WILLIAM YAMAMOTO, A DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MEDICAL SCHOOL.