Soldiers of Production: Berwick’s Honey Tanks Contribute to the Allied Victory in World War II

ACF tanks advance down Berwick’s Front Street in the 1,000th Tank Parade, 1941.
Berwick Historical Society

One hundred years before Adolf Hitler’s troops invaded Poland, Mordecai William Jackson and George Mack established a foundry in Berwick, in Pennsylvania’s Columbia County, to manufacture farm implements. From these humble beginnings grew a larger company that by the turn of the century joined 12 railroad equipment-manufacturing firms (in six other states) and became the American Car & Foundry (ACF). At this time, the Berwick plant was the largest car building facility in the eastern United States, employing between 2,000 and 2,500 workers. In 1904 the Berwick plant delivered the first all-steel car to the New York City subway system. During World War I, an average of about 5,000 Berwick ACF workers produced gun carriages, artillery repair trucks, and 3-inch shells in addition to the company’s mainstay, railroad equipment. The ability to adapt the machinery to a variety of needs allowed the Berwick plant to progress into different areas of production.

When German troops attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, Berwick ACF workers were completing five streamlined dining cars for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were preparing to build 500 steel hopper cars for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Co. and 500 boxcars for the Erie Railroad Co. In the same month, ACF also received an order to build 90 Good Humor ice cream trucks. By the end of September, the Germans had subjugated the Poles, and Berwick ACF workers found out that they were going to be building tanks for the U.S. Army.

The U.S. War Department had opened bids for 329 heavy armored tanks and ACF came in lowest (ultimately $6 million). A special Planning and Estimating Department was set up in Berwick using 2,663 drawings to help prepare the estimate. When word of the bid reached Wall Street during trading hours, according to the Berwick Enterprise of  September 29, 1939, ACF stock went up “in a day of general recession in the market.”

Tanks that survived the Great War were antiquated. ACF’s 9-ton high-speed M2A4 tanks — the first U.S. military tank to be built on an assembly line — would double the Army’s strength in armored fighting vehicles. The United States was not planning to engage in the European war but needed to prepare for what might come. The order for 329 light tanks was the beginning of a legacy for the small northeastern Pennsylvania borough.

M2A4, the first tanks built at the Berwick ACF plant.
Berwick Historical Society

ACF began immediately to prepare for the special contract by adjusting the 55-acre industrial plant facility and its machinery. It announced that it would fully staff all departments with up to 3,800 men within months, at which time it expected to be ready for tank construction. The tank order required the employment of 500 to 600 workers for a period of 19 months. ACF purchased a considerable amount of new equipment, including lathes, shapers, a milling machine, profilers of a high type, and broaching machines. Workers remodeled paint shop number two to accommodate the tank work area and removed partitions and ceilings to attain a desired 60,000 square feet. Tanks became a separate department while the steel plant departments continued their construction of passenger and freight cars. The war in Europe helped the United States emerge from the Great Depression, but it meant much more to those living in Berwick than simply having a better opportunity for a job.

Though Berwick was a small borough, it split geographically at Oak Street between families of first- and second-generation immigrants from Eastern Europe, Italy and Russia who lived in the “West End” and established families from Western Europe who lived “Uptown.” Those who lived in the West End referred to their fellow Berwickians in the East End as “the Americans.”

Given the population of Berwick, the ACF plant had its share of different nationalities. Some workers felt that there was discrimination at the plant, believing that the better paying jobs went to the “Americans” for reasons of ethnicity. ACF officials often divided the workers into ethnic groups based on skills. The wheel foundry and blacksmith shop consisted primarily of Hungarians. Italians were often on the assembly line and in the paint shop. Many Slavic people worked in the punch and shear department. These jobs paid less than did some of the others. ACF may have found that keeping nationalities together made for greater productivity. For some workers, language was still a barrier. Some workers saw their ethnicity as an asset, as it might allow them to get a job in a particular department. Though plant workers may have felt there was ethnic discrimination, it did not hamper their feelings for America. In an interview in August 2001, Alfred Takacs maintained, “Everybody in the ACF, regardless of their origins were all very patriotic — patriotism that you haven’t seen since then.”

Patriotism appeared evident throughout northeastern Pennsylvania. When Berwick held its annual Pet and Toy Parade on a Wednesday evening in 1940, an estimated 10,000 people showed up to cheer on the children with their pets or on their bicycles and enjoy the pageantry. Groups and individuals from several counties participated in the parade. Costumed riders decorated their bikes with placards such as “Peace for America,” “God Bless America,” and “We Love Our Country.” Tanks rolled down the street along with a variety of divisions of floats, bands, twirlers, drum and bugle corps, and baby carriages. Patriotic “decorations” included rifles, bayonets, and signs such as “Down with Hitler.”

The U.S. Army continued to send orders to the Berwick ACF, so the plant was continually expanding and remodeling. In February 1940 ACF received an $81,000 ammunition order, part of an “educational order” awarded to 16 industrial firms that the Army would consider for future government munitions work. As workers were building the original 329 tanks, assembling about two tanks each day, the company won the bid to build 627 “heavily-armored” light tanks (M3, an improved version of the M2A4) in mid-July. The Berwick Enterprise reported that the Army planned to use them “to augment the equipment of the new mechanized division S” being established at Fort Knox and Fort Benning. The Army created the division in the pattern of the Nazi Panzers. At the same time, Berwick received a contract for 300 railroad cars from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and a War Department order for 288 pontoons, which required the purchase of new materials.

Hulls undergoing final welding and cleaning. Berwick Historical Society

In late September, the War Department placed the order for 627 light tanks at a cost of $10,352,745. At the same time, the War Department awarded contracts totaling $129 million for tanks, artillery, trucks and other ordnance equipment. The largest of the contracts went to the Berwick ACF for $37.7 million in tanks and spare parts. Beginning in February 1941, workers completed 1,050 tank sets, delivering them at a rate of six per day. The development of production is documented well in the company’s self-published Army Forces of the A.C.F.: “Two shifts of eight hours each worked furiously — fifteen a day — twenty a day — twenty-five a day — faster, faster, faster. By October 1941, tanks were rolling off the Berwick assembly lines at a rate of thirty-six a day — or one every thirty minutes.”

Early in 1941, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt began political discussions with Great Britain, he introduced the Lend-Lease program to the U.S. Congress. With much of Europe controlled by Germany and London experiencing destruction from German bombing, the Lend-Lease policy formalized extending aid to Great Britain and later to other U.S. allies. German military leaders expected that at some time the United States would enter the war on the side of Great Britain. Some pressed Hitler to engage the United States in war while the country was still in the process of building up its military capability. In March 1941 Germany equated Lend-Lease with the United States entering the war. Under Lend-Lease, the Berwick ACF provided parts, tanks and other military materials to Great Britain for her battles in North Africa. The British gave the M3 light tank the name “Stuart,” after the Confederate general James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart, who was notorious for his offensive operations with cavalry in the American Civil War.

Even though the war appeared confined to Europe, the U.S. government realized early on that its heavy industry lay predominately in the Northeast. Discussions had taken place during a Senate hearing before the Committee on Military Affairs in spring 1939. The participants considered a map of the United States, focused on the Northeast, and realized that 75 per cent of America’s industry lay in 200 counties. Members of the general staff worried that these areas would become a focus of enemy bombing. They were also concerned that Pennsylvania’s steel industry could expect “a few aerial ‘eggs.’”

Wartime America saw many people migrating within the country to new jobs in war production. One estimate projected that 12 million people moved permanently to another state during the war. Citizens of Berwick and the surrounding area did not have to move to find work. A questionnaire done at the time offers interesting statistics. Of Berwick ACF’s 9,145 workers, 6,168 rode to work in 2,385 cars and 27 buses. More than 4,800 lived in Berwick or within four miles of the plant; more than 2,500 walked to work and nearly 400 used their bicycles. More than 6,700 workers lived within 12 miles of the plant. Special ACF buses transported workers from outlying areas back and forth to the plant.

At its peak, the World War II–era Berwick plant workforce of 9,145 came from 177 municipalities in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Berwick Historical Society

Gaydosh’s Grocery lay on Freas Avenue about one block from the plant. Workers would go into the store and buy a Darlene ice cream bar to eat while waiting for the bus. Employees came from as far away as 60-some miles from Clark Summit, Williamsport and Middleburg. Driving a distance by car to work at the Berwick ACF was not a problem until late 1942 when gas rationing was initiated. War workers did not receive exemptions to obtain extra gasoline.

Throughout the war years, ACF increased staffing to keep up with government and war-related orders, and this need brought many more women into the plant. During the war, women provided one-third of the additional workers needed for the wartime labor force. The building of tanks required brute force in many tasks, and men often worked as fast as they could. Alfred Takacs machined “protectoscopes” for the tanks, the item that protected the driver of the tank as he looked through a slit. Instead of hoisting the 150-pound part with a hook, the men often lifted them into place manually, because it was faster. In this way, they were more productive and made more money since this job paid by the piece.

Women worked in clerical positions and packaged military parts. ACF supervisor William Golder employed two women on a “multimatic” machine, a job that did not require great physical strength. An “ACF girl” would ride her bicycle for the daily mail run from the ACF plant on West Third Street to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad station, which lay several blocks away along the Susquehanna River. Even in a plant where men built tanks weighing a dozen tons, women had the opportunity for work.

Beyond building tanks, Berwick hosted the military and became an important location for jobs and shopping. Some 900 troops with full equipment making their way from Fort Hamilton in New York to Fort Benning in Georgia stayed overnight in the Berwick Armory on October 30, 1939. Berwick was on the route, and it became the encampment point for the 5th Artillery and 2nd Battalion of the 25th Field Artillery. In January 1940, 40 individual stores united for a one-day midwinter clearance sale. The local paper referred to Berwick as the special shopping mecca of central Pennsylvania. Work at ACF brought many people (particularly men) to Berwick each day, which helped the Berwick economy in many ways.

Philadelphia Ordnance was responsible for signing off on the tanks and had personnel staffed in Berwick. Ordnance personnel oversaw production on location from the beginning of the construction process to the final product. Berwickian William Hoosty worked in the ACF plant for a short time before Philadelphia Ordnance hired him as an inspector. He worked from a checklist that noted the expectation of each part in the assembly process. “If there was a problem with a part,” he said in an interview in 2001, “Philadelphia Ordnance had to decide if it was a design failure or a product failure and meliorate the situation.” Golder noted that in his department the “922 spacer” was unable to hold grease and required a design change. Ordnance directed the workers to modify the part by putting a groove on the face of it, which allowed it to hold grease and keep from drying out. In August 1940 Brig. Gen. Adna Romanza Chaffee, commander of the Armored Force, visited and inspected the Berwick facility with his staff and was “pleased with the progress made by [the] Berwick plant and the preparations to increase the output of government tanks.”

Test driving newly manufactured ACF tanks along Orangeville Highway outside of Berwick.
Berwick Historical Society

Tanks became part of Berwick’s everyday life. When the tanks were ready for trial runs, workers drove them out of the factory, down Freas Avenue and onto the Orangeville Highway (Route 93). The people who lived on Freas Avenue heard and felt the tanks as they rumbled down the street. Families had to move breakables to the back of the house, and once the ceiling caved in on a man napping in his front room. On the highway, drivers maneuvered the tanks for miles to see how they handled turns and to locate defects.

In addition to testing maneuverability, drivers drove the tanks to a location where they could see if the tanks could withstand water pressure. The tanks needed to be able to cross creeks and shallow rivers. “We drove them in there and they stayed in the water for an hour,” Hoosty said of this testing process. “And in one hour, they weren’t allowed to take in more than one inch of water. And, even if they passed the one-inch test, usually they had the opportunity in that hour to find out where that water was seeping in. Now, if it was over an inch, then they had to find a major leak and then had to take it back and repair it.”

The plant weatherproofed unshipped tanks every six months and inspectors checked them for deterioration, engine leaks and rusting. Philadelphia Ordnance scrutinized the tank manufacture process from carcass to final product and did not allow a tank to leave the plant unless it was ready for combat.

By summer 1941 America shipped tanks to the Middle East almost every day to reinforce the British defense. The Berwick plant provided approximately 160 tanks each month to various British supply depots and, in the previous year, had increased production from two to 10 tanks per day. Troops of the 104th Mechanized Cavalry had the opportunity to ride in the tanks before they drove them into battle.

Those who used the tanks informed the War Department that they “did a very good job” against German forces on the Libyan border. The British 7th Armored Division found the Stuart tanks more durable and dependable than British counterparts and they were pleasant to drive, leading the men to nickname the tanks “Honeys.” Charles J. Hardy, president of ACF, said that his company was prepared to play a major role in America’s preparedness and even more importantly, to place “patriotism and citizenship” above profits.

Manufacture of armor plating was second only to tank production in Berwick’s efforts at ACF. Berwick’s plant was the largest producer of armor plating, making at least 10 per cent of all armor plating for the U.S. military at the time. In addition, every armored vehicle produced in the United States for the war utilized at least some Berwick armor plating. The armored plating portion of the plant had expanded in March 1941.

A year earlier, as reported in the Berwick Enterprise of March 29, 1940, Maj. W. W. Warner from the U.S. Ordnance Department in Washington, D.C., spoke at a Berwick Rotary meeting, where he declared, “The development of methods of armor plate at The Berwick plant . . . constitute one of the United States’ biggest assets in military preparedness.” ACF was the only tank manufacturer to produce its own armor plating, and it supplied it to other manufacturers “for almost every type of tank used by the U.S. Armored Force.” The Berwick ACF plant itself produced 105,000 tons of armor and tested it on a firing range in the plant. It manufactured armor plating to take a bit of a bump so that the force of an impact would not compromise one of the weld seams. The Berwick ACF was the only manufacturer at the time with its own ballistics testing range. Other manufacturers were required to ship their products to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland for testing.

This parade on Front Street in Berwick was held to celebrate the manufacturing of the ACF plant’s 1,000th tank in 1941.
Berwick Historical Society

In early August 1941, Berwick celebrated the 1,000th tank manufactured in Berwick with a colossal parade including 6,000 workers, tanks, and 28 marching bands and bugle corps. An estimated 60,000 people from the region “lined the streets and jammed the approaches to the airport.” ACF president Hardy gave a speech and presented the tank to the War Department representative. A mock battle with 15 charging tanks, blazing guns and land mines followed at the test track.

Individuals working at the Berwick ACF were already supporting the war effort in a significant way when the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor. Following the United States’ entrance in the war, many men working at ACF wanted to take up arms to fight for their country. These men, however, had been performing an important service. Did their country need them on the assembly line or on the front lines? These men knew their jobs and their work was essential. When the Armed Forces began drafting men working in ACF, some received exemptions because their jobs were vital to the war effort. William Golder experienced exemption twice before he finally served in Europe in 1944 and 1945. Alfred Takacs noted that men at ACF looked forward to going to war and some simply left their jobs.

On Saturday, March 28, 1942, the Berwick ACF plant experienced a record day for employees actually working — 7,940 men worked under the slogan “watch, work and win.” By the fall of 1942 tank warfare was running strong especially in North Africa. In February 1941 Adolf Hitler had told members of the German military command that although Libya in North Africa was militarily insignificant, Germany must send troops there to help Benito Mussolini keep British forces fighting there and prevent them from moving into France or the Balkans. Erwin Rommel, “the Desert Fox,” received orders to report to Libya as the German “Commander-in-Chief.” The Germans dominated their opponents tactically and operationally in 1941 with their Panzer divisions of light tanks, medium tanks, and the armor-piercing PzKw IV. The Germans developed their tanks to be more destructive and limited some of the lighter tanks to reconnaissance.

Workers assembling tank hulls. Berwick Historical Society

In October, Roosevelt revealed that America would alter her tank and plane production to get heavier equipment. Would the production of M3 light tanks cease? Berwick workers expressed concern, but district manager Guy Beishline told them that the plant would be able to put out any size or type of tank that the government wanted. As the military shifted from light to medium tanks in North Africa, the M3 appeared obsolete. Similar to what Germany was doing, in desert battles, Lt. Gen. George Patton directed the Army to use light tanks only for reconnaissance. Nevertheless, the M3s remained effective under the right circumstances, especially in the South Pacific. In December 1942 Berwick ACF workers received a “thanks for the tanks” message from Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, commanding general of the European Theater of Operations.

Besides tanks and armor plating, the Berwick plant manufactured tank destroyers, artillery shells, pontoons, aerial bombs, and more than 8,000 bulldozer-tractors. Berwick’s pride came out in a slogan for the small bombs: “Berwick to Britain to Berlin.” Supportive words from a supervisor or notices on bulletin boards reinforced pride in their work. ACF was especially proud when it received the Army-Navy “E” Award, the highest production award in the nation, on August 19, 1943, “for its production of tanks, armor plate and bombs.” That special award came as a flag carrying the symbolic “E” for excellence in production, and it flew directly below the American flag at the plant. Berwick, the largest in the ACF Industries, had the reputation of putting out a good product, from boxcars to tanks. Takacs noted that the plant workers “had the right chemistry, the right groups to put together, that they could do almost anything, and they took a lot of pride in their work.”

Historians have debated the military turning points in World War II. Most agree that the Battle of Stalingrad, July 1942–February 1943, was decisive in the Allied victory in Europe. After that, most historians point to the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa, October–November 1942. Berwick tanks made their way into the battles in North Africa in 1941. In August 1942 Lt. Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery became the new commander of the British Eighth Army and worked to drive back Rommel’s troops. Shortly after midnight on the morning of August 31, Rommel attacked the British but found his every move anticipated as the British blocked him with armor and artillery. This was but one defeat that ultimately doomed the Axis powers in North Africa. Enemy forces had more divisions on the ground, but the British had a numerical superiority of two to one in tanks, although half carried what historian Cyril Falls, in his book The Second World War: A Short History, called “the obsolete 2-pdr. Gun.”

Checking turret guns on inspection racks with a gyrostabilizer.
Berwick Historical Society

Obsolete or not, tanks continued to be part of the British offensive. In the battle at El Alamein, the British lost as many tanks as the enemy did, but the majority of British tanks were recoverable. The Eighth Army entered Tripoli in Libya led by four Berwick-built tanks and continued to Tunisia. In March 1942, on the hot sands of the Libyan Desert, two German Panzer divisions had attacked a lone British brigade equipped with M3 light tanks. The battle lasted an entire day, but the British brigade held off the two German divisions. A captured German officer noted that the German Army had never seen such an effective light tank brigade. Rommel could not hold back the Allies. They forced him to flee west, having lost 60,000 men, 1,000 guns, and 500 tanks.

Though the Allies now held a 10 to 1 tank ratio, Hitler hoped that his antitank artillery in North Africa could hold as Germany continued to fight the Russians in the east. Eisenhower, commanding combined British and American forces, landed behind Rommel on the Vichy (French) coast. Rommel’s 15th Panzer Division had retreated through Egypt and Libya and into Tunisia. There it received shipments of new tanks and again went on the offensive with some success, but by May 1943 the outnumbered Axis forces, held in both the front and rear, surrendered.

The defeat of Rommel in North Africa was key to forcing the Nazis into a defensive position in the war. Berwick tanks were with Montgomery and the Allied troops throughout the battles in North Africa, and the general noted their distinction. He said approvingly, “The first tank we had was the Stuart Light M3 and I believe that most of the ones we received were made by the American Car and Foundry Company. This is one of the most reliable and handy tanks that has ever been produced. It fought in the desert battle in Libya in 1941 and has fought with distinction in every battle since that date. We have them with us here in Sicily where again they have proved invaluable.”

Tanks on the final paint line receiving application of sand guards.
Berwick Historical Society

As the war progressed into 1943 and the Allies were pushing the German and Italian militaries on the defensive, the demand for tank production decreased. Many of the tanks simply needed repair parts, and plants, including Berwick ACF, continued to supply them. In March 1943 ACF planned to reduce the number of workers at the Berwick plant. Protest ensued. The local newspaper printed a list of individuals to whom workers could write and ACF workers received support from local unions.

Although tank production dropped at ACF, Berwick continued to hear about their tanks. “Total victory started on the production line; it will end on the production line, backing up the finest soldiers, best sailors, and fightingest marines in all the world,” claimed Col. David N. Hauseman in a 1943 Philadelphia Inquirer article. It was the officers and soldiers in the field who could best appreciate the efforts of production and the products themselves. At 40 miles per hour, the Stuart tank was the fastest tank in the desert. Impressed by the ability of the Stuart tanks, chief of the Army Service Forces Gen. Brehon B. Somervell wired the Berwick ACF plant: “You soldiers of production can be proud of your part in the battle. You keep them coming and we’ll keep them fighting.”

On May 12, 1942, Luftwaffe experts submitted to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring a 33-page report that along with text included two payload capacity diagrams, nine schematics of airplanes, and a list of 19 targets in the United States, as well as one in Canada and one in Greenland. The German military listed “American Car & Foundry” in “Berwick” as “target nr. 216.” The product, “Erzeugnis,” noted “13 to Panzer” — light tanks. Two other Pennsylvania locations, Beaver and Natrona near Pittsburgh, were on the list because of their production of aircraft propellers and cryolite processing respectively. The report included descriptions and images of aircraft and an explanation that Germany could reach North American targets from the Azores. To the report, they attached a map showing the targets and flight patterns. Germany never followed through with the plan. Realizing that England had a treaty of alliance with Portugal, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill requested basing rights in the Azores. The British set up shop in the Azores in 1943, taking away the possibility of Germany attacking North America based on the Azores plan. In the few decades following the end of the war, Berwick’s citizens continued to remember that their little borough was a target of the Nazis.

As the Allies were progressively gaining dominance over Germany and Italy in 1943, Maj. Gen. Levin. H. Campbell Jr., chief of Army Ordnance of the U.S. War Department, sent a letter to the ACF president Charles J. Hardy: “You will be pleased to know that we have received high praise of the performance of the American Car and Foundry light tank in action with the British Eighth Army in the North African campaign. This vehicle has proven to be especially valuable in pursuit and its reliability on the battlefield has been gratifying.” Readers seeing this in the newspaper also learned that British Information Services had sent the Berwick ACF a Nazi banner measuring 9-by-27 feet, which their soldiers had captured from Rommel’s headquarters in Libya using a Berwick light tank.

Because the Berwick facility was vast, well-equipped, and held a substantial well-trained workforce, the War Department continued to consider how it could utilize the plant and its workers. Throughout spring 1943, ACF officials discussed possibilities of work with officials in Washington, D.C. Tank production continued, including work on an updated light tank, the M5A1.

The last tank, number 15,224, built at the ACF Berwick plant.
Berwick Historical Society

When Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, the ACF plant whistle blew and church bells rang as they did later when President Harry Truman announced on August 14 that the Japanese had surrendered, ending the war. When soldiers returned to Berwick, they were to regain the job that they had before they left for the war. The job, however, often no longer existed. The American government had a program to pay unemployed veterans $20 each week for 52 weeks to allow them to get back on their feet. For that $20, the ACF had workers pulling weeds at the plant.

During the Korean conflict, ACF continued to receive contracts to produce 8-inch shells and T-43 and T-49 personnel carriers. By November 1961, however, ACF executives announced that they were closing the Berwick plant within the year. Attempts to persuade officials against the decision were to no avail, and ACF departed as planned. Through the work of representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, the Berwick Industrial Plan (BIP), the Berwick Industrial Development Association (BIDA), and other groups, the (now) 155-acre plant and grounds became home for a new group of industries, including the Berwick Forge & Fabricating Corp. and CoManCo Inc.

Although the Berwick ACF plant built 13,728 light tanks (ACF plant in St. Charles, Missouri, built 1,496 to bring ACF total to 15,224), the company never kept a tank for a memorial. Early in 2005 Berwick officials began a search for a tank built at the Berwick plant with the intent of  “bringing one home.” Fred Shepperly had built tanks at the plant, and during the war, he repaired tanks in the South Pacific. He recalled that when the war was over, American troops had orders to leave the islands in the same manner that they found them. Soldiers had to remove everything they had taken to the islands of the South Pacific. This included tanks. Sailing the ships back to America was slow because of the weight carried, and so in a number of cases, soldiers dumped the tanks off the ships. Shepperly knew that one could find a Berwick tank at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, but officials chose another route.

After 12 years, they found a 1942 Berwick tank in England. Mike Stallwood, a renowned military-vehicle dealer in Kent, England, had bought 16 Stuart tanks from a wealthy Brazilian executive. After World War II, the United States had sold tanks to Brazil to protect its border from Argentina, which had sided with Germany. On March 23, 2016, tank #10300 arrived in Berwick and was named “Stuie.” The townspeople celebrated with a parade in April. Stuie has traveled out of the Berwick Industrial Development Association complex, its ultimate home, so that area people can see it at local fairs.

Berwick’s manufacture of tanks, armor plating, shells and other needed war materials contributed significantly in the ultimate success of the Allies. One in every eight armored vehicles produced in the United States for World War II was built at the Berwick ACF. The 13,728 small tanks produced by the Berwick plant accounted for 60 percent of all the light tanks manufactured in the country. The highly maneuverable light tanks had a role in battling the great German Panzers as well as enemy tanks in the South Pacific. Helping to bring peace to the world is a legacy that will lie forever in the heart of Berwick.

Brenda Gaydosh is associate professor of history at West Chester University. She was born in Berwick and graduated from Berwick High School in 1976. Her grandparents, Peter and Anna, operated Gaydosh’s Grocery on Freas Avenue.