US Hoffman Among Local Industries Receiving the Coveted “E Award” in WW2
By Miles Jenkins
A version of this article appeared in the August 13 issue of the Northern/Southern Dutchess News
We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself,” declared President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Hyde Park native, during his December 29th, 1940 fireside chat. FDR gave these national radio broadcasts, known as Fireside chats throughout his tenure as president. They were considered revolutionary as no president had been able to speak to the people so personally and widely until then. In this broadcast he made a plea to the industrial powerhouses of the United States, to forge weapons in preparation of a war which had not yet reached our shores. These war weapons would help to aid her friends across the Atlantic currently locked in the struggle against fascism and Nazism.
Poughkeepsie answered the President’s plea, with the U.S. Hoffman Machinery Corporation plant located on Violet Avenue in Poughkeepsie converted to war work after receiving a contract from the Navy in August of 1942. U.S Hoffman had succeeded the former Hoffman Pressing Machine Company. As the narrative revealed in the Dutchess County Historical Society’s newspaper collection, the company went on to become an integral part of the Poughkeepsie economy during the Second World War and into the early Cold War.
The Army-Navy E Award was an award given to individual plants which “have achieved outstanding performance on war production.” The honor combined three existing awards: the Navy E, the Army A, and the Army-Navy Star. The Army A award was created in May of 1942 to award plants for excellence fulfilling contracts. The Army Navy Star was created in May of 1942 to be awarded to plants for excellence in making machine tools and accessories. Conversely, the Navy E awarded excellence in gunnery, dates to 1906. It was then expanded to include excellence in engineering and communications, until August of 1942 when it was merged with Army A and Army Navy Star to become the Army Navy E award. This merger is important because it shows a shift in philosophy in how wars are fought.
Not only does this show how the advancement of technology changes how wars are fought but it also brought them into the everyday life of citizens in a way previous wars had not. Prior to the world wars, conflicts were primarily fought on the battlefield. With the advent of industrialization allowing for the scale of the conflict to be proportional with the nation’s industrialization, the home front became increasingly important. It became necessary to motivate workers to continue to work to the best of their ability as it was their work that the success of the Army, Navy, or Marines hinged on. As well as mass communication technologies like radio, letting individuals express their displeasure with the war effort, the government needed a way to recognize the war workers of the country. Recognition ensured workers felt less like they were just cogs in a machine which would impact their effort at work, subsequently impacting the war effort abroad.
Plants were nominated by the branch of service that had the greatest interest in the plant. So dedicated to making parts for planes, it was up to the technical services of the Army Air Force to nominate them. Industrial facilities were then selected based on several criteria, primarily quality and quantity. Other criteria were overcoming production obstacles, avoiding stoppages and the maintenance of fair labor standards. Throughout the war 4,283 of the awards were given to plants across the country, comprising between 3% and 5% of all eligible plants in the country.
U.S Hoffman, which succeeded the Hoffman Pressing Machine Company in 1904, was a laundry and dry-cleaning machinery manufacturer. The corporation was primarily based in Syracuse but had plants in Louisville and Toronto alongside the Poughkeepsie plant. Before the war, the company as a whole produced laundry and dry cleaning machinery and was one of the largest producers of such equipment in the country. Prior to US entry into the war the plant, located at 18 Violet Avenue in Poughkeepsie produced equipment for the industrial and garment industries while also doubling as a repair workshop.
However, during the war U.S. Hoffman switched from making laundry equipment to making ammunition. This came in the form of the 40 mm anti-aircraft shell, bullets that would be fired from the BOFORS 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. A weapon utilized by both US and British naval and land forces during the war. The BOFORS 40 mm was used throughout WWII as it was the primary anti-aircraft weapon used by the Allies. This work brought not just national recognition for Poughkeepsie but also jobs with 220 individuals employed at the plant during its World War II contract. It was among these employees that two were chosen to speak at the award ceremony, Catherine Todd and Rocco Veronesi, alongside the plant’s “works manager” Peter H. Prenting. The two employees were given sample speeches by the government which were heavily militaristic in nature. This is a line from the sample speech given to Rocco Veronesi. “But if we can’t fight our way to victory, we’ll work our way to it. We’ll keep those 40 mm. projectiles coming just as fast as our boys can feed ’em.”
Along with the Violet Avenue plant U.S. Hoffman operated a second plant at 150 South Water Street (Figure 2). Commonly known as the “Moline Plant,” it was owned by the city of Poughkeepsie and had sat vacant for many years until 1945. The original plan was to lease part of the plant to U.S. Hoffman for the production of artillery shells. This plan fell through as U.S. Hoffman would have had to conduct extensive renovations on the property. Despite opening late in the war, these shells were still desperately needed to strike down a battered Nazi Germany and a lingering Imperial Japan. As the production of these shells were a matter of national security the Government invoked the Second War Powers Act and seized the land while giving the shell contract to U.S. Hoffman.
Both the South Water Street plant and the Violet Avenue plant would continue production until the end of the war. After the war the Violet Avenue plant returned to peacetime work until 1947 when U.S. Hoffman consolidated its laundry manufacturing in Syracuse. The South Water Street plant closed at the end of the war on November 02, 1945, it was then reopened in the fall of 1950 shortly after the beginning of the Korean War, producing 5 inch shells for the navy, before closing again in late 1954. It then briefly reopened in 1957 before shuttering its doors for the last time in 1960 due to the fact that the shells being produced were considered obsolete.
The Army-Navy E award was the highest honor an industrial plant could receive during the Second World War. U.S. Hoffman was not unique in being a recipient of the “E Award,” but was among only five in Poughkeepsie (seven in Dutchess County) whose employees made an effort so monumental that the federal government with all its many worries during the Second World War, made sure they were recognized for their indispensable work. Doing their part to help our fighting men in the country’s struggle, Poughkeepsie was able to play a positive role in the War
Dutchess County Companies Receiving the Army/Navy E Award in World War Two
Poughkeepsie
Standard Gage (4 consecutive years)
International Business Machines, Plant #4 (3 years)
US Hoffman Machinery (2 years)
Fargo Manufacturing (2 years)
Frederick Hart (1 year)
Pleasant Valley
US Magnesium (1 year)
Beacon
New York Rubber (1 year)
