Chicago Procurement District

Chart 6—Chicago Procurement District, Chemical Warfare Service, As OF 15 August 1944... 

The CWS procured over 40,000 M4 vapor detector kits for detection of toxic agents in 1942 through contracts in the New York and Chicago procurement districts. No unusual problems arose in the procurement of this relatively simple item. In mid-1943, as indicated elsewhere, the M4... 

Among the munitions filled with HC smoke mixture were 2-pound bombs, M8 grenades, rifle smoke grenades, M88 and M89 shells, canisters for 105-mm. and 155-mm. shells, 100-pound and 500-pound clusters, 2.35-inch rockets, and smoke pots. Virtually all the 2-pound bombs were loaded under private contract in the Pittsburgh and Chicago procurement districts. Rifle grenades, smoke shells, and canisters were loaded at CWS arsenals, particularly Huntsville and Pine Bluff. Edgewood Arsenal filled all 100- and 500-pound clusters. ... 

In mid-1942 the CWS let a contract through the Chicago procurement district to the Heil Co. of Milwaukee for the manufacture of the Ml mechanical generator. This company worked closely with CWS technicians and representatives of the Standard Oil Development Co. on production difficulties. Among the serious production problems encountered was a tendency of the oil burners to overheat this was solved by installing temperature regulators on the burners. Another difficulty was obtaining efficient pumps for the water and oil. The CWS procured over a thousand of these models. ... 

The first direct impact of the Lend-Lease Act on the CWS came in April 1941, when the Secretary of War directed the transfer of 200,000 service masks, complete with spare canisters and repair kits, to Great Britain, for ultimate transshipment to Yugoslavia. The Chicago Procurement District s storage warehouse filled the order. During the same month the first British requisitions for phosgene arrived. In the course of the next few months the British requisitioned a number of defensive... 

While procurement was kept at a minimum there were no restrictions on procurement planning. The Procurement Planning Division of the Chief s office was responsible for drawing up and submitting its portion of industrial mobilization plans to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. Early in 1924 procurement district offices were activated in New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco. ... 

Late in January 1942 the Office of the Chief, CWS, sent Maj. Herbert P. Heiss to Atlanta to establish a procurement district office. A month later Col. Alfred L. Rockwood was transferred from the San Francisco Procurement District to assume command of the new Atlanta office, and Major Heiss then proceeded to Dallas to open the new office there. He arrived in Dallas on 2 March, and five days later the district was activated. With the creation of the Atlanta and Dallas districts, some of the territory formerly attached to the Pittsburgh and Chicago districts was put under jurisdiction of the new districts. The Atlanta district included the following states Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi while the Dallas district included the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. (See Map, page 112.) Early in 1943, Headquarters, ASF, and OC CWS decided that the continuation of the Atlanta office as a separate district office was not justified and, in April 1943, it was designated a suboffice of the Dallas district. 

By the spring of 1942 requirements for the shell had reached a point where the CWS felt obliged to seek additional contractors, and the service awarded 4 additional prime contracts at that time. Two of the new contractors, Erie Basin Metal Products, Inc., and the David Bradley Manufacturing Division of Sears Roebuck and Co., were located in the Chicago Chemical Procurement District. The other 2, the Guiberson Co. and Hardwicke Etter Co., were in the Dallas procurement district. In 1943 another prime contractor was added, the Day and Night Manufacturing Co. in the San Francisco district. Early in 1945 prime contracts were awarded 5 more manufacturers, 3 in the Boston procurement district and 2 in the Dallas procurement district. But the war came to an end before any of these 5 got into production. 

Chief of the Chemical Corps, now Chief Chemical Officer (CCmlO) Chicago Chemical Warfare Procurement District Civil Defense Camp Detrick Corps of Engineers... 

The CWS procured all airplane smoke tanks through its Chicago district. By far the greatest number—over ninety-two thousand—was of the... 

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