Facilities Expansion in Wartime

Of more immediate concern than estimating requirements was providing facilities for the manufacture of materiel. The construction program 

In 1942 construction was also begun on two government-owned and privately operated plants and in 1943 on another five such plants. Besides the construction work done on arsenals and plants, the following major CWS facilities were erected in whole or part in 1942-43 Camp Sibert, Deseret Depot, Dugway Proving Ground, and Camp Detrick. In 1944, when War Department construction had been virtually completed, addi- 

From 1 July 1940 to 31 December 1945 a total of 315,658,264 was spent on construction of CWS facilities.  

While the complaint of the Chief, CWS, is understandable, for the War Department was obviously not giving priority to chemical warfare items, there was sound reasoning behind the War Department s action. Seven months after the date of the CWS complaint, the Director of Production Division, ASF, Brig. Gen. H. C. Minton, observed that it was War Department policy to operate many CWS projects at low rates and to maintain a large number of CWS facilities in standby. This policy, Minton said, was based on the character of chemical warfare to date. Operations now and in the past, he stated, have been only for the purpose of 

In 1942 construction was undertaken on the Kanawha Plant, South Charleston, W. Va., and the Maury Plant, Columbia, Tenn. In 1943 work was begun on the following plants Seattle, at Seattle, Wash. Marshall at New Martinsville, W. Va. Owl at Azusa, Calif. Firelands at Marion, Ohio and Birmingham at Birmingham, Ala. The plants which were started in 1944 were the Duck River Plant, Columbia, Tenn. and the San Bernardino Plant, San Bernardino, Calif. See Appendix A for details on all CWS facilities built in World War II. 

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