My book "In the thick of the fight" described this scene: "Soon after Pearl Harbor, York (Pa.) Corporation President Stewart Lauer stood on a truck bed to tell workers the world was embroiled in a war of ships and machines. And a modern war machine can't keep going without refrigeration. That speech and others in York Corporation's shop marks Yorkco's commitment to stick to the knitting -- cooling and refrigeration equipment for the Allies. Although the company did produce ordnance, the refrigeration it produced -- for example, to preserve food on big ships crossing great oceans -- aided the war effort." And one other project made a difference in the war: Yorkco was involved in the Manhattan Project. Background post: "Little Johnny" called for Allies in World War II and Her words helped win the war'.
The death of Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets prompts York County connections to the atomic bomb:
- Jack Yeaple was aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis when it went down after a Japanese torpedo attack. The Indianapolis had just dropped off atomic bomb parts and was on to another mission. Yeaple was perhaps the last York countian to die in World War II... .
Continue reading York woman worked on The Bomb: 'And yet it stopped the war'.
