RG 156 - Office of Chief of Ordnance, Assorted Records - Atlanta Ordnance Depot
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Assorted Records, 1942-1948
National Archives Identifier 6997262
This series consists of formerly classified general orders, regulations, memoranda, correspondence, standard operating procedures, daily activity reports, and command histories. Records in this series concern subjects related to training, safety, administrative activities, personnel, German and Italian prisoners of war, and racial discrimination. Included in this series are investigations into alleged employee racial discrimination and transcripts of interviews with African American employees. Also included is a plan to employ Italian prisoners of war, called the Italian Soldiers Unit (ISU), in automotive repair work at the depot in 1944.
Box 1
General Orders, Circular Letters, Orders and Regulations, Memoranda (1942-1947)
Inventory, POWs, Training, Personnel, Salaries, War Bonds and Loans
Folder 4:
▪ Organization of Italian Service Units (May 1944)
Folder 6:
▪ Circular Letters (1945) intra-agency reappointments, retention of federal employees, veterans’ reemployment rights
Folder 7:
▪ Orders and Regulations (1945)
▪ Civilian welfare fund, film, inventory data, bulletin, bakers and cooks schools, safeguarding classified documents, army emergency relief loans, civilian war bond report , embargo
Folder 8:
▪ Administrative Memoranda (1945)
▪ Reorganization of branches, sections, and divisions
Folder 9:
▪ Un-numbered Memoranda (1945)
▪ Transportation facilities from Atlanta to Conley (November 1945)
▪ Military correspondence training for women (November 1945)
▪ Miss Atlanta Ordnance Depot (November 1945)
▪ Practice at Henry Grady Gym for all girls who are interested in playing basketball (October 1945)
▪ Establishment of 40-hour week (previously 48) (August 1945)
▪ Change to 44-hour work week survey (July 1945)
▪ Federal Employees Pay Act of 1945 (July 1945)
▪ Defrauding of casualties’ families (June 1945)
▪ Rationing of tobacco at all military sales outlets (June 1945)
▪ Free Tuberculosis Examination (May 1945)
- males and females examined on separate days
▪ Showing of films divided into separate showings for white and colored employees (April 1945)
▪ Special Prayer Period for President FDR (April 1945)
▪ Coca-Cola Machines (March 1945)
- Shortage of Coca Colas, employees not returning bottles, have to drink in vicinity of machine
▪ Mass resignation of colored personnel employed in the Service Club Cafeteria (5 March 1945)
- Impending change in working schedule
- Qualified German POWs selected for kitchen and dining room duties
▪ March of Dimes contribution (22 February 1945)
▪ Drinking intoxicating liquor while on duty violation (21 Feb 1945)
▪ Contact with POW Camp (19 February 1945)
▪ Reemployment of Returning Veterans from Military Furlough (15 Feb 1945)
▪ Prisoners of War Labor Details (15 Feb 1945)
- German POWs arriving (12 Jan 1945)
▪ Champion Pocket Billiard Player to Show Here (3 Feb 1945)
- Erwin Randolph
▪ Civilian Morale Program (1 Feb 1945)
- Appoint two males and two females as representatives for recreational activities
Folder 10:
▪ Training Memoranda (October 1946 – May 1947)
▪ Training Memorandum: Supplementary Education and Training of Officers (Oct 1946)
Folder 11:
▪ Personnel Memoranda (September – October 1946)
▪ Tardiness, absence, sick leave
Folder 12:
▪ Fiscal Memoranda (March 1946)
▪ Excess overtime, bulletin, payroll
Folder14:
▪ Memoranda (January-October 1944)
▪ Deferment of Pre-Pearl Harbor Fathers (10 Jan 1944)
▪ Ladies’ Club of Atlanta Ordnance Depot monthly meeting (10 Jan 1944)
- Admittance into depot restrictions (29 May 1944)
▪ Voting by Personnel of Armed Forces (5 July 1944) absentee ballots
▪ Contagious disease – trench mouth (1 Sept 1944)
Folder 15:
▪ Un-numbered Memoranda (January – December 1944)
▪ Civilian Personnel Inspection, Food Service, Religious Services (Catholic), Wills, Morale Program, Immunization and Blood types, Films, Military Courtesy
▪ Missing Rifle (February 1944)
▪ Establishing Personal Affairs Division (4 March 1944)
▪ Purchase of tax free cigarettes by civilians (9 May 1944)
- Includes ID card (6 Nov 1944)
▪ Opening of Post Exchange (5 Dec 1944)
▪ Football Game, 2nd Air Force Super Bombers vs. 3rd Air Force Gremlins, Proceeds for army charities (8 December 1944)
- Grant stadium (now Bobby Dodd Stadium)
Folder 16:
▪ Un-numbered Memoranda (September 1945 – May 1946)
▪ Conservation of Coal (8 May 1946)
▪ Weekly Information Bulletin (7 March 1946)
- “USO Camp Show #249 Entitled “Hello Joe” (all negro entertainers)….everyone is welcome!”
▪ Correspondence Council (17 October 1945)
- All female employees
▪ Annual General Inspection (25 September 1945)
Box 2
Memoranda (1945-1947)
Folder 1:
▪ Un-Numbered Memoranda (January-October 1947)
▪ Civilian Training, Physical Examinations, Recurring Reports, Telephone Bills and Equipment, Maintenance, Merchandise Control Bulletin, Mess Hall Inspection
Folder 2:
▪ Un-Numbered Memoranda (January-December 1946)
▪ Motor vehicle accidents, transportation, civilian welfare fund council, conservation, rationing, shortages, retreat parade, service calls
▪ Opening of new cafeteria (1 July 1946)
- “Facilities have been provided for both white and colored. There are (3) entrances to this building…” two for white, one for colored
▪ National Service Life Insurance (4 Sept 1946)
▪ Community Chest Drive (4 Sept 1946)
▪ Basic Pay Rates (1 July 1946)
▪ Job Relation Conferences (31 Dec 1946)
- Relations between officers in charge and their civilian supervisors
▪ Efficiency Index (25 Sept 1946)
▪ Education of Veterans Under the Amended GI Bill of Rights (19 August 1946)
▪ General Information – Military Personnel and Dependents of Military Personnel, Veterans and Dependents of Veterans’ Stationed at or Employed within this Installation (12 August 1946)
▪ Share-the-Ride Program (9 August 1946)
▪ Female Guests of Enlisted Men (19 July 1946)
Folder 3:
▪ Information and Instructions (February-November 1946)
▪ March of Dimes, Clearance procedure for Officers, Injury Report Forms, Pay Rate Notice, American Red Cross Drive, Training Program, Instructions for Officer of the Day, Status of Prisoners, Efficiency Index
Folder 4:
▪ Training Memoranda (October 1944-June 1945)
▪ Unauthorized literature on grenades, concurrent basic military training, training courses, orientation, range firing
Folder 5:
▪ Administrative Memoranda (April-May 1945)
▪ Schedule of Film, white and colored employees (13 April 1945)
▪ Classes, special prayer period for FDR, break periods, duty hours, war bonds, films, handling of classified material, war loan drive, absenteeism, tobacco products
▪ Establishment of Skills File (13 April 1945)
▪ Employment with UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) (20 April 1945)
- Handling of displaced persons in Europe, care of refugee centers in Germany
Folder 6:
▪ Small Arms Firing Memoranda (January-June 1945)
▪ Firing on the ASF depot by auxiliary military police of Atlanta
- Includes time of firing, weapon, officer in charge of firing, courses
Folder 7:
▪ Safety Department Memoranda (1944)
▪ Council and board meetings, depot safety council
Folder 9:
▪ Personnel Memoranda (October 1945-March 1946)
▪ Reemployment of Veterans (23 November 1945)
▪ Employee Grievance Procedure (4 Dec 1945)
▪ Civilian Personnel Branch (26 Dec 1945)
- 3 women and 1 man
Folder 10:
▪ Training Memoranda (January – October 1945)
▪ Duty hours, Volunteer Statement of officers desiring to continue on active duty, range firing and courses, films (segregation), concurrent basic military training, orientation
▪ Malaria Control Training (10 March 1945)
Box 3
Daily Activity Reports (1943-1944)
Rations and Billeting, Publications, Small Arms, Motor Pool, Headquarters Detachment, Inspector’s Division, Tire Repairer Course, Chassis Dept., Officers’ Lab, Motorcycle Dept., Engine Dept, Tractor Dept, Italian Service Units
Includes charts of numbers of enlisted men at the depot
Folder 1:
▪ Observing instruction of Italian soldiers in small arms branch (3 May 1944)
▪ Signs and charts made in Italian for the soldiers to translate (8 May 1844)
▪ Instruction of Italian POWs (63) on small arms (11 May 1944)
▪ Need for interpreters
Folder 2:
▪ Received small arms parts from Augusta Arsenal (10 April 1944)
Folder 3:
▪ Need for use of prisoner labor at motor pool (10 March 1944)
▪ Small arms section: inspects, cleans, delivers, and issues guns
▪ Motor Pool: dispatches, inspects, adjusts, tests, repairs vehicles
▪ Pvt. Floyd B. Rippen returned after 65 days of being AWOL and placed in confinement in Depot Guard House awaiting trial by Courts Martial (28 March 1944)
Folder 4:
▪ Shoes received and taken to Fort McPherson for shoe repairs (1 Feb 44)
Box 4
Daily Activity Reports (1942-1947)
Folder 2:
▪ Information on the Italian students (August 1944)
Folder 3:
▪ Ladies room built in a building (17 July 1944)
Folder 4:
▪ Cameraman working on “moving picture history of ISU in Unit Training” (20 June 1944)
▪ Students of Motorcycle Dept. going to see showing of film about Malaria Control, except Italian students (21 June 1944)
▪ New route for officers in the northern part of Georgia “because of its cooler climate and because it takes them away from the malaria infested sections of Georgia.” (24 June 1944)
Box 5
Alert Files, Racial Discrimination Files (1940-1945)
Folder 1:
- Telegrams (October 1942)
- Second Battalion departure to Camp Butner, NC
Folder 2:
▪ Investigation Files (1943-1944)
▪ Cases involving sexuality
Folder 3:
▪ 149th Ordnance Motor Vehicle Assembly Co. Alerted (January 1943)
▪ Personnel and equipment shipped to New York Port of Embarkation or Fort Dix, NJ
- Transcripts of conversations
- Lists of necessary items (clothing, weapons, canteens, etc.)
- List of Communicable Diseases at Atlanta Ordnance Depot sent to New Jersey
- Common Diarrhea, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Influenza, Mumps…but not in epidemic form
Folder 4:
▪ Co. C, 128th Ordnance Regiment Alerted (February 1943)
▪ Unit permanently transferred to new port
▪ List of all clothing, equipment, supplies, and ammunition needed
▪ Attached Medical and Chaplains
▪ Chemical land mines, vehicles smoke generator, gas-proof curtains
Folder 5:
▪ Administrative Memoranda (1945)
▪ Transfer of branches, Depot Integrating Committee, Depot Organization changes, Deactivation of Photographic Facilities,
▪ Reduction in use of signal communication services (17 Oct 1945)
- “Since the capitulation of Japan, the reduction of expenses for signal communications…at the Atlanta Ordnance Depot approximates only thirty percent.”
Folder 6:
▪ Post Regulations (December 1942)
▪ Publication (December 1)
- Visitors, vehicles, uniforms, fire procedure, air raids, etc .
Folder 7:
History of Italian POW Service Units (1944)
▪ Began March 7, 1944
▪ Details entire beginning of program
▪ Two heavy automotive maintenances companies, eight medium automotive maintenances companies (p. 2)
▪ Need for Italian Interpreters’ Section (p. 5)
▪ Arrival of POW’s (p. 35)
▪ Training program, courses pp. 10-14)
Folder 8:
▪ Priority Messages, Personnel (October 1942-June 1944)
▪ Radiograms from Atlanta Motor Base and Atlanta Ordnance Depot Message Forms concerning departure and return of men, equipment, shipments; promotion of officer
▪ Message sent in secret code (13 June 1944)
Folder 9:
▪ Yearly Activity Report (February 1943)
▪ Booklet, detailing some of the history of the Depot:
- “One year ago today, Atlanta Ordnance Depot was born. Rolling red clay fields that once blossomed white with cotton are dotted now with unending rows of tents, barracks, shops, and warehouses. The once peaceful countryside echoes to the measured tramp of marching feet…” (2 February 1943)
- Includes prints of photographs (45)
- Began in January 1942 and called “Atlanta Motor Base”
- Created one big section to be its own base, Motor Transport (p. 7)
- Shipped troops, personnel, equipment from Fort McPherson and conceived originally as a troop housing project and Motor Repair Base (pp. 7-8)
- Photos of women (p. 36 and 37)
- Supply warehouses, working IBM machine, learning packing procedure
- Men and women beneath flag (p. 40)
- Drawing of name change (p. 39)
- Section on Military Training (p. 41)
Folder 10:
▪ Racial Discrimination Reports and Interviews (1940-1943)
▪ Interviews with 15 employees on issues of racial discrimination, conducted by Colonel Craigin (12 February 1943)
- Stems from letter from Atlanta Urban League concerning complaints of African American workers at the Atlanta Ordnance Depot
- Complaints mainly concern the dissatisfaction with being paid less for the same job as whites or not being promoted or not given the same qualification tests as white