The War Files: GMH’s Support for the Australian Armed forces.
1. Wartime
In 1940, M.D. Laurence Hartnett turned over the full resources of GMH to the production of war related materails and equipment. At the time, the USA had not entered the war and General Motors are said to have not been impressed with one of their overseas branches unilaterally supporting the armed forces engaged in the conflict. Regardless, it would be fair to say that GMH made a major contribution to the success of the Australian forces.
These days, this is fairly widely known; however the scope of what GMH actually made is not so well understood.. Everything from major Artillery guns to boats, armaments, engines, canvass goods, and of course, a variety of standard and specialist vehicles.
Some 2,786 employees joined the armed forces during WW2, but 67 of them would never return.
Jeff Jamieson has put together a comprehensive list of these products, and the stories behind them, as The War Files.
Jeff has now significantly updated and expanded this collection.
Publications.
GMH issued a number of publications detailing their wartime activities.
- War Activities of General Motors-Holden Ltd
- Production facillities during WW2 (1944)
- GM - The War Effort of the Overseas divisions
2. Postwar
In wartime, Laurence Hartnett and his staff filled a number of the top positions in Ordinance production and manufacturing generally. Men such as John Storey and Frank Daley were leaders in organising and co-ordinating production facilities for all manner of wartime production.
But after the war, GMH support of the Defence Forces continued in peacetime for over 50 years more. However, their involvement in this period was more about lending the Forces the technical knowledge of General Motors and the manpower of its employees.
Their support followed two main paths, assessing Industry readiness for production and providing manpower when required to swell the ranks of the armed forces.
The first of these was evidenced by their willing and continual participation in the Industrial Mobilisation Courses run by the Defence Forces, a description of which can be found here.
The second path was via the GM-Holden Defence Leave Policy, which gave employees leave to attend Defence Force activities while preserving all their normal employee benefits. This covered a wide gamut, from men volunteering to be part time Reservists to others going on active service overseas.
The story of one such employee, who unexpectedly found himself in East Timor, can be found here.