The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-02-03
BY MILTON BRONNER NEA Service Staff Correspondent

NEA Service Staff Correspondent
 Detroit, Feb. 3-Come the first days of next fall and five big 25- ton tanks will roll out from a new Chrysler plant in Detroit every day of a five-day week if Edward J. Hunt, bustling godfather of the defense project, knows what he's talking about-and he usually does.
 The tanks will be ahead of sched- ule-to cap feat of turning a farmers field into an arsenal in less than year.
 we have let no grass grow under our feet" says Hunt. President K. T. Keller of the Chrysler Corpora ton was asked last June eighth if he would make tanks. June ninth he discussed the matter with other Chrysler officials. He then went to Washington and talked with the War Department. June 18th he went to Rock Island arsenal to see what medium tanks looked like. June 18th he returned to Detroit and con- ferred with H. L. Weckler, vice pres ident and general manager of our concern"
 The result: Hunt was transferred immediately from his job as general staff master mechanic and told to take charge of tank production. First he tackled 186 pounds of blueprints, a map of the plot of ground outside Detroit, and the plans for building thereon a $2O,0O0000 government financed plant, which could fill an order for 1000 tanks costing $33,- 5O0,000.
 Hunt assembled 197 of the com pany's experts to study the blue prints.
 FACTORY TO BE
 READY IN APRIL
 The government let the contract last Aug. IS. Sept II ground was broken for the tank arsenal; steel work began Nov. 19. The plant is booked for completion by April. Ma chinery already on order will be in- stalled then, and by early fall the first tanks should be completed.
 The government will. supply the tank engines and the armor plat ing. All the rest of the material will come from the company. Much of this will be in the form of rough castings and forgings from outside plants. The Chrysler job will be fln- ishing and tooling this material and assembling. The tanks will be nine feet high, nine feet broad and 20 feet long. They will have a crew of seven men. Armament will be one 75 nm. gun, one 37 nm. gun, three 80 caliber machine guns and an anti aircraft gun. The engine will have 400 horsepower.
 Its a complex job," says Hunt. For instance, the stuff that goes into transmission alone requires 1000 hours of work
 PLANT WILL TAKE
 FIVE THOUSAND MEN While the arsenal is being built, l the company is getting well along with such preparatory work as mak- ing hundreds of blueprints, placing orders for machinery, gauges, dies and precision tools, and considering matter of personnel. Hunt will re- 1 quire 5000 men and expects to pick most of them from the 50,000 in the Detroit plant of his company. The arsenal will be 1880 feet by 500 feet. It will be streamlined in operation material flowing along through the various processes until at one end of the building completed tanks will be hoisted by cranes onto waiting railway fiat cars. To get five tanks daily. 88 will be in constant process of construction.
 Bulky Edward J. Hunt, Canadian born, but long an American citizen, was educated in Michigan and is a practical mechanic, having handled every kind of machine in auto mak- ing. He has been with Chrysler more | than 25 years