SPRUCE FOR THE AIR, FIR FOR THE SEA
So went one of the mottos of the Spruce Production Division during World War 1 – “Bill” being Kaiser William. The huge Cut-up Plant was erected on the Polo Grounds at Vancouver Barracks to better provide the needed correct lumber for American and Allied airplane production. “Spruce for the air”. “Fir for the sea” was for shipbuilding, a secondary purpose of the huge plant.
THE TREE
The framework of airplanes for a long period of time was wood with a canvas skin spread over the fuselage and wing skeleton. Engineering studies of the time determined Sitka Spruce to offer the most strength for its weight. Other woods were harder, but much heavier. Additionally, the Sitka grew to mammoth sizes in a linear fashion, a factor needed to form the basis for both wing frames and fuselages. Ancient age and neighboring trees fighting for each scrap of sunlight produce tall, straight trunks two hundred feet or taller and diameters of eight feet or more. With foliage carried only in the top 25-30% of the trunk, the wood grain is straight, parallel and tight with no knots from branch growth interrupting the grain.
Sitka Spruce is found along the Pacific Northwest coast from Oregon to the panhandle of Alaska. The trees grow within 50 miles of the ocean. Giant spruces take four hundred years or more to reach the mammoth sizes. Prior to World War 1, the Sitka Spruce was not a tree sought out by lumbermen. Groves in which the trees occurred were difficult to get to because of terrain and weather – these trees grow in rain forests where getting the logs out was very difficult. Those trees found were lone giants sporadically hidden among the Douglas Fir and other species of the coastal forests. There were plenty of other trees to find, easier to get at and easier to get out. Douglas Fir is a good 23% stronger than the spruce, but it is 26% heavier – not a factor in building.
Lots of other tree species cohabit the Northwestern coastal forests. These trees were also used, though not necessarily for airplanes: Douglas Fir, Port Orford cedar (also used for airplanes), Western Hemlock and even Larch.
other uses of spruce
There are other uses for Sitka Spruce as well as airplanes. In fact, airplane production accounted for a small percentage of the spruce milled. Many other uses like ladders, boat masts, sounding boards for musical instruments are a few of the more common uses for Sitka Spruce. Paper was just beginning to be realized at the time of the war – the long straight grain, again, lending itself well to paper pulp.
sawing the giants
Besides the problems inherent in finding the giants and getting the logs out, the logs need to be handled differently. Logs go through a two-step process after the tree falls. First, the sawmill where logs are cut into sections easier to handle. Second, is the lumber mill where the boards from the sawmill are cut again into useable lumber.
Normally, logs initially sawed up in a plain-sawn technique. Plain-sawn lumber produces the least wastage and the largest boards from a log. A problem is where long, straight grains are desired, the grain often results irregularly and is more susceptible to warpage. The Sitka Spruce needed to be either quarter-sawn or rift-sawn, two techniques much more labor intensive. Wastage is also much higher with these techniques. Lumbermen in the Northwest wanted quantity and before World War 1, there was simply little financial incentive to go after Sitka Spruce.
aircraft technicalities
For aircraft, the lengths and thicknesses required made it even more difficult. Many of the logs just did not meet the defect-free demands. Upwards to 40% of the wood received cannot be used for airplane spars, the main framework of wings. The other logs end up cut again into smaller pieces – more labor – for smaller sections of the wings like longerons – sections forming lengthwise support for the fuselage – and capstrips – leading edges on wings. Or the logs, simply wasted. The useable lumber needs careful drying to avoid warpage. Finally, the wood needs to be stored carefully since it is easily damaged.
THE PLANES
In 1903, the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville, first put an aircraft into the air. They were the first to build and sell planes to the American Army. But they lost their way over the years. The American army became – for a short while – more interested in balloons. Meanwhile, the Wright Brothers focused on keeping the rest of a potential aviation industry on the defensive through a series of patent wars. The courtroom was an attempt to keep all would-be aviation companies beholden to the Wrights through royalty payments. Suits and countersuits played out for years before 1917.
curtiss jn-4 “jennie”
By the time of World War 1, there was really no American military aviation industry besides the Curtiss JN-3, an overworked, underpowered and out-of-date airplane best serving as the model for the JN-4 “Jennie”. The JN-4 became the workhorse trainer for pilots in both the US and Canada. 95% of American pilots serving in the war trained initially in a Jennie.
The JN-4 initially was powered by a 90 horsepower V8 engine capable of a top speed of 75 miles per hour and a vertical ceiling of 6,500 feet. Most were built at the Curtiss factory in Buffalo though six other manufacturers also got into the act at sometime or another. The plane continued as the main trainer for the Army Air Corps after the war until 1927 when spare part manufacture ceased, as well.
Wartime Jennies
Some 6,813 models were built with just over 4,000 being built in Canada. The model was known as the Canuck there. Many surplus craft were sold at the end of the war, some still in their original shipping crates. The planes were built strictly for use in North America and were none were sent to France.
Half of the Army’s share – 929 – of the Jennies were upgraded as JN-4H featuring an upgraded 150 horse powered Hispano-Suiza engine built by license by the Wright-Martin Aircraft Company.
de havilland Dh-4
Geoffrey de Havilland designed the two-place DH-4 for Airco in 1916. The plane figured as a bomber-reconnaissance fixture. Original power thrust by a 160 horsepower Beadmore-Halford-Putlinger engine though more significant with a 375 horsepower Rolls-Royce Eagle engine found later in the war. The plane first showed up in France operationally 16 August 1917.
When the United States entered into World War 1, there were no modern military aircraft manufactured in the US. In order not to reinvent the wheel, a commission led by Colonel Raynal C. Bolling was sent to Europe to evaluate possible models for manufacture in the US for the Aviation Section – Bolling was Assistant Chief of the Air Service at the time. He was later killed in an ambush by German troops during the Second Somme Offensive 26 March 1918.
President Wilson promised shortly after entry into the war, the US would provide 5,000 new airplanes and 8,500 new airplane engines by 1 June 1918. He also said material for plane building – spruce – would be in the supply pipeline by 1 November 1917. Both of those promises needed serious alteration with time.
American DH-4’s
Bolling’s group recommended several planes for American production but only one of their recommendations, the DH-4, showed suitable for the American-built Liberty engine. Several American companies were involved with building the DH-4 though the majority were finished at Dayton-Wright Airplane Company. The American model featured over a thousand modifications from the British original.
9,500 Dh-4s were ordered with 1,213 planes reaching France before the end of the war. Of those, 543 saw service. Thirteen different American squadrons flew the DH-4 during the war. The DH-4 went through several model changes during and after the war. The plane served in the Army Air Corps until 1932. Fifteen different countries used the plane at one point or another.
Six Medals of Honor were awarded to aviators during the war and four of those went to men flying in the DH-4. Many others were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross – America’s second highest medal for bravery – serving in DH-4’s.
At the end of the war, a newer model of the DH-4 was just coming on line – the DH-4B. To bring the many older model DH-4’s back to the US seemed like more trouble than worth the cost. The extra planes were burnt in the “Billion Dollar Bonfire“.
SPRUCE PRODUCTION DIVISION
Some Sitka Spruce production had been ongoing prior to the US entering into World War 1. Brice Disque was the officer charged with increasing the production of aircraft useable lumber in the Northwest. He was given the mission by the Council of National Defense and the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker. The goal was to increase production from three million feet to ten million feet as soon as possible. Disque found of the “three million” feet, only 1.5 million of the lumber shipped to be useable in October 1917 when he arrived on the scene.
Disque gained the authority to canvass the Army for soldiers with logging and-or sawmill experience – many of these men already drawn off into the 10th and 20th Engineering Regiments responsible for creating logging and lumbering operations in France for the American Expeditionary Force – AEF. The men gathered for this new division – the Spruce Production Division or SPD – eventually numbered over 30,000 spread over 234 camps in the Northwest.
the new division
The men, after some basic training, supplemented civilian labor in the forests and mills. This episode constituting the first time the Army ever utilized for private industry. Having soldiers in the industry also helped quiet labor unrest which impinged upon the lumber industry, especially in 1917. The soldiers and the formation of the quasi-fourieristic Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen – which grew to encompass over 125,000 men – where employers and laborers came together to patriotically stand behind the war effort creating a labor situation much different in 1918 than before.
Prodcution increases
The SPD looked at increasing the supply of aircraft quality lumber in several ways. First, there was the transport issues. Thirteen rail lines were started to push into the rugged terrain where the spruce groves could be found. Construction on these lines could not start until the spring of 1918 because of the excessive rainfall. Due to the earlier than projected end of the war, many of the lines were never completed.
Second, selective logging – spotters would select and plot trees on a map – needed to be employed to concentrate efforts on Sitka Spruce instead of the industry-standard practice of clear cutting a forest. The amount of useable lumber from a preselected spruce tree yielded about 25% as opposed to an average tree from a clear cut only providing about 10%. Selective logging went forward over the opposition of lumbermen.
Third, the logs coming out of the forest were rived – split – logs. Splitting the logs in the field was another added expense. In doing so, this reduced the giant size of the logs to roughly one-sixth. Only then could the logs be transported by horse to trucks to trains to the mills. Riving could be suspended when the logging rails extended far enough into the woods for direct shipment out. Though by riving the log, the grain of the wood was easier to identify for proper utilization at the mill.
THE MILL
Fourthly, the spruce coming out of the forest was simply not handled by the mills correctly. This led to the development of the Cut-up Plant at Vancouver Barracks. The mill was developed on the polo grounds of the military post – much of the grounds covering today’s restored Hudson Bay fort. Three rail spur lines came into the plant off the main Seattle, Portland & Spokane rail line. Machinery for the plant came from eastern US but once on site, the mill was erected in only forty-five days. Work on the plant began 14 December 1917 and by 7 February 1918, the plant was operational.
operational plant
Once running, the plant ran on three eight-hour shifts, 24 hours a day getting out the finished lumber. The rived cants were looked over carefully by grain finders who then marked the pieces in blue pencil directing sawyers the direction in which to cut.
There were twelve carriages on which the cants were pulled off the rail cars into the plant. Originally, the mill was thought capable of 400,000 board feet per day. By August through October, the Cut-up Plant put out a million board feet each day. As the mill started producing, cutting efficiency was improved through special instruction to all involved especially regarding the long wing spars needed. From the end of June, wing spars only accounted for 22.5% of total cut lumber in a day. By July the average went thirty-five and forty-three in October. The mill increased the percentage of airplane stock taken out of the total lumber rose from 10% in October 1917 to 60% a year later thanks to the Cut-up Plant.
the men and other mill possibilities
4,500 men were involved working at the mill made up of men from the Second Provisional Regiment. The soldiers of the SPD were formed into four regiments. The First involved itself at Vancouver Barracks providing administration for the division. The Second Regiment worked at the Cut-up Plant. The Third Regiment involved itself in transportation for the logs and lumber, as well as men in the field logging and constructing. The Fourth Regiment was constructing a new mill at Toledo, Oregon. That project, like a similar mill being built at Port Angeles, Washington was never completed before the Armistice. Each of these mills were planned for a million board feet output per day. Enough lumber came from here to produce 300 planes a day.
A last mill had been purchased from British Columbia. It was being dismantled for erection in Clallam County, Washington at Lake Pleasant at the end of Division Railroad No. 1 – also never finished – when the war ended.
After the lumber was cut, seasoning was the next step. A group of dry kilns went up to dry the wood through a steam process. Over a matter of several days, the moisture content of the wood was reduced from 33% to 8% reducing weight of tonnage moving east.
Soldiers for the Cut-up Plant lived in a tent city next to the mill. There was medical, meal, sanitation and entertainment facilities to keep the men occupied in their off times.
end of the plant
With 11 November 1918, the mill was promptly shuttered. Some remaining lumber was cut for sale but supply quickly ended as the logging camps closed. Men came out of the woods to be disbanded and sent home. Their mission had been completed.
Slowly, the equipment of the mill was sold off and the plant razed to make room for the new airfield which took the place of the old mill. The airfield’s administrative building reused the building used for the Cut-up Plant.
TODAY
spruce trail
Little beyond the Plant’s old administrative building remains today of the world’s largest spruce mill. Much of the grounds were utilized by the Army Air Corps with the establishment of the Pearson Airfield. Recently, a ten-stop trail has been established covering some of the grounds of the Cut-up Plant. Close inspection of the ground can show what might have been foundations for the many buildings making up the mill.
Next to the northeast edge of the restored HBC fort, the round foundation of the sawdust burner can still be made out. That burner was under construction in the summer of 1918 and some question remains whether it was actually used before the end of the war. Much of the wood wastes could be burned as fuel for boilers and local power plants, but some wastes still would be left over.
You can get a map of the Spruce Mill Trail from inside the Pearson Air Museum. Out on the trail, most of the stops are not marked with information tablets – something for the future.
Pearson air museum
Ongoing archaeological investigations probe further into the history of the grounds. The best place to investigate the short history of the Cut-up Plant is to be found inside the hangar of the Pearson Airfield, now a museum.
The museum is devoted mostly to the air service activity on the post, complete with both a DH-4B and a Curtiss Jenny trainer. The huge model of the Cut-up Plant and a replica of one of the tents the mill soldiers used to live in go a long way to giving somewhat of a better idea of the amazing plant that lived less than a year on the north bank of the Columbia River.