East Hartford named WWII Heritage City
Pratt & Whitney’s role in production of aircraft cited in National Park Service designation
“This designation takes on special significance for me since both my mother and father worked at Pratt & Whitney during the war from the age of 17.” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy
EAST HARTFORD — Connecticut’s contribution to victory in World War II included brass munitions from Waterbury, fighter planes from Stratford, artillery fuses from Bristol, guns made in Hartford and New Haven, parachutes from Manchester and ball bearings, mess kits and all kinds of hardware from New Britain.
Any one of those communities and others across the state might have received a recent honor from the National Park Service, but the agency singled out East Hartford as Connecticut’s World War II Heritage City due to the powerhouse production of aircraft engines by the men and women at Pratt & Whitney.
The company made about 360,000 engines for planes that devastated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, including the gull-wing Corsair, made in Stratford by Chance Vought, the Hellcat, the Thunderbolt, the Liberator, the Devastator, the Catalina, the Ventura and the C-47.
“Since before World War II, East Hartford, Connecticut, has been synonymous with Pratt & Whitney — a significant designer and manufacturer of piston aircraft engines,” a narrative on the federal agency’s website says.
Created by Congress in 2019, the World War II Heritage Cities Program recognizes the home front’s crucial role in war mobilization.
“World War II permeated every aspect of American life and resulted in a large migration of people within the United States,” a description of the program says. “Individuals and families relocated to industrial centers for good paying war jobs and out of a sense of patriotic duty. Many industrial centers became ‘boom towns,’ growing at phenomenal rates. Workers from around the nation had to intermingle with each other and overcome differences in order to meet war demands, forever changing the cultural landscape of the United States.”
The Park Service notes that East Hartford’s population tripled between 1929-1950, and factory employment after the fall of France in 1940 grew from 3,000 to 40,000 workers.
“Without question,” an article on the
National World War II Museum website says, “Pratt & Whitney was instrumental in helping the United States win WWII. The company built almost half of all plane engines used during the war. The demand for air power was so high that the company expanded from building 5,000 airplane engines a year to 50,000 at the height of the war.”
East Hartford is one of 18 World War II Heritage Cities across the country. Others include Wilmington, N.C., known for its shipyards; Oak Ridge, Tenn., site of the “Secret City” headquarters of the project to develop the atomic bomb; Lewiston, Mont., site of a training base for B-17 Flying Fortress crews; and Springfield, Mass., where workers at the Springfield Armory made more than 160 Garand M-1 rifles per hour.
U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. John Larson, an East Hartford native, applauded the recognition of East Hartford.
“This designation takes on special significance for me since both my mother and father worked at Pratt & Whitney during the war from the age of 17,” Larson said.
Mayor Mike Walsh called the federal designation “a testament to the integral role Pratt and Whitney plays on a global level.” An official ceremony to celebrate the honor will be held early next year, Walsh said.