14 Dahlgren 



Transportation problems due to the isolation of Dahlgren proved to be an 

 early source of annoyance. Heavy test ammunition could be brought in only by 

 water prior to World War II. After being unloaded at the Station dock, test 

 ammunition was placed on railroad cars and hauled by a slow, cumbersome 

 process to the old shell house area for storage. As roads to Fredericksburg 

 improved after 1927, increasing use was made of trucks for transportation of 

 small ammunition.^" 



During the 20's and 30's, the main mission of the Dahlgren Ammunition 

 Department was the preparation of inert projectiles, explosive loading and 

 fuzing, and supervision of the powder weighing rooms at the Main Battery. 

 The expansion in naval ordnance development before World War II was 

 reflected in the expansion of the Ammunition Department, and included in 

 this growth were the technical changes in ordnance material testing. All projec- 

 tiles fired at the Proving Ground before World War II were inert. Wartime use 

 of high-explosive projectiles altered the duties of the Ammunition Department 

 from inert loading and preparation of target practice ammunition to proces- 

 sing live wartime ammunition.^' 



The entire nation had been expecting war, and the Dahlgren Laboratory was 

 far from an exception. The summer of 1941 saw for the first time the influx of 

 large numbers of professional employees into the ranks at Dahlgren. By and 

 large, these were uniformed reserves that had been called to active duty, but 

 their technical backgrounds added a new dimension at the Laboratory. 



An excellent example of the new breed was Dr. Ralph Sawyer* who arrived in 

 June 1941. Dr. Sawyer was, at the time he was reactivated in the Navy, a 

 professor of physics at the University of Michigan. He was asked by the 

 Commander of the Naval Reserve at Dahlgren to come to the Laboratory and 

 supervise operation of the Armor and Projectile Laboratory, which was also 

 completed in 1941 to conduct reduced-scale tests of armor and projectiles as 

 well as other work in metallurgy. 



Throughout World War II, the efforts in proof and testing at Dahlgren con- 

 tinued to increase. Work in research and development also increased, a trend 

 that eventually led to the Laboratory's becoming primarily concerned with 

 research and development. At this time, a small amount of work was also done 

 on the closely guarded Manhattan Project for developing the atomic bomb. 

 This led to the follow-on Elsie Project in which Dahlgren served as the Navy's 

 primary test and evaluation agency for further work in atomic weapons.** The 

 Laboratory continued this program until 1956 when it was taken over by the 

 Atomic Energy Commission. 



During the war, steps were taken to obtain large-scale computing devices for. 



*See Chapter V. 

 **See Chapter VIII. 



