April 24, 1943 – Iceland

Hallicrafters and a host of other suppliers were involved in the project and like any complex project the April fifteen delivery date for the direction finding system had slipped twice. The site, the one thing they thought would be the last thing done was ready. The Quonset huts were assembled, the antenna towers erected, mess halls were in place and the men to operate and maintain the equipment were on site but the listening post was still off-line. Most of the equipment was already in the racks but there were some obvious holes in the racks, some of the equipment had not arrived. One of the missing components was a frequency standard needed to calibrate the equipment. Its special quartz crystals were made in Carlisle Pennsylvania, transported to St. Louis for assembly in a temperature controlled oven then the oven was taken to Boston for final assembly in the oscillator. It was assembled and on the dock for shipment when the German U-boats raided the Boston harbor. The unit was destroyed. The manufacturers estimated the replacement unit would not be available for two months. Several other components were likewise not available. What the military procurement people had missed when they signed the increase in the quantity of the units was the note that the military would be responsible for ordering all equipment not assembled by Hallicrafters. One of these items was the Lock Frequency Standard. Only three were produced, all were in the same carton on the dock. There were no spares.

April 26, 1943

Bert Wallis of Standard Piezo at Carlisle Pennsylvania was surprised to see several men in uniform in the outer office. They were expecting no visitors. He walked out of his office to see what they wanted.

The ranking officer was a Full Colonel. He was accompanied by three captains and four lieutenants. They were from Ft. Indiantowne Gap, they wore side-arms and several platoons of armed men were already deployed outside the building. The Colonel handed Bert a piece of paper. It declared that the plant was under military control and the Colonel had authority to commandeer any equipment and persons necessary to carry out his mission. Anyone who refused to carry out his orders would be arrested. He had authority to use deadly force to carry out his mission. It was simple. The Colonel would not leave the facility until they produced a half dozen of the critical crystals and they were on their way to the customer by diverse routes and by three couriers. They were never to risk more than one third of the units by having them in the same place.