Delco-Remy in World War Two
The D-Day Normandy Invasion
June 6, 1944
This page added June 6, 2014.

This page commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion and the important story of the Delco-Remy Division of General Motors participation in this historic event.

This page updated with additional photos and information on May 1, 2020.

Author's note:  This page was added to the website in June 4, 2014, 75 years to the day of the landing at Normandy, France by American, British, Canadian and French forces.  The original information from 2014 was based on information noted in "Our War Job," published by Delco-Remy in 1944.  Since 2014, I have learned considerably more from other research of other World War Two-era companies about the military equipment in which Delco-Remy products were utilized.  Delco-Remy had considerable presence at Normandy with its products in landing craft, motor torpedo boats, aircraft, armored vehicles, and trucks.  DDJ 5-1-2020


This is the east end of a quiet Omaha Beach in May of 2008.  In photos from June 6, 1944 the large pebbles are shown many times as soldiers tried to take cover on the beaches from the German defending fire from the heights above.  Author's photo.

Note the bunker for a 75mm German gun in the center of the photo.  Behind it are several US Memorials.  Author's photo.

Early in the morning darkness of June 6, 1944, the Allied invasion force arrived off the Normandy beaches.  With a 6:30 AM scheduled invasion start time and the first wave of landing craft to arrive at the beaches, much had to be done.  Out in front of the two American beaches, Omaha and Utah, small wooden landing craft 36-feet long were lowered over the sides of the large transport ships and placed into the water.  The U.S. Coast Guard coxswains on each of the small craft reached down in the darkness and pushed a button.  The 225 hp diesel engines in them came to life!  Each and every one of them was started by Delco-Remy cranking motor!  1,089 times this happened throughout the fleet in the darkness on that fateful morning.

Delco-Remy had just started the Normandy Invasion!

A 32-man infantry platoon loads into the 36-foot long wooden landing craft for the trip onto the beach.  One of the coast guard men is trying to hold the  Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) fast to the transport while one of the soldiers tries to get into the craft.  This is later in the day, as it is now light.  It is the loading of one of the many waves that came in after the first.  The coast guard crews, if they survived the initial landing, kept coming back again all day with more loads.  Of the 1,089 LCVPs that started the day, 81 were lost in the ensuing combat.  It was not an easy day for the LCVP crews and their passengers!


This iconic photo shows a group of anxious young GI's landing on Omaha beach on D-Day in an LCVP.  The LCVPs were powered by Gray Marine modified GM Detroit Diesel 6-71 engines.  Each 6-71 engine had a Delco-Remy starter, DC generator, pistons, and a blower.  It was a rough ride to the beach.  The beach did not look as peaceful then as when I was there in 2008.

Brave beyond description!

Advantage to the defenders on Omaha Beach.  It doesn't take a military genius to figure out that when the 1st Division landed on the beach below, they walked directly into the Jaws of Hell.  That's if they even got to the beach, as the defenders had a clear field of fire into the landing craft as they approached the beach.  One would have to assume that the Germans had cleared away all of the trees and brush that would provide cover for an invading force once it had landed.  Author's photo.

Author's note:  The difficulties of the American soldiers' landing on Omaha Beach are legendary.  The story has been told in numerous books and movies since World War Two.  The most recent and most graphic of the movies was Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan."  I read many accounts of the landing at Omaha Beach, and saw "Saving Private Ryan."  However, it wasn't until I stood at the American Cemetery at Normandy and looked down at the on the beach that I fully realized why this was such a problem for the landing forces.  Words in books and simulated battles scenes in movies do not capture the true scope of why events happened as they did here.  This was a disaster waiting to happen, and it did.  Of all the historic battlefields I have visited over the years, this one has had the most long lasting impact on me.  If you, the reader, get nothing more from this website, I hope you gain a better understanding of the difficulties of young American soldiers on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.  DDJ 5-1-2020.

There were excellent fields of fire.  The ability of the German defenders to see up and down the coast made it tough going for members of the Big Red 1 to advance up the hill.  Author's photo.

Delco-Remy on the sea at Normandy:

The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel, or LCVP.  It is also known as the Higgins boat, after the company that did the initial development on this type of landing craft.  It was these type of landing craft that made the initial landings on the beaches of Normandy.  This 1944 LCVP is one of only a couple of original surviving LCVPs.  The LCVPs at Normandy were powered by a Detroit Diesel 6-71 diesel engines with Delco-Remy cranking motors, D-C generators, blowers, and pistons.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Gray Marine Motor Company of Detroit, MI added the exchanger and coolant container along with some other modifications and additions to make the 6-71 into a marine engine for use in landing craft.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

The Delco-Remy cranking motor and solenoid can be seen in this photo.  Delco-Remy cranking motors were the motor of choice for U.S. Navy landing craft during World War Two.  The navy provided Delco-Remy with an unused former ammunition plant in 1944 at Kings Mill, OH, which was dedicated to producing landing craft cranking motors.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

On the other side of the engine, the cooling fins on the blower can be seen.  Delco-Remy built the blowers for Detroit Diesel during World War Two.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Delco-Remy cranking motors, D-C generators, regulators, cast pistons, and blowers were used at Normandy in LCVPs, LCMs, LCTs, LCIs and LSTs.  There were 1,089 LCVPs, 835 LCTs, and 72 LCIs at Normandy.  Half of the 233 LCTs, or 116, were powered by Electro-Motive 12-567 engines with Delco-Remy cranking motors.

Each of these Landing Craft Infantry (Large) or LCI(L) had a barrage balloon attached in route to the Normandy beaches on D-Day.  These were powered by eight of the same type Gray/Detroit Diesel six-cylinder engines that powered the LCVPs.  However, four of the individual engines were combined into a quad configuration connected to a single drive shaft.  These two quad engines then each drove a propeller.  Delco-Remy would have supplied the starters, DC generators, voltage regulators, blowers and propeller controllers for the seventy-two LCI(L)s that took part in the invasion.

This LCI(L) is in trouble and is sinking after taking a hit from German artillery fire on the beach.  An LCI could deliver an entire infantry company directly to the beaches.

LST-393 made 30 round trips to Normandy bringing in tanks, tank destroyers, artillery, supplies, and troops to the beaches.  On its return trips to England, it took wounded soldiers and German POWs.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020. 

Both Electro-Motive 12-567 engines have 900 series cranking motors on them.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020. 

The Delco-Remy 902 cranking motor, built on 9-4-1942 was on LST-393.  It is a Normandy veteran, having made the thirty round trips to Normandy.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020. 

Among the many small boats at Normandy were American PT boats, British motor torpedo boats and British motor guns boats.  These were all powered by Packard 4M2500 marine engines with Delco-Remy electrical components.  PT-305 is the only surviving Higgins-built PT boat that saw service in World War Two.  While it served in the Mediterranean, it is representative of both the Elco and Higgins PT boats that were part of the invasion.  Each PT boat had three 4M2500 engines.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

The Delco-Remy D-C generator at the top of the page and the cranking motor in the middle can be seen on PT-305's starboard engine.  Delco-Remy carbon pile type voltage regulators are mounted on a control panel in the engine room.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

The first display a visitor encounters when entering John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, LA is this cutaway of a Packard 4M2500 marine engine.  Visitors from around the world see the Packard cutaway with its prominently displayed D-R cranking motor.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Delco-Remy in the air at Normandy:

What a awe inspiring sight!   Twenty-eight Lockheed P-38 Lightnings with invasion stripes flying over Normandy to support the troops on the beach.

  Delco-Remy was an important supplier of aluminum castings to the Allison Division of General Motors that provided  V-1710 engines for the P-38.  Plant 7 was built in 1940 specifically to produce many of the castings Allison needed.  Plant 10 was constructed in 1941 to machine the castings to the necessary tolerances before they were shipped to the Allison Plant in Indianapolis, IN.

 
 This Allison V-1710 is on display at the Indiana War Memorial in downtown Indianapolis.  The two nose house castings and the intake manifolds on top of the engine were produced in DR Plant 7.  The same can be said for the heads that are painted black and the gray engine block below it.  The valve cover that has been removed but is just visible on opposite side was also a Delco-Remy casting.  Many of the unseen internal castings were also produced in Plant 7 and then machined in Plant 10.  Author's photo.

Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Delco-Remy on land at Normandy: 

Armored Vehicles - Delco-Remy had various electrical components in many of the armored vehicles that landed at Normandy and fought in the ensuing battles.  Delco-Remy also provided blowers for Detroit Diesel 6-71 engines used in M4A2 Sherman tanks and M10 Wolverine tank destroyers.  In the case of the M4A2 tank and M10 tank destroyer Delco-Remy was the exclusive supplier of cranking motors, D-C generators, and voltage regulators.  The same is true of the Cadillac V-8 gasoline powered engine that was used in the M5 and M5A1 Stuart light tanks.  For tanks and armored vehicles with Continental radial gasoline powered engines, Delco-Remy was a non-exclusive supplier of electrical components. 

Many of the armored vehicles supplied to the British, Canadians, and French by Lend-Lease that participated at Normandy had Delco-Remy components.  These vehicles are included in the selection below.

Light Tanks:

American, British, Canadian, and French forces all had the M5 and M5A1 Stuart light tank at Normandy.  Cadillac, Massey-Harris, and American Car and Foundry manufactured 8,884 M5 and M5A1 Stuart tanks, built with two Cadillac V-8 engines.  Delco-Remy furnished 17,768 sets of generators, starters, ignition coils, ignition distributors, and regulators for the tanks.   Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Cadillac also produced a 75mm howitzer version of the M5 Stuart tank for the Allied Forces at Normandy.  It had the same two Cadillac V-8 engines with Delco-Remy components as the M5 light tank.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Medium Tanks:  The American Army at Normandy was equipped with the M4 and M4A1 Sherman tank, which was powered by a Continental R-975 radial engine.  Delco-Remy was a non-exclusive supplier of cranking motors for this engine.  According to technical manual "TM 9-1825, War Department Technical Manual, Ordnance Maintenance, Electrical Equipment, (Delco-Remy)" dated 12 January 1944, Delco-Remy provided six different model cranking motors for radial engines.  There is no specific mention of generators or voltage regulators in the TM 9-1825.  The R-925 used magnetos instead of a distributor. 

This is an Alco-built M4 Sherman tank, Serial Number 3949, built in April 1943.  It is similar to many M4 medium tanks built by several companies that were used by American forces at Normandy. Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

This M4A1 was built by Pressed Steel in July 1942, and had the same engine as the M4.  The main difference was that it had a cast rather than welded hull.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

 This Fisher Body-built M4A2 with two Detroit Diesel 6-71 engines is a true war veteran.  It is the only tank that survived the war in operation with the 6th Canadian Armored Regiment (1st Hussars).  This tank landed at Normandy with the Canadians and made it all the way through Europe.  The Delco-Remy components started it every morning and kept the tank supplied with electrical power during operations.  Very cool!

The M4A2 Sherman tank was used by America's allies at Normandy.

Other Armored Vehicles:

The Fisher Body-built M10 tank destroyer was also powered by twin Detroit-Diesel engines with Delco-Remy components.  The M10 was not only used by the American Army at Normandy, but the British, Canadians and French.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

The M7 105mm self-propelled gun carriage was powered by the Continental R-975 radial engine.  Delco-Remy provided six different models of cranking motors for radial engines on armored vehicles during World War Two.   Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

The Fox Armored Car was designated as a GM MK.1 but Chevrolet was the Division that designed the chassis.  Final assembly was done by GM of Canada.  The engine was a GMC 270 engine with Delco-Remy cranking motor, distributor and coil, and D-C generator with voltage regulator.  Canadian Forces operated the Fox at Normandy.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

 Chevrolet designed and built the Staghound armored car used by the British and Canadians.  Interestingly, Chevrolet used two GMC 270 engines to power it with two sets of Delco-Remy electrical components.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

The Allis-Chalmers M4 high speed tractor was powered by a Waukesha 145GZ engine which had a Delco-Remy 644 heavy duty rear reduction cranking motor.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

The M4 high speed tractor was a prime mover for heavy artillery that came ashore in support of the infantry.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020. 

Last, but not least, are the half-tracks armored vehicles at Normandy, powered by White 160AX engines.  There were fourteen different models of the half-track built by three different companies that were at Normandy.  It was a true utility vehicle and weapon used by all the forces that landed and operated at Normandy.  The Diamond T M3A1 shown here is a representative sample of all the various types.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

In the engine bay of the M3A1 are a Delco-Remy distributor, coil, D-C generator, and voltage regulator.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Trucks:  There were a myriad of trucks built a number of manufacturers at Normandy.  Only the GMC CCKW 2-1/2 ton truck and its amphibious derivative, the DUKW, had Delco-Remy components.  That being said, the GMC was the mainstay of the U.S. Army's medium truck and was the workhorse hauler of supplies not only at Normandy, but all through the European campaign. 

The classic GMC CCKW 2-1/2-ton cargo truck was the most common of the type truck at Normandy.  The GMC 270 came with a complete set of Delco-Remy electrical equipment.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

Also supporting the D-Day aircraft operations would be GMC 2-1/2-ton fuel trucks such as this one.  There were a variety of CCKW trucks built during the war.  Photo added to website on July 1, 2014.

Inside the engine bay of the GMC is a Delco-Remy 6-volt regulator.  This is model number 5628 and serial number 56554.  Author's photo.

The amphibious GMC DUKW with its Delco-Remy electrical system optimized for marine operation was instrumental in bringing supplies directly from transport ships across the water and beach.  It was then able to drive directly inland to the troops that needed the supplies.  Author's photo added May 1, 2020.

No battle or war is without its costs.  The American Cemetery over looking the Normandy Beach is known as "Bloody Omaha".  One out of every 18 Americans who landed on the Normandy beaches or parachuted into the areas behind the beaches on June 6, 1944 was killed.  Many of them were laid to rest in this cemetery.  The author's photo was taken on Memorial Day, 2008.