Country: Czechoslovakia
Date: 4 May 1950
Subject: Koprivnice Plant of the Tatra N.P.
Pages: 4
No of Encls: 2 Blueprints
Place Acquired: [redacted]
Supplement to report: 25X1X
[Introduction is redacted]
1. The plant is assigned to the Czechoslovakian Metalworking and Engineering Industry National Enterprise. It is a subsidiary plant of the Tatra N.P.
2. Work force:- about 5,000 men, including 700 officials. Work is done in three shifts.
3. The plant suffered no war damage.
4. New construction:- a workshop building for airplane production was under construction.
5. Installations:-
a) Railroad car factory:- about 50 turret lathes, 4 large autogeneous welding aggregates, 3 riverting machines, 50 surface grinding machines, 8 large and 3 small cranes.
b) Automobile factory:- about 120 lathes, 80 vertical end 25 horizontal drilling machines, about 150 milling machines, 40 surface grinding machines, 4 large electric plate shears, 12 small shears, 74 automatic plate-welding machines.
c) Foundry:- 2 large and 24 small smelting furnaces, 3 crushers for scrapping, 4 large cranes.
d) Pressing shop:- ? large press Toledo type, 3 medium-sized presses, 12 small presses, 2 large and 3 small plate shears.
e) Screw factory:- 12 automatic screw cutting lathes, 16 hardening furnaces, 12 large and 5 small presses.
f) Lathe shop:- 24 lathes, 18 milling machines, 12 planers, 4 large planers.
g) Airplane department:- Various machines from the CZ plant in Strakonice (N 50/49), the ? plant in Novy Jicin (P 50/O 46) were being removed from this department.
6. Production: Railroad trolley cars, underframes for railroad cars (49 tons), underframes for tank cars, Tatraplan, Tatra 111, Tatra 114, and Tatra 115 cars--six-cylinder passenger cars with Diesel engine, military cross-country vehicles similar to the jeep. The airplane department was scheduled to produce airplanes and tank engines. The tanks were manufactured in the Tatra plants in Studenka and Lutovice (O 51/L 78).
7. Outgoing shipments: Trolley cars were delivered only to the Czechoslovakian State Railroad. Car underframes were shipped to the Studenka Railroad Car Plant (for the manufacture of the Soviet freight cars). Tank car underframes were shipped to the Soviet Zone of Germany and the Studenka Railroad Car Plant (for the final assembly of Polish tank cars). Tatraplan cars were shipped to the Soviet Union, Holland, Norway, Hungary and occasionally the USA.
8. Incoming shipments: raw materials were supplied by the Witkowitz Ironworks and radiators and single parts by the Pal Plant in Novy Jicin and the Transporta Plant in Pribor.
Comments
a) The Tatra National Enterprise was created from the Ringhoffer-Tatra Trust in 1945. This trust combined the most important Czechoslovakian railroad car plants. At present the Tatra National Enterprise has the following main plants:
Koprivnice/Nesseldorf Plant formerly Ringhoffer-Tatra Plant
Prague/Smichov Plant formerly Moravian-Silesian Vehicle Corporation
Studenka Plant formerly Moravian-Silesian Vehicle Corporation
Kolin Plant formerly Moravian-Silesian Vehicle Corporation
Ceska Ripa Plant formerly Bohemia Plant
Leroun Plant formerly Ringhoffer Tatra Plant
Ladotin Plant formerly Ferrovia Plant
b. The present work force of the plant is 13,000 man, including about 1,800 officials and clerks.
c. Production is mainly railroad cars, trolley cars, trolley busses, passenger cars and trucks, as well as diesel vehicle engines. Armored reconnaissance cars and tractors were also built in wartime. The monthly railroad car production reached 1,200 units during the highest production period in 1947. The Koprivnice Plant is the largest plant of the Tatra National Enterprise.
d. The annexed sketches show location and layout of the plant.
e. Tatra set up a small airplane department in the Koprivnice Plant shortly before the war, headed by Engineer Tomas, now chief technical designer of the Zlin Aircraft Plant. Only sports planes were produced. This department was later abandoned and it improbable that the Tatra Plant has resumed production, considering the greatly expanded Czechoslovakian aircraft industry and the present labor shortage.
f. After the reorganization of the Czechoslovakian industry, the railroad car plants will be separated from the Tatra National Enterprise, and will become independent national enterprise by 1 January 1950. In addition to the Tatra Plant, the following national enterprises will be established by 1 January 1950:
Kolin Railroad Car Plant, Kolin
Studenka Railroad Car Plant, Studenka
Loehmisch-Leipa Railroad Car Plant, Loehmisch-Leipa
Smichov Railroad Car Plant, Prague/Smichov
2 Annexes: Blueprints, Tatra Plant in Koprivnice, Czechoslovakia.
Legend to Annex 2:
1. Power plant
2. Cooling tower
3. Acid depot
4-5. Material depot
6. Automobile plant
7. New airplane department
8. Workshop building (lathes, milling and drilling machines)
9. Plate depot
10. Tube and plate depot
11. Foundry
12. Molding shop
13. Pattern-making shop
14. Gasworks
15. Gatehouse No.3
16. Gatehouse No.5
17. Drying shop
18. Fire depot
19. Sawmill
20. Railroad car plant (assembly and dispatch)
21. Shipping department (Tatraplan cars)
22. Carpenter shop and manufacture of Tatraplan cars
23. Gatehouse No.2
24. Pressing shop
25. Lathe shop
26. Hardening shop and battery charging station
27. Automobile repair shop
28. Assembly shop (Soviet cars)
29. Screw factory and small pressing shop
30. Automobile repair shop
31. Gatehouse No.1
32. Offices
33. Garages
34. Post office
35. Garages of CSD (Czechoslovakian State Railroad)
36. Plant hotel
37. Apprentices quarters and plant kitchen
38. Officials quarters
39. Gasometer
40. Lakes
41. Lumber yard
Comments: After the end of the Second World War the US began actively planning for war against the Soviet Union. CIA agents and informants fed a constant stream of reports about the state of industry and restoration across the Eastern Bloc. This 1950 report on the status of the nationalized Ringhoffer-Tatra AG in Czechoslovakia provides useful information about the state of the Koprivnice plant and its rapid return to productivity. The Tatra NP suffered no war damage and was not subject to stripping of machinery for reparations and was able to restart production almost immediately after the end of hostilities.
Note: I have added photographs to the CIA report for illustrative purposes. Only the factory plans were included in the original report.
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