Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)

Tibor Laklia: MAORT through the Eyes of a Former Employee

On the basis of the ever more stringent air-defence decree, almost all of us were enlisted to the air-defence service. This seiwice essentially lasted one year, undl the end of the war. Needless to say we executed air-defence stipulations at the plants, but we were hoping that we will not be affected by the bombing. This was not to be: the US Air Force bombed Kerettye on Sunday, July 30,1944. Regulations became more stringent by the hour; naturally anti-aircraft units could not do much else but look at the masses of aeroplanes incoming at high altitude. Fortunately for us, our plant was not attacked any more. The mass distribution of incendiary sheets went into the enemy image. My oil industry know-how developed rapidly. Working at MAORT - accuracy- and discipline above all else - had to be learned in just a few days. There was plenty of opportunity to hear excellent and detailed accounts about real drilling work, the years of the recent past - about Mihályi and Görgeteg - and the reason for this is that László Balázs was among the students who joined the workforce. As a student in Debrecen, he was one to "come home" to his dad's. I had the opportunity to get to know" his father, István Balázs, as a result of our quickly befriending one another. He already had 15 years worth of professional experience at that time. He joined the government drilling efforts on the town's outskirts holding machine operator's/smith's qualifications he obtained in Debrecen, then became a member of the first rotary drilling crew at Mihályi in 1935. He was the one who explained to me (us) the difference between old - precussion - and new - rotary - drilling. He talked about the new' apparatus as "a different world". He also talked a lot about his experiences in Mihályi, then Görgeteg, Inke, and finally at Kerettye. I think this became the school of "MAORT conduct": the rapid learning and application of new know-how, order and discipline on the job on the workers' side; providing for working criteria in terms of machinery and materials (e.g. drill stems, cement, components), in compiling the team that services drilling and its work discipline, as well as in transportation and storage (pipe ramp policy-) on behalf of MAORT. This was also amended bv Pál Krénusz and József Fejér (Görgeteg!), adding different pointsof-view. This was the order being taught and demanded bv Standard's American engineers and tool pushers. This was the order that our young engineers learned, among them our coworkers Zoltán Gvulav and Ödön Alliquander, several of whom were quickly moving towards important positions: István Balázs, László Szőcs, then József Fejér and Pál Krénusz, then still more, but every one of them on the basis of what thev learned in Mihályi. Thev also learned during the very first months that the drilling company pays very good money, but demands performance stringently. This is what our elder, István, called a fair deal, as he put it many a time later on as well. There were three very important events that happened, nonetheless we can sav that these did not change the wav the plant worked, and particularly not its working style. A lot of discussion went on concerning these later on, and not onlv at management level. Based on the "home defence Act" of 1939, the government took over all of MAORT's assets and its full personnel complement for Treasury use on December 20,1941. Paul Ruedemann left Hungary hardly four weeks later, on January 16, 1942. MAORT's facilities were classified as primary (i.e. most important) war plants. So, what did being a "war plant" demand, and what did we get in exchange for it?