War Admiral

War Admiral, produced by Bell Products Company in 1943, is an electro-mechanical pinball machine from the middle of World War II. It was a conversion of one of three earlier Bally games -- 'Grand Stand,' 'Grand National,' or 'Pace Maker' -- reflecting the common wartime practice of refitting existing games rather than manufacturing new ones from scratch amid material shortages.

Specific gameplay features and design details of War Admiral are not well documented in surviving records. As with other EM machines of its era, it predates the 1947 invention of the flipper, so play would have relied on bumpers, targets, and skillful nudging rather than player-controlled flippers.

Given its age and relatively undocumented status, few records exist on War Admiral's design, art, or theme. However, as an artifact from wartime America, the machine represents a tangible connection to a pivotal period in pinball's history, when manufacturers found creative ways to keep producing games despite material restrictions.