[MrFixr55]

Seems to me that this a general purpose or radio filament 6V battery of very high amp-hour capacity and very high "cold cranking" amps.  There are 3 cells with external bus bars connecting them.  Apparently, they brought out more than 1 pair of terminals for each 2V cell and the bus bars parallel these cells. If used for high current applications, I suspect that the battery was placed in series with other batteries.  I am not sure but I believe that many military vehicles were either 12V or 24V as many of the vehicle mounted radio equipment was designed for either 12V or 24V DC.

I can't read the lettering on the battery.  If specifically for the military, there would be a "boilerplate" stating the government agency contracting for the battery, the manufacturer and the contact number, as well as the nomenclature for the part, such as Battery, Storage, 6V 180 AH or similar to that.

The case may be "pitch".

Where is this "WWII Site"?  They did the environment a favor by unearthing the battery.  However, they need to be careful as there may be toxic or explosive material on site.

Yes, the original name for Philco was the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company.  Their second iteration.  Prior to the name change to Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, they were the Helios Electric Company, manufacturing carbon arc lamps, which preceded incandescent lamps.

From Wikipedia:

Philco was founded in 1892 as Helios Electric Company.[6] From its inception until 1904, the company manufactured carbon-arc lamps. As this line of business slowly floundered over the last decade of the 19th century, the firm experienced increasingly difficult times. As the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, in 1906 it began making batteries for electric vehicles. They later supplied home charging batteries to the infant radio industry. The Philco brand name appeared in 1919.[7]

The rest is history.  After manufacturing batteries, chargers and "B" Battery eliminators, Philco started manufacturing radios of the TRF type, and eventually Superhets.  The Model 20 was a watershed model that helped place Philco in first place in radio sales for many years, and initiated the "Cathedral" radio style.

More can be learned about Philco from the History tab in our own Philco Library.  Click the Philco Library tab on our website home page, then click History.

A link is here:
History – Philco Library

Below is a link to Chapter 4, "Diversification and War" from the History section of the Philco Library:
https://philcoradio.com/library/index.ph...n-and-war/

The most important products made by Philco during WWII were Radar instruments and proximity fuses, but Philco manufactured other military materials such as vacuum tubes, CRTs, wave meters and even filing cabinets.  The Storage Battery division was still in business in Trenton, NJ, so it is possible that Philco was producing batteries for the military, as well as for civilian use.

Edited 04/30/25 by MrFixr55 to add info. The 1943 Philco Annual Report confirms that Philco did, indeed, manufacture various storage batteries for the military during WWII