Franklin Roosevelt’s “Miracle”, Part II- By Martha Rosen
Franklin Roosevelt’s
“Miracle”, Part II- By Martha Rosen
The Lost History of How FDR And Donald Nelson Launched The Greatest Economic Mobilization In History To Defeat Fascism- October 19, 2020
By Martha Rosen
FDR Memorial, Washington D.C.
“I
fear we have awakened a sleeping giant”. –Japanese Admiral Yamamoto,
immediately after the successful attack on the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
The following is the incredible story of how
a nation under the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt and his team mobilized the
US Economy to defeat fascism internationally.
By 1937 Hitler’s Germany had occupied the
Rhineland and demonstrated his intentions to conquer the rest of Europe. Roosevelt
was hamstrung by the isolationist movement, and a Congress which yearly passed
the US Neutrality Act, maintaining stringent prohibition of
arms sales to countries being threatened by Hitler. Nations which owed the
US money were not able to make arms purchases on credit, therefore, Roosevelt
needed to push through an amendment allowing France and Britain to buy weapons
on a cash only basis.
Hitler continued his onslaught,
taking Czechoslovakia in September 1938. A year later, Poland fell to
Hitler. This was followed by Hitler's Blitzkrieg invasion of France in
March of 1940 followed by a near catastrophe for the British at the Battle of
Dunkirk two weeks later.
At this point, it was clear that there was
no avoiding a Second World War. With the signing of the Lend Lease Act, on
January 10, 1941 FDR finally had the political power to begin to transform the
United States economy for war. On June 21, 1941 Hitler invaded the Soviet
Union.
In the back of Roosevelt's mind he knew that the
infrastructure the country was building under the New Deal would be required
for the United States to fight and defeat fascism on three fronts, Germany,
Japan and Mussolini's Italy.
On March 11, 1941, ten months before the Japanese bombed
Pearl Harbor Roosevelt called Donald Nelson, the Chief Merchandizing Executive
of Sears Roebuck into his office, discussed the crisis facing the world and
asked Nelson if he would begin planning the largest mobilization of a civilian
economy to wage war. The planning began.
Now you may ask, “why did FDR choose
Nelson?” For those who have never looked at an old Sears and Roebuck
catalogue, it was similar to Amazon today. People in the countryside, living
far away from cities, could order anything, from every kind of farm equipment,
to tractors, shoes, pots and pans, mattresses, needles and thread to Victrolas,
couches and reading lamps. ...”it was my job to know where almost
everything in this country was manufactured, how much and how well...yet
militarily we were a disaster” .[ Donald Nelson. Arsenal for
Democracy p.35]
"Hitler referred with great respect
in Mein Kampf to the "American Colossus ". Nevertheless, he wasn't
afraid of the United States. He underestimated the potential of the US to
mobilize our industrial production in time to reverse the overwhelming effect of
his conquest of the continent. Hitler, we were informed, was convinced that
cutthroat competition amongst American manufacturers under the free enterprise
system would prevent them from getting together, pooling their resources,
sharing their equipment and trade secrets, and operating as a team soon enough
to disturb his time table". [Ibid p. 36].
Yet this is exactly what Donald Nelson with the complete backing
of the President did. "The enemy had a head start of 10 years in
mobilizing all of his resources, for the sole purpose of building an invincible
military machine". [National Geographic, “The Miracle of War
Production,” Albert Atwood p 693].
The Japanese, who were waging war
against Asia and especially China, were "imitating the Germans" [Nelson].
Germany had reorganized its entire economy for what was called
"timetable war”."It was mapped out in complete scientific detail.
The fundamental requirements were the drilling of a mass army and
militarizing the entire economy, determining the synthesis of weapons which
could be most effectively used to smash the powers backward in military
affairs, and accumulating an armament beyond anything ever before imagined,
besides organizing raw materials, manpower, food production-in fact every item
on the national balance sheet-for the sole purpose of making war. This was
probably the first completely coldly scientific conception of totalitarian war.
" "...we have testimony of the German experts themselves-a
date would be set for the start of war". “Blitzkrieg,” [Nelson p
44].
By 1939 German industrial production was
greater than ALL other powers put together. Germany had 40,000 planes
including 3,353 bombers to Japan 660 to the United States with
301. Germany had 10,500 Tanks, 20 motorized divisions, 135,000 trucks,
60,000 motorcycles. The United States has 500 tanks. Germany had 7
Million battle tested soldiers, the United States had 370,000 active, 170,000
reserves.
Our military was a disaster. "Supplies in
our arsenals were so low that later the newly created "Citizens"
army trained with wooden guns. The soldiers "fired" field
pieces which have stove pipes for barrels. “Almost anything on 4
wheels served a tank in war games". [Nelson, p 40]. Our military
had little or nothing..no anti aircraft guns, small arms, field
artillery, tanks, planes, uniforms. Forget supplies. We had potential.
The country faced critical shortages of raw
materials, especially rubber and aluminum, through Roosevelt had pushed a bill
through Congress authorizing appropriations for stockpiling of strategic
materials in 1939. The Japanese had gained control of countries which had
provided the country with rubber, while in the U.S. the J.P. Morgan and
Rockefeller interests, the Harrimans and the DuPonts, all of whom had financial
interests in Nazi Germany, were also supporting the U.S. Isolationist
Movement, which accused Roosevelt of scheming to start another European
war.
"America First" Isolationists
The attack on Pearl Harbor by
the Japanese and the declaration of war against the United States by Hitler
removed any impediment to Roosevelt's war mobilization. Congress acted quickly,
and the first War Powers Act of December 18, 1941 gave Roosevelt wide authority
for the setting up the War Production Board under Donald Nelson.
Retooling and Reconversion-The Science Driver
WANTED AN AIRPLANE EVERY 4 MINUTES.
Ford Willow Auto Factory--Retooled For Aircraft
There is no doubt that the most dramatic
single transformation and reconversion of any industry in this country was the
automobile industry and its feeder industries. We are talking about 986
factories in 31 States. Factories were completely shut down and no cars were
produced again until after the war ended. Taken together, the auto industry
operated the largest machine shop in the world, producing airplanes, anti
aircraft guns, shells, airplane parts, military trucks, escort cars, jeeps,
military trucks, and all types of military artillery.
Women, Building Aircraft, 1942
“In July of 1941, the President
sent Merrill C. “Babe” Meigs to London with the complete schedules of our
airplane productions-when the planes were to come, and where they were coming
from. He matched our schedules with those of the British and sold them the idea
of pooling our patents, secret data on planes, performance, and so one to ours.
It was at this time that the British sent over their drawings of jet engines
which our manufacturers used in building the first jet fighters.” [Nelson p137].
In March of 1941, the Willow Ford plant
began to be built, becoming the largest plant built for the war effort. The
parking lot capacity alone was for 30,000 cars. The plant included an
immense field for testing. As the Willow Run plant began production, over 5,000
machine tools were under one roof. Machine tools that were as big as
houses were built and used. One assembly room was the size of 4 football
fields. Without machine tools no plant or equipment could be built. For
example, the engine for the Wright Cyclone 14 aircraft was composed of 3,500
different parts, totaling 8,500 pieces, requiring an estimated 80,000 machine
operations.
In the October 1,1942 issue of Automotive
and Aviation Industries magazine, George H Johnson, then president of the
National Association of Machine Tool Builders wrote, "One of the
most difficult and important assignments given the machine tool industry was
the design and building of hundreds of special-purpose machines needed to
convert the aircraft engine industry for small-lot to mass production. At the
right is (picture) of a specially designed machine which drills, countersink
and spot faces 224 identical three-eighths holes in an aluminum airplane engine,
crankcase. It works simultaneously on 32 holes for two different
directions. These operations previously took two hours 12 minutes. This one
machine now completes the job in 23 minutes".
Government credit was made available through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, set up in 1932. Under Jesse Jones, credit was funneled for the construction of new plant and equipment.
Contrary to popular belief, the war buildup was not carried
out by simply using "idle capacity". New scientific and technological
breakthroughs were crucial in winning the war, resulting in transforming the
United States into the greatest science driven economy in the world. Although
rationing occurred during the war, the standard of living in terms of salaries,
health and nutritional needs increased as never before. Food consumption alone
increased by up to 25%.
The Retooling Of the Auto Industry
Between July 1940 and August 31 1945 the
United States turned out almost 300,000 military aircraft, 800,000 propellers.
The evolution in manufacturing of airplanes went from handcraft to mass
production. In 1940, 13,000 planes were built, half being military planes. By
1945 96,000 airplanes were being produced yearly. Specialty precision tools had
to be invented and mass produced. Subcontractors of mass production parts
allowed smaller companies to stay in business. It's been estimated that over
160,000 subcontractors were used in the aircraft industry alone. Heading up the
retooling of the auto industry was the then former head of General Motors,
William S. Knudsen who ran Roosevelt's National Defense Advisory Board.
Taking a lesson from the Germans, the Office
of Production and Management reduced the number of airplane models from 55 to
4. Designs became so elastic that changes in tooling could easily be done, and
pilot engineers in war could repair planes using spare parts from scrap planes
insuring the maximum number of planes were in operation at any given
time.
Without Labor There Is No War Effort!
Also contrary to popular myth, the war
mobilization did not simply absorb the unemployed labor force into the war
economy. From 1939 through 1944, the United States armed forces grew from
370,000 to 11.4 million, but at the same time the manufacturing labor force
grew by 7.3 million or 70%. By 1947, even after the war was over the
manufacturing labor force was 15.6 million, a 50% increase over the 1939 level.
Between 1941 and 1942 three million people were trained. More than 90% of all
workers had to be trained.
Workers Arriving At Shipyard
Toward the end of 1943, the major shortage
in the aircraft industry was labor. This problem was partially solved by
employing women, dropping the color barriers so that the African American
population could be employed and the hiring of "unemployables"
especially midgets. (Small people were necessary to do the intricate close in
work in aircraft assembly where only they could fit. MZR) Changes and upgrading of technologies not
only sped up production but upgraded the labor force. Switching from riveting
to welding and casting steel instead of forging sped up production.
African American Women Training For Factory Production
Schooling Follows The Assembly Line
The training of the workforce which made up
the civilian workforce "is one of the most colossal educational
undertakings the world has ever known". [“The Miracle of War
Production,” National Geographic, December 1942 by Albert W.Atwood].
In Flint Michigan, "there came Privates from the
Army to study aircraft engines and their instruction proceeded on an
assembly line basis. For weeks they are lectured to the principles of
engineering, horsepower, fuel consumption, and mechanical fundamentals.
Then they go for a week into an adjoining room where they take down and build
up the simplest parts from the engine again and again. Week by week, in a
successive room, they take down and build increasing more difficult portions
until in the final week in the last of the rooms they disassemble and assemble
the entire power plant." [ibid Atwood p. 709]
IN 1941 a “Training Within Industry” branch
was set up within the Labor Division of the office of Production Management
renamed later the War Production Board. The branch made surveys and recommended
the training of 2,000 war contractors. Along with this, a job instructor
project was set up. By February of 1942 this programs had trained 3,300,000
workers.
"The training program begins with the instruction of a man
to the metal which he must handle. He is first taught to drill it and form it
accurately. If he manifests a marked aptitude for welding his education
turned in that direction. But, since drilling, forming and riveting constitute
a major portion of the operations, the trainees are schooled in these arts
through a step-by-step progression from one workbenches to another. Each day
they are given about 90 minutes of classroom instruction in shop mathematics,
blueprint reading etc". "After they have mastered metal
forming, drilling and counter sinking, they are taught riveting alone-and in
teams...in this complete course, the final lessons are learned by actual
construction of a complete bomber section. But, before the trainees build a
plane section, they disassembled one previously built by the preceding
class".
"Though it was predicted last spring that workers could not
be trained in less than 300 hours, these methods have already proved that good
functional workers can be trained in 80 hours". One hundred fifty
Universities and Colleges, 1,200 Vocational Schools and 850 Work Projects
operated by the National Youth Administration were used in training.
By the end of the war 20% of the industrial labor force were
women and 39.2% of all workers in industries classified as "crucial"
were women. Although massively underrepresented in the workforce during the war
due to racism, by 1944 blacks held 7.5% of all the jobs in war industries,
" which was less than their share of the population but still a
major improvement"
[Minorities and Women During World War II, text taken from A Democracy at War
William O'Neil... cds.library.brown.edu...this is an excellent reference on
racial and sexual discrimination during the war. MZR]
From a workforce of 48,638 aircraft workers
in 1939, workforce employment grew to a peak of 2,100,000 by 1943, employing
12.4% of all manufacturing employees in the country.
Shipbuilding to Supply Our Troops And
Half The World
At the onset of the War 1942
the country had 1,000 oceangoing ships with a 2,000 tonnage capability. German
U-Boats had already been systematically targeting our supply ships heading to
England, even before our official entry into WWII. Building new capacity was
crucial given that by the onset of the war the sinking of ships and tankers
outran new construction. Switching from welding to riveting was of great
importance, making our ships lighter and faster and thus enabling our cargo
ships to out run German and Japanese submarines.
Roosevelt ordered that 2,000 new tankers, freighters, and
cargo-passenger ships be built by 1943 in order to insure that we could supply
not only our troops but our allies.
FDR Touring WWII Shipyard
The shipbuilding process was standardized, and every ship built
was the same with over 250,000 items going in to build a single
ship. “Several thousand plans, {blueprints MZR} many
of them 10 or 15 feet long,... were brought into the big room. This loft …was
more than 600 feet long. On this floor was a life sized diagram of the ship to
be built. From this big picture loft men were making templates, or patterns, of
almost every piece of hull, or frame, that would go into the new ship. Made of
thin wood or paper…All of the plans and blueprints for the new battleship here
weighed about 40 tons and would fill three or four boxcarts.”
Workers Deployed on Retooling Blueprints
Pre-assembled parts as well as new welding techniques were used,
helping to reduce the building of Liberty ships from 10 months in WWI to 40
days at the height of WWII production. "The productivity gains in
shipbuilding were so prodigious that the deadweight tonnage of the U.S. went
from 10.5 million tons in 1939 to 53 million tons in 1945. By VE Day, the
United States had turned out the equivalent of two thirds of the entire ongoing
merchant marine of all the Allied countries". Between the German's and the
Japanese they sunk 1,500 merchant supply ships”. [National Geographic 1942
“As 2,000 Ships are Born” by Frederick Simpich p. 553-554].
Merchant Marine Fleet, Loaded With Provisions
By the time Germany surrendered, we had
built 5,200 large seagoing vessels, with a dead tonnage weight of 53,000,000
tons. The largest bottleneck was lack of shipbuilding yards. This problem was
solved with the building of 18 new yards on the east and west coast with a
capacity to build 300 ships. The building of new shipping capacity was
imperative. Many shipyards built whole neighborhoods of prefabricated homes for
their employees or brought in trailers for their single workers. 10% of the
workforce was women.
Once again, subcontracted parts
came from all over the country… pumps, valves, anchors, chains, compasses,
radio sets, deck wenches, you name it. To get an idea of what the inside of an
oil tanker had to include, take a visual tour through the crew cabins built for
two men. “Each man has his own clothes locker and also a private safety
box. Each cabin had a writing table with a hooded reading lamp. All
living quarters had hot and cold water and ice water for drinking, mechanical
ventilation bringing 15 full changes of air every hour. This tank could
haul 129,000 barrels of fuel-her pumps could load and unload her in 16 hrs”. [National
Geographic. “ As 2,000 Ships are Born”, by Frederick Simpich p. 575 ].
"The industrial parts and equipment were produced in 503
industrial factories located in 31 States. From these concerns the products may
be sent to any one of 43 shipyards located in 21 widely separate States." [ibid p. 587].
To get a sense of the scale of what the US accomplished with
their shipbuilding program, consider this fact: "By VE Day we had
turned out just about the equivalent of 2/3 of the entire ocean going merchant
marine of all of the nations that afterwards became the United Nations".
[Nelson, p 243].
Once again, the two major bottlenecks in
production schedules were manpower and the shortage of raw materials and steel
plates. In steel plating alone, what was required per shipyard per month was no
fewer than 763 different kinds of steel plates and 455 different steel shapes.
If steel for top decks and deck houses arrived first it lay idle and
construction stopped until the steel for the keel and the side plates were
delivered.
On April 4, 1942 President
Roosevelt called a conference to reorganize shipbuilding priorities. The
planned landing of Africa would require landing craft which had not even been
designed. North Africa was invaded November of 1942...seven months after
building priorities were set. "It was going to call for accurate
coordination of the flow of materials and components, an immense task which the
Navy had had very little previous experience. And the manufacturers and workers
who were to build these vessels had had little or no experience". [Nelson]
During the last 6 months of 1942 landing craft production
tonnage amounted to 20 times what had been delivered the previous months
before.
You Can't Work and Fight On An Empty Stomach
Among our other unsung heroes in the battle to win
WWII are the farmers. "Besides the pile of food sent to our own
armed forces, whole fleet loads go overseas, through the Lend Lease
program." [Nelson]
In one month we shipped more than 400
million pounds of food, and each month the pound shipments increased while
simultaneously German U boats and Japanese submarines keep on sinking our
freighter ships.
In 1942 farmers grew 30 billion
pounds of potatoes, and hens laid 50 billion eggs. The amount of meat, vegetables,
milk, grain, eggs, oil was enough to keep England in the war. [National
Geographic April 1943, “Farmers keep them Eating” by Frederick Simpich].
American farmers supplied 1/4 of all protein eaten by the English. With
Germany's invasion of Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, the British lost
3/4 of its bacon, eggs, and dried milk.
WWII Poster-- "Feed Our Boys"!
An Average American Freighter Carried the Following:
6,000 barrels of dried eggs- equal to a year’s work of 229,137
hens.
6,000 barrels of dried milk - a year’s work of 2,783 cows
16,522 cases of evaporated milk-a year’s work of 304 cows
20,000 boxes of cheese- a year’s work of 3,037 cows
14,500 cans of pork meat- from 5,021 hogs
16,800 boxes of lard- the fat of 27,623 hogs
6,061 sacks of flour-the wheat from 838 acres
26,111 cases of canned vegetables-from 40 acres of tomatoes,100
acres of snap beans and 102 acres of peas.
One ship load took then production of 3,824 farmers. [ibid p
435].
Food was delivered to ALL of our allies, the
European countries, the British, Russians, Indians and French fighters. Food
was sent throughout North Africa, the South Pacific, and the Near East. While
British troops were stationed in Malta, Colombo and Freetown, we fed them.
While the Russians were stationed in Murmansk, to the Caucasus, American
farmers fed them. U.S. farmers were asked to produce 300 BILLION pounds of food
a year. [ibid p 436].
It took 26,900,000 man hours of work to
build a 35,000 ton battleship, and it took 42,000 acres of food to feed those
workers.
To fire a 16 inch gun ONCE, it required 680
pounds of smokeless powder made from 476 pounds of cotton linters (fuzz of
shirt fibers that adhere to cottonseed after ginning) and alcohol from one and
one half acres of wheat or one fifth of one acre of sugar cane.
The U.S., with 56 million sheep did not have
enough wool to clothe our civilian population plus our soldiers and sailors. We
needed to produce about 1 billion tons a year for jackets, uniforms, socks, fleece
lined coats, pants, helmets etc.
Huge amounts of leather were required for
shoe production. Soldiers in North Africa were going through a pair of shoes
every two weeks.
Massive amounts of lubricants were needed
to produce paint for ships, tanks, and planes. Lubricants were needed to
maintain metal parts from rusting, while rope production was needed given that
hemp from Manila had been cut off by the Japanese. [ibid p. 445]
Our farmers in 1942 raised 105 million hogs. Three billion bushels of corn were grown for feed. The Hormel Corporation, which invented Spam in the 1930’s produced 15 million cans each week, using 1.6 million hogs a year. 90% of Spam produced went to the Army.[livinghistoryfarm.org Farmers Produce More Good for War in WWII].
Dehydration of Food- A World War II Innovation
"No
phase in the gigantic task of raising, packing, and shipping food is more
dramatic and important than the amazing growth of egg, meat and vegetable
dehydration ". A 500 pound beef carcass reduced to 60-70 pounds. Canning
of vegetables became difficult because of the shortage of metal, so fruits and
vegetables were dehydrated, and after dehydration, food that would have
filled 1,044 ships could be packed into 170 ships. [ibid p. 450-be
packed into 170 ships. [ibid p. 450-451]
K-Rations and Canned
Meat, Provisions for the Frontlines
The Labor Shortage Crisis
The United States faced the same problem
allocating scarce resources to the farm sector, which was being faced by the
need to replace worn out machinery, lack of transportation, storage and labor
shortages. In fact labor shortages became so acute in the farm sector in 1942
that thousands of dairy farmers sold their herds to butchers and went out of
business.
Part of the reason for labor shortages was
wages. The family farmer was unable to pay the same kind of wages pay in
wartime factories. It became imperative to improve the productivity of farm
equipment.
In 1942, the farm sector set out to harvest
sugar beets. Volunteer workers, students, towns people, teachers and state
officials came out. "Japanese evacuees from the west-coast were
relocated to Heart Mountain, Wyoming to help harvest beets". [“The
Great Plains during WWII”, plainshumanities.un/.edu]
Meanwhile, as labor shortages became
critical Mexicans and Mexican Americans were sought out. "In 1942
the government negotiated an agreement with Mexico to support the temporary
migration of workers to aid farmers with certain needs, and who met specific
wage, housing and working regulations. This agreement became effective August
4, 1942, farmers and agricultural officials referred to it as the Bracero
Program".
Mexican Workers Recruited to Bracero Program
"Between August 1943 and August 1945 approximately 20,000
Mexicans worked in the Bracero Program". Still Mexican labor was not
able to fulfill farm labor need”. [ibid].
In February of 1943 women entered the farm
labor force en masse. Secretary of
Agriculture Claude T. Wickard, a former Great Plains farmer, asked that the
extension service develop a program for the recruitment of women for farm work.
The Woman's Land Army was created recruiting 2 million women to it nationwide.
The WLA recruited women, sent them to short courses in college to learn how to
tend chickens, milk cows, and carry out other farm labor. Female labor was
extensively used in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Women's Land Army, At Work During Harvest
"Nearly 230,000 foreign workers from
Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados, Newfoundland, and Canada were imported
to perform farm jobs.
Approximately 265,000 prisoners of war were
involved in some stage of agricultural production between 1943 and 1945. Eight
thousand military personnel were furloughed to do emergency farm work in North
Dakota, Maine and New York, and servicemen were granted furloughs to work at
planting and harvesting on their home farms. About 62 thousand conscientious
objectors worked at either seasonal or full time agricultural jobs during the
war years, and some 26,000 Americans of Japanese descent were used in seasonal
jobs on a furlough basis from their relocation centers 1942-44.". [“To the Rescue of the Crops”. By Judy
Narrett Litoff and David C Smith, National Archives].
You Can't Win A War Without Rubber
WWII, unlike WWI was a highly motorized and
mechanized war and would be won or lost depending on the countries supply of
rubber. It was clear to President Roosevelt and Donald Nelson even before the
U.S. involvement in the war that rubber producing areas in the South Pacific,
which were controlled by the Dutch, British and French, would fall to the
Japanese.
World rubber at that time was 1,300,000 tons
a year and U.S. consumption was about half of the worlds capacity. "Rubber
was just about as essential to mobilizing of modern as was petroleum." Nelson,
p. 38 “Arsenal of Democracy”].
In 1940, FDR
formed the Rubber Reserve Company (RRC) to begin stockpiling rubber, conserving
rubber within the U.S. by reducing speed limits and begin collecting scrap
rubber. Even with government direction under the Strategic Raw Materials Act,
little was done to stockpile rare and essential commodities, including rubber.
With the Japanese takeover of the South Pacific Rim countries we lost 90% of
our rubber.
Firestone Rubber Plant, Cleveland Ohio
In August of 1942 Roosevelt appointed the
Rubber Survey Committee to solve this crisis. Putting industry, and scientific
minds to work, Roosevelt's government built 51 government run synthetic rubber
plants, while fighting Standard Oil of NJ, who together with IG Farben of Nazi
Germany fame, refused to release its patent on synthetic rubber for the war.
"There was a real danger the war would be lost unless American scientists
and technologists were able to replace almost 1 million tons of natural rubber
with synthetic substitute within 18 months" [U.S. Synthetic
Rubber Program. acs.org].
These factories produced 70,000 tons of rubber a month as
production came on line. The first synthetic rubber factory was built and
brought on line in 287 days, the quickest engineering and construction job in
history. By the end of the war, synthetic rubber provided 87% of all U.S.
rubber needs.
"The construction of 1 military plane
used 1/2 a ton of rubber, a tank needed about 1 ton and a battle ship 75 tons.
Each person in the military required 32 pounds of rubber for footwear, clothing
and equipment. Tires were needed for all vehicles and aircraft". [ibid].
Tanks, and More Tanks...And a Mobile Military
The automobile industry was not simply
retooled to build airplanes, but also heavy transport military vehicles and
tanks. It was not until after 9 months after Hitler invaded Poland that
Chrysler Corporation, the nation’s first tank manufacturer, received the first
set of blueprints for tanks, and the first models were not finished until the
spring of 1941. Yet, by 1943, 18 companies were producing tanks, armored cars
or combat vehicles including the now famous jeep, while at the same time making
parts for tractor companies and railroad companies.
Tank Factory, Chrysler Plant
Chrysler developed a new welding process
which involved a tremendous revolving jig that weighed as much as then tank
itself. The jig, which made possible end to end and side to side rotation from
the tank hull, permitted down-hand welding which greatly sped up
production.
Like the airplane, the tank was highly
specialized and a complicated assembly job. Its primary components were
engines, transmissions, clutches, threads, and armored plates, but it also
required radio apparatus and innumerable gadgets. Tanks were fitted with guns,
flame throwers and other weapons. The country produced 100,000 tanks.
The Unsung Heroes Of The War- The Quarter Masters
"In all the long, exciting annals of
our Army, from Valley Forge to Bataan, no force has played a more important
role than the Quarter Master Corps. Like the words of Army doctors, however,
its great and gallant deeds are often unsung." "He
feeds, clothes, hauls, comforts a whole Army, shooting with one hand and
working with another. " [QM, “The Fighting
Storekeeper” by Frederick Simpich National Geographic Nov 1942 p. 561].
Heading up this distribution army was General
Edmund B Gregory, and under his command every soldier, sailor, pilot, tanker,
logistics person both male and female was clothed, fed, housed and entertained.
Everything went through the QM.
"The grim, significant thought is,
we would lose the war, instantly, but for the QM. Without his vast ambidextrous
corps of worker-fighter men not a wheel could turn. From the lack of gas, which
QM handles, not a tank could run or a plane fly. But for the QM's care and
skill in planning the movement of supplies, whole army divisions might starve,
freeze, or die of thirst .
"Only now details from Bataan trickle
out. With what grim genius those fighting quarter masters scored that
impoverished peninsula for food. As famine spread, they thrashed the rice from
peasant fields and made salt from sea water. They killed first their carabaos,
or work buffalo's, then they slaughtered their own horses and mules that hungry
soldiers might fight on." [ ibid, p. 561]
"He's the world's biggest purchasing
exporter, and delivery boy (the Philadelphia QM depot covered 100 acres and
stocked about 500,000,000 articles)".[ ibid p. 572]
"Rommel (Hitler’s
top tank commander MZR) got into Egypt only because his supply and
repair crews raced ahead, along with his fighters....the army today has more
truck drivers than it had soldiers when Hitler took the warpath. [ibid
p. 563] "QM has to keep up with troops hurling forward at the rate
of 100 to 200 miles a day." [ ibid p. 564].
Donald Nelson and his team, working with the
United States military, deployed our industrial machine to provide EVERYTHING
our troops needed to win the war, and our workforce produced it all.
We end this section with this incredible quote from Simpich's
article page 572.
"Finding these 66 items for clothes
for every man, as the army multiplies into more millions, is a tremendous
task. Harder yet for the QM is buying or making all the "trick"
suits and special garments the Army needs for men who must fight miles up in
the air, in the freezing Artic, in cold mud and rain, or in the hot, steamy
tropics. Unusual things required included:
Asbestos gloves for handling hot machine guns.
Lambskin muffs for cold-weather use by motorcyclists.
Cool but waterproof coats for a equatorial lands.
Twin gloves of wool and leather for Armored Force soldiers who
must drive the hell buggies in cold countries.
Special cowhide gloves for Commandos who must sneak ashore and
cut the enemy's barbed- wire entanglements.
Reversible ski suits, snow-white on one side and green on the
other, for fooling the enemy in either snow drifts or pine forests.
Also, special hats, goggles, parkas and sleeping bags.
Electrical heated underwear and flying suits. These items are
among the new demands made now on QM tailors. To develop this special underwear
a scientist slept out of doors when it was 30 below Zero covered only with a
sheet, with electrical wires in it for heating".
Without Steel There Is No Victory
We had steel, we had lots of steel to
rebuild the country's infrastructure for the New Deal, and we had steel for
cars, house hold appliances. Yes, we had steel, but it was not enough. At the
onset of the war the United States was producing 66,983,000 net tons a year to
Germany's 28,150,000 but we would need more steel especially since the steel
mills were producing 3/8 inch strip steel which was not any good for making
ships, tanks and other war weapons. We would need to retool to produce 5/8 inch
plate production. "The mills needed new cutting machinery
and much bigger cooling yards...Furthermore, it was a rule of the industry
that only one ton shapes was needed for three tons outstrips, but three tons of
shapes were required for one ton of plates". To build one tank
18 tons of metal were required, and to build one large navy ship more than 900
tons were required. [Nelson, “Arsenal” p. 143].
US Steel Works Gary Indiana
Although authorization came through to
increase production by September of 1941, the Industrial Materials Divisions
report on the countries increased need was not placed before the war Production
Board until March of 1942, and the amount of increase of steel production was
cut by 3 million tons. The steel industry was not going to invest in new
production.
FDR intervened, increasing spending by
1,223 billion dollars to upgrade 183 steel and pig iron plants, adding the new
capacity. Electric furnaces were built to produce quality steel needed for the
production of machine tools, precision machines, and some varieties of tanks
and airplane engines. Innovations and new inventions came on line substitute
copper for other materials, the nation’s scientists innovated, and the country
produced.
The main tonnage of steel came from
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Massachusetts. Bethlehem Steel alone employed 283,765 people.
"Bethlehem Steel supplied the United States military with much needed supplies. A few weeks after Pearl Harbor was bombed, Bethlehem Steel had $1.3 billion in orders to make all sorts of military supplies including bomb casings, armor piercing shells, gun forgings, airplane parts, and warships. Bethlehem Steel made parts for the radial, air-cooled engines mounted on all of the Navy planes. Bethlehem Steel also made parts for all of the Army Air Corps Bombers, and they made forgings for submarine air flasks. Bethlehem Steel produced 70 percent of all airplane cylinder forgings, one-fourth of the warships' armor plates, and one-third of the cannon forgings, during World War II. Bethlehem Steel's most important production was the production of steel ships. Bethlehem Steel produced 1,127 ships for World War II. The plant trained thousands of workers to build the ships. Bethlehem Steel made almost every part of the ship too, not just the frame. They made the engines and the armor plates that protected the engines. Bethlehem Steel also produced the guns and shells used on the ships. It was responsible for making one-fifth of the entire US Navy's fleet. Pennsylvania industries also produced radio crystals, parachutes, rations, and 100-octane aircraft fuel."[salutetofreedom.org PA The National WWII Museum. “A Salute to Freedom” by Hannah Hakim].
By the end of the war the country had produced 434 BILLION tons of steel.
We Repurposed
It is impossible to calculate the tonnage
of scrap produced by industry in the form of dormant, idle machinery, abandoned
buildings, etc, or from general salvage, nevertheless, it is safe to assume
that the quantity of materials which would have otherwise not have been
available was produced, under the supervision of the Salvage Division of the
War Production Board was about 6,000,000 tons a year.
“Between February 1, 1942 and February 1,
1943 the number of cars in automobile junkyards was reduced from an estimated
total of 1,500,000 cars to 400,000. In 1943, 1,464,789 tons of iron and steel
scrap were moved from wrecker yards. From March 1942 to 1944 3,172,951 tons of
scrap metal were taken from 15,072 construction sites, abandoned
railroads, unused street car tracks, bridges, mines, buildings, oil wells,
sunken vessels, lumbering equipment, etc” [D..Nelson Arsenal p. 352]
The American people did their part recycling everything.
From scraps of food, to newspapers, scrap metal, tires, grease, stockings, clothing,
and many people removed bumpers and fenders from their cars. There were pots
and pans, metal toys, old farm equipment, scrap rubber, newspapers, old iron
beds, cardboard, old magazines, you name it.
Boys Recycling Used Tires
Aluminum
Without the aluminum industry the United States
couldn't have won the war, and without the TVA, and Coulee Dam, built during
the New Deal (See. Martha Rosen article) we would not have had the
electricity to produce what the country needed. Production of aluminum until
WWII never exceeded 100 million tons. Aluminum is tough but lighter than steel
making it preferable in the building of planes and ships. As a result
of the U.S. government building of aluminum plants, production
skyrocketed to 2,782 tons.
Machine Tools
In 1938, the U.S. produced 34,000 machine tools
In 1942, the U.S. produced 307,000 machine tools.
Electricity
In 1939, 79 billion kw hours were consumed by
manufacturing
In 1945, 144.3 billion kw hours were consumed by
manufacturing thanks to the massive dam and water control projects of the New
Deal.
High Octane Gasoline
The U.S. government built 45 plants to
produce high octane gasoline for our Airforce and synthetic rubber
industry.
Penicillin
Penicillin was introduced in 1941 saving the lives
of millions of soldiers world wide. By 1945 penicillin was made available to
civilians.
WE Produced
41 billion rounds of ammunition
434 billion tons of steel
36 billion yards of cotton textiles
300,000 war planes
124,000 ships of all types
100,000 tanks....and
45% of the WORLD'S industrial and agricultural output.
This was what the United States, under
the Presidential leadership of Franklin D, Roosevelt accomplished.
It is worth taking a moment to reflect
on this, not simply from the standpoint of the sheer enormity of the numbers,
tonnage, output, expenditure, or employment statistics. Consider the
possibility that the potential to accomplish something along these lines still
exists in the American population, provided they are given the leadership and
opportunity to do so.
The American people, given their
history, past accomplishments, and their inherent “Scientific and Technological
Optimism” have the potential, as did the Americans of 1941, to once again
awaken, and become “economic giants” , this time with a mission to rebuild and
reconstruct the United States, and assist in the development of the World. This
is what Franklin Roosevelt was already thinking about and planning, well before
the end of WWII. He planned to use the enormous industrial and agricultural
capacity of the US to continue the Wartime style mobilization, but not for War.
Rather, he intended to harness US economic power to a global development plan,
to raise the standard of living for the majority of the world’s downtrodden
people, who were both victims of the War, and the economic exploitation of
Colonialism. FDR’s plan for doing that in the Post War period will be the
subject of our Part III, coming soon.
