In reality WWII started with the Japanese in China in the late '30s. The Iowa-cl*** battleships were contracted in 1938. Likewise a lot of other hardware we went to war with in the '42-43 timeframe. The m***ive scaling of production capacity started with the French, British, Dutch, etc. military buys in the late '30s, it was already in progress on 12/7/41 but not quite in high gear yet.
Cool stuff. You wonder what alternative production plans manufacturers (or the DoD) have now-a-days...
Wow, I was looking at Ohio's manufacturing. There was a lot going on that was vastly different inside those facilities. It must have been crazy to go from tires to turrets or motorcycles to munitions or even refrigerators to .50 cal machine guns.
My wife works at a agriculture equipment supplier that has been around since 1936 and during the war they ***embled jeeps, the conveyor tracks are still in one of the buildings ceiling right next to the RR tracks to load them for shipment.
A fellow I used to work with (now deceased) told me he was part of these ******s for the Allies before Pearl Harbor, he was discharged some where around August/Sept. of 1941 and recalled after Pearl for 4 more years.
yea ive been back and forth on it but the hellcat can do. ive been actually looking for blueprints most of the day.
Thanks and this does explain it. Very interesting to learn some more details on this. Here is something I find pretty interesting from the article: 1. "Officially ***led An Act Further to Promote the Defense of the United States, the Lend-Lease Act was signed into law on March 11, 1941." I suspect this was not only intended to help our allies, but also to dramatically boost trade and business for our economy to help finally pull us out of the depression which it did do quite well. 2. 1 month later Frigidaire has apparently already converted their plant and in full production of war goods and "In April (1941), he (FDR) expanded the program by offering lend-lease aid to China for their war against the Japanese." 3. 8 months later "Lend-Lease continued after the US entry into the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941." So in April of '41, we started selling weapons and support to China to fight the Japanese, and then 8 months later the Japanese decided to do something about it and forced us to actually enter the war instead of just supplying support for it. Then, after the war, our service members come home and start to fully kick hot rodding into high gear. Oddly, if it hadn't been for Pearl Harbor, maybe hot rodding wouldn't be what it is today. I never knew enough history on it and didn't personally understand why we had been attacked in Pearl Harbor. Although I knew there was no way it was just totally randomly out the the blue or as black and white as some people like to believe. History, it's good to know. Very interesting. Learn some good and crazy stuff on this site at times, that's for sure.
My high school here in Portland, Benson Polytechnic High (opened in 1918), was re-purposed during World War I and II as a training facility. Benson was originally an all boys tech school (from 1918 to 1974 when it went co-ed) and offered Drafting, Automotive, Aviation, Construction, Electrical and Foundry. The school was re-purposed in 1918 (before it officially opened). Many pieces of equipment where installed by the U.S. War Department. During WWI, a few pieces of aviation equipment was brought in and left after the war was over...including a original SPAD XIII fighter (retained by the school until the 1980's) The same thing happened from 1942 to '45...leaving the school with 3 full machine shops of lathes, mills, presses, forges, a Douglas DB-5 Dauntless dive bomber, a Grumman F4F Wildcat, and FU-4 Corsair, a Pratt-Whitney 9-cylinder radial and an Allison V-1710 V12 engine. 95% of the equipment is still in use today (I learned on many of these machines, all bearing the "Property of U.S. War Department" tag). The Dauntless, F4F Wildcat, the Corsair and the SPAD are sadly all gone now, yet the Allison and the ol' Pratt-Whitney are still owned by the school and still in use.
stude_trucks, we also had an embargo against Japan to hinder their ability to obtain the raw materials they needed to wage their war in China. That started in the late-1930s (I think, it's been a while since I studied this). The Japanese campaign in China started in 1932. -Dave
My Dad was over in France in early 1940. He was a radio man and was helping to train the French resistance. We were in the war earlier than Pearl but we didn't declare war until after it.
MrModelT, Please more details on the WWI SPAD!!!!!!!! That is THE Hot Rod airplane of the day. Saw one in Dayton a few years ago, it looks so fine. Is the one the school had now airworthy?
My Mom was a "Rosie the riveter" during the war, but she made piston rings for the Eaton company in M***illion, Ohio. She's still pissed about losing her job when the men came home. My area, Cleveland, Akron, Canton (Northeast Ohio) was huge during the war. They flew Corsairs (I think) out of the Akron airport. There was a Navy plant in Canton, later owned by Bliss, then Bab**** and Wilcox where the officers quarters and a guard tower still stand.
Here a quick piece on what the "independents were up to... http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/05/for-memorial-day-the-****nal-of-democracy-the-independents/
As mentioned, we supplied other countries with war materials before we entered the war. We entered, as said, after Pearl Harbor. Dupont even supplied gunpowder to the German's prior to our entering the war! The plant I worked at in Tulsa brought raw ore into the south end of the building by rail, and flew out B-24's and SBD Dauntless's out the north end, a mile away. Yes, the building is a mile long... Wildcats were not as advanced as Hellcats, it was a much older design. However, the Wildcat is known for one thing it does that no other aircraft in the second world war can do. It can do a half loop on takeoff! It's an amazing little bird, really.
And some of the biggest producers of 1911s were Remington Rand, Union Switch and Signal and Singer Sewing Machines.
Maytag also made aircraft hydraulic cylinders, bomb bay mechanisms and speed reducers, electric landing gear mechanisms, tank track pins, and bomb nose fuzes
In Texas during the war, my mother was a piston inspector at the Continental Motors factory on Forest Lane in Garland. Engines for tanks. In the 1960's I worked part time at the John E. Mitchell Co. in downtown Dallas. Then we made Mark IV auto air conditioners, ICEE machines and cotton gin machines. Twenty years earlier JEMCO made artillery shells.
this guy built a scaled down corsair all aluminum http://www.youtube.com/user/rojasbazan#p/u/4/ya4h8yHdgFc
Thats funny, when I was in the USMC in the early 90's I remember taking apart a 50 cal. and reading "produced by General Motors" on the housing.
I bought some NOS aircraft spark plugs a few years ago. When I unwrapped them and read the wrappers, they'd been made by O'Keefe and Merritt, a gas range manufacturing company. Worked great by the way....
actually, the demand of war materials for Great Britain may have been enough impetus on its own. the Cincinnati Milling Machine co. doubled its production floor space in 1940 both in anticipation of our involvement and to fill orders from overseas
There is (what I have been told is) a Bren gun carrier sunk in shallow water in the lake our cottage is on. I boated over to it this past summer, still has the flathead in it.
The Jalopy Journal
