“Detroit’s Big 3 in World War II” by Andy Tallone

“Detroit’s Big 3 in World War II”

The country, the world, the economy and the auto industry suffered a crushing blow following the great stock market crash of 1929. Sales and been rising steadily until then. Chevrolet went from 146,243 cars sold in 1920 to 1.5 million by 1929. Ford went from 806,040 cars in 1920 to 1.5 million also by 1929. The crash happened late in the year, October, and the effects were almost immediate. Car sales dropped across the board, and the smaller, weaker brands fell by the wayside. By 1932, Chevy was down to 400,000 cars and Ford just 300,000.

But slowly the economy recovered and so did the auto industry. By 1941, Chevy was back making 1.1 million cars and Ford an even million. Times were starting to look good again. There was a war raging in Europe but President Roosevelt had run for reelection on the promise of keeping America out of the war. Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, December 6th, thrusting us headlong into the war.

America was weak from a military standpoint, with just 458,000 men in uniform, armed with World War I-vintage arms and equipment. The Germans were racing across Europe in modern tanks and crushing everything in their path. The Japanese had more aircraft carriers in the Pacific than we did and they just knocked out most of our battleships. America had been caught flat-footed but we had several key advantages that the bad guys didn’t have. First off, we were huge and rich in agriculture, minerals and people. Second we were isolated from both conflicts by vast oceans. And lastly we had a huge industrial base, the biggest in the world, and we knew how to make stuff, refrigerators, radios, washing machines, and cars, lots and lots of cars.

The government didn’t waste any time. On January 16, 1942, just 40 days after the Pearl Harbor attack, the president created the War Production Board (WPB) to control industrial production and convert civilian manufacturing over to the war effort. Donald Nelson was in charge. On February 2, 1942 the WPB ordered all civilian passenger car and light truck production to be halted. As the result, there are very few 1942 model cars and there wouldn’t be any until 1946. The legal authority for such a bold move came from the Wars Powers Act of 1941. WPB controlled all manufacture and raw materials.

The government didn’t take over, or nationalize the companies. They remained privately owned, but now with lucrative contracts from the government for mountains of stuff. Planes, tanks, trucks, boats, ships, guns, jeeps, ammunition, food, clothing, you name it.

Ford, for instance, went from making cars to building the B-24 Liberator bomber in their Willow Run plant, with a total production of 8,685 planes plus another 1,000-or-so knock-down kits shipped elsewhere. They built thousands of M4 Sherman tanks and M10 tank destroyers, along with other armored vehicles, many in their massive Rouge River Plant. Ford also built most of the Jeeps used in the war. Bantam may have invented it, but Ford and Willys got to build them. Ford alone built 647,925 Jeeps during the war. Ford also produced Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp airplane engines for the B-24s and other aircraft, and the Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 used in the P51 Mustang and Lancaster bombers. They also built gliders, light tracked vehicles, armored cars and scout vehicles, ammunition, gun mounts and trucks, lots and lots of trucks. By 1943 Ford was producing one-third of all US military vehicles.

GM ended up producing about a third one all the military hardware produced for the war. They built 4,318 B-25 Mitchell bombers at the Fisher Body plant in Kansas City, Kansas, 40% of total B-25 production. They also built P-38 Lightnings, P-39 Aircobras, and P-47 Thunderbolts, and tens of thousands of Allison V-1710, Pratt & Whitney R-1830 and R-2800 airplane engines. GM also built M4 Shermans, M10, M18 and M36 tank destroyers, M24 Chaffee light tanks, the M8 and M20 armored cars, over half-a-million GMC 6X6 2-1/2-ton trucks (the famous “deuce-and-a-half”), DUKW amphibious trucks (the legendary “Duck”), 1-1/2-ton trucks, CCKW 6-ton trucks, antiaircraft guns, M2 .50-caliber Browning machines guns by the hundreds of thousands, Mark 13 and Mark 14 torpedoes, ammunition and marine engines. GM alone produced more military equipment than the entire country of Japan. Once they got rolling they were turning out one vehicle every 45 seconds. GM employed over 700,000 workers at the peak. The US Navy awarded them their “E” Award multiple times for excellence in war production.

Chrysler meanwhile, perpetually #3 of Detroit’s Big 3 carmakers, was second in war production only to GM. They too made M3 and M4 Sherman medium tanks, and over 7,500 M4A4s (which were advanced versions of the M4), M26 Pershing heavy tanks, M3 and M5 light tanks, Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone radial aircraft engines for the B-29 Superfortress, helicopter rotors and transmissions for early Sikorsky helicopters, over 350,000 Dodge WC-series 1/2- and 3/4-ton trucks, DUKW “Duck” amphibious trucks, 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns by the tens of thousands, marine engines, and billions of rounds of ammunition. Chrysler operated 30 major plants dedicated to wartime production and employed some 500,000 workers. Chrysler too was rolling out a finished military vehicle every few seconds, and also received the Navy’s “E” Award multiple times. Chrysler’s Detroit Tank Arsenal alone produced more tanks than any single factory in the world at that time.

The Sherman was a fine medium tank for the times, but wouldn’t stand a chance against a German Tiger tank, tank-to-tank. However, there was one Tiger and six Shermans. And we were building them faster than they could be destroyed. Same with ships. In both the Atlantic and the Pacific, we were replacing transport ships faster than they could be sunk by submarines. Henry Kaiser was building one ‘Liberty Ship’ every 24 hours at his peak. And he was just one shipbuilder.

In the end it was this, our massive industrial might, that won the war, more than any other single factor. Not to take anything away from our brave troops who had to go over there and do the fighting. But they couldn’t have done it without the overflowing material support. Germany barely had enough fuel to run its tanks, while the US had boatloads of the stuff.

During the Battle of the Bulge an American was taken prisoner and he had a birthday cake with him. They brought it to the German general who realized the significance of this. The Germans were starving for fuel and ammo and food to carry on the fight. Meanwhile the Americans had so much logistical capacity that they could ship a birthday cake from America to this soldier. He knew, at that point, that they were sunk.

War almost always comes down to logistics. And what made our victory possible was our industrial miracle. Of course, it wasn’t pulled off entirely by the auto industry. Companies that made all sorts of things were enlisted into the cause. My mother worked at a Norge factory in Detroit in 1942. Norge made refrigerators before the war, but now they were making gun turrets for B-17s.

Americans were always known for their ingenuity and resourcefulness back in those days and this was a perfect example of it. How we pulled together as a nation, how the big industrialists went through the trials and tribulations of switching over their manufacturing, to workers who put in 110% working long hours under harsh conditions. It was a collective national spirit that we’ll probably never see again in this country. Of course, the people back then were tough, much tougher than today. They’d just been through the Great Depression, crushing poverty, the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, labor unrest and more. Most had been raised on farms and were accustomed to hard work and sacrifice. Good thing, too, because the war demanded it, in spades.

But the US auto industry really stepped up. They marshaled all their manufacturing, design and engineering genius to not only do the job but shine at it. They all took pride in their contributions to the war effort, which was THE central focus in everyone’s lives at that time. America was proud of her car companies and the soldiers and sailors out there in the world appreciated the fine products that they relied on every day to win the war and stay alive.

The 2-front war ended in Europe first on May 8, 1945, then Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945 officially ending the war. The WPB began lifting restrictions almost immediately and by late-October to early-November the factories started producing civilian-market cars again, the 1946 models. Ford and GM cars hit the market first in October followed by Chrysler in November.

Because there had been no new cars for 4 years and all those service men returning home wanted one, there was a shortage of cars right after the war. Detroit rushed to fill that vacuum, but all their attention had been on the war, so no new cars had been designed. It’s takes usually 3 to 5 years to create al all new car, so all they could do is rewarm their 1942 designs. They had been fully tooled up and were already producing 1942s in late 1941 when the war started, so most of the hard work was already done and sitting there. The Big 3 all did the same thing. They tarted up their old 1942 models with some different trim and called it a day. Or rather, called it a 1946. And America was so hungry for anything with wheels that they sold well anyway.

The industry was short on cars and Detroit couldn’t make them fast enough. So the sales numbers weren’t as strong as before, not because the demand wasn’t there, but because the supply was lacking. Chevy sold 800,000 cars in 1946, Ford 600,000 and Plymouth 300,000. But bigger numbers were just around the corner as the factories ramped back up.

By 1948 Chevy was up to 1.2 million cars, Ford sold a million, and Plymouth sold halfa- million, and the numbers just kept climbing, and they didn’t stop until 1958, but that’s another story. All of this sales success and growth was on the old car, based on the pre-war 1942 models. That was all about to change.

It took about three years to come up with totally new clean sheet designs, and they all started hitting about the same time, in 1949. Ford (Ford, Lincoln, Mercury), GM (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac) and Chrysler (Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth, DeSoto) all came out with stunning new cars for the 1949 model year. GM came out with their first high compression OHV (Overhead Valve) V8 in the ’49 Olds and Cadillac, igniting the horsepower arms race that wouldn’t end until 1970.

Not only did Detroit do a great service for our country, and not only did they make a ton of money doing it, but they gleaned invaluable knowledge and experience in the process. Chrysler at one point was tasked with creating an inverted V12 airplane engine but the war ended before it could be built. However, Chrysler engineers came away with a ton of knowledge about hemispherical combustion chambers, in other words ‘hemis’. It was this express knowledge that led them to create the Gen I Hemi engine family, which they released in 1951. It was very advanced for its time, as it should be, it was aircraft tech.

Classic car fans often view the War years as four missing years, four blank pages in the art and history of the car, that were just skipped over. But that’s not true at all. Our heroes weren’t building cars because they were busy saving the world and being the Arsenal of Democracy.