The mobilization of industry for war production was an incredible event. Factories in the USA and Canada went from making cars and farm machinery to all manner of military goods in a very short time…
Shipyards built Liberty Ships on an assembly line basis. Ford built bombers on the mile long assembly line at the Willow Run, Michigan plant…
Yep, you have to remember that the War Department decided what was to be manufactured and what wasn’t, nation-wide. They suspended car manufacturing during the war and materials were allocated to meet military needs.
I remember my dad telling about getting tires for his Willys so he could make the trip from Wisconsin to Minnesota to see his wife and new daughter. You could not buy tires without permission from the military but he worked three jobs and built war ships so knew the Colonel in charge of rationing. The Colonel slapped him on the back and gave him the coupons to buy tires with.
Just to go off the track but it makes me sick all the whining and crying these days over nothing when these people gave up so much to give us the easy life we have.
Most people have absolutely no clue regarding the deprivations that our parents and grandparents endured in order to aid the war effort in the 1940s.
Agree! My father in law was in the Air Force and spent 4 years overseas away from his family. My wife was born just before he was shipped overseas. He participated in the D Day landing in 1944.
My own family spent the war years under German occupation and although we had enough to eat as a farm family, we had little else. My uncle joined the underground and spent most of the war smuggling downed Allied pilots and air crew to the coast to get them back to England. His family was cared for by our various family members.
Rationing was part of the war effort, but where we lived then there was little to ration.
IIRC, Crosley was the only manufacturer allowed to make a civilian vehicle. It claimed 60 MPG, which the govt. figured would save another valuable resource.
I enjoy reading through Pres. Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat speeches. Mom grew up through these years; she jokes that History class was easy, because FDR was always President, and Pius XII was always Pope.