Posted on 11/12/2019 5:47:32 PM PST by daniel1212
Chris Morehouse, Aerospace Engineer at U.S. Air Force (2017-present)
We can just put up a bunch of numbers, but I don’t think that gives a full appreciation of scale. So first let’s hit some specific examples.
The B-24
This is Willow Run. It was a B-24 plant built by Ford to mass produce the bomber. It ran its line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and produced a complete B-24 every 63 minutes on average. At peak, it produced 100 bombers in just two days.
This plant produced less than half of the total B-24s we built during the war.
That is just one plant, producing one type of aircraft. We had literally had thousand of plants like this, producing everything from tanks to field dressings.
The Liberty Ships
This is a Liberty Ship. It was a 14,000 ton cargo ship used for carrying essential war materials from the US to our allies and troops during WW2.
Let’s see how they come to be.
[see images at link )
Wait - where did you all come from?
America had 18 dry docks building Liberty Ships during WW2. Whereas typically riveted ships of the day took months to build, the Liberty Ships went from nothing to ready to launch in an average of 42 days in those dry docks. They were welded instead of riveted, and only built for a 5-year life span.
Forty-two days doesn’t seem very fast? Well I did say that was an average. The first Liberty ship took 230 days to complete. The fastest built ship took less than five days. That is a 14,000 ton ship from laying the keel to launch in less than five days.
We built 2,710 of these ships during the war.
The Sherman
Here we have the M4 Sherman Tank. This was a medium tank, and the primary tank of the US Army during the war. It has received a lot of criticism both then and now as being too light for the competition, having an undersized gun and the liability of a gas burning (instead of diesel) engine. For all that, it was still a very successful tank. One of its best features… it lent itself to mass production.
Above is the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant. This plant was built by Chrysler for the US Army and was the country's first government-owned, contractor-operated tank plant. Shown in the picture is the assembly of the M4A4 Sherman tanks.
This 113-acre plant built Lee, Sherman and Pershing tanks during the war and was only one of nine plants that built the Sherman. Between the nine plants, 49,234 Sherman tanks were built during the war, accounting for about half of the tanks the US produced during the war. Yeah, half again.
The Flat Tops
While we were building Liberty Ships as if we were breeding rabbits, we had to also build some fighting ships. To this end we built a whole bunch of shipyards.
Here we have a portion of the Boston Naval Yard in 1943. In the large slipway on the left you can see a monster of a ship. That would be the USS Iowa, a big-ass Battleship. We built eight battleships during WW2, and repaired several more that got a rough start at Pearl Harbor. But what I want to point out is the long flat guy in the center top. That is the USS Bunker Hill, an Essex Class Aircraft Carrier.
The Essex Class Carriers were a mainstay of the American Carrier Fleet. They were the Navy’s new wonder weapons, and the Navy could not possibly have enough of them. The Essex could carry 90–100 aircraft, had a crew of about 2600 and could take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.
The Navy built 24 of these babies during WW2.
Here is the Bunker Hill right after being launched on December 7th 1942, exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It joined the fleet as one new carrier out of the 141 Aircraft Carriers we would build during the war. No, that number is not a typo. The United States built and launched 141 Aircraft Carriers of all classes during the war. To protect them we built 498 escort ships (Corvettes and Frigates)
(Above: Buckley Class Destroyer Escort, 148 built) As well as 349 destroyers (Above: Fletcher Class Destroyer, 175 Built).
We can go on and on, but the fact of the matter is the US was one giant, war-material-producing machine during WW2. We easily out-produced every other participant in the conflict, and at the same time created an entire NEW industry which produced the first nuclear chain reaction, uranium enrichment infrastructure, plutonium production plants and atomic reactors and weapons. We literally invented a new industry while building all this other stuff, creating massive industrial plants for the various type of chemical and physical uranium enrichment processes, as well as testing and production facilities for the weapons themselves.
It is honestly hard to fully grasp the magnitude of the industrial might that was leveraged during the conflict. But hopefully this has given you some appreciation for the monumental effort put forth by American industry and the American people.
I recall some quote from high school history class. Some German General after the war said something like “We would shoot one bomber down, and the next day the Americans would send 8 in place of it.”
From that same class I recall the teacher (Mr. Herzog - he was great!) talking about how great the German jet fighters were. Except Germany was so low on fuel, they would cart them out to the runways using horses!
The lesson being of course - you can have all the latest technology, but if you don’t have the raw materials to fight - you’ll lose.
He was also the coach of our debate team. I recall the one night in adjoining motel rooms, and we could hear him yelling at the T.V. with the movie “Tora, Tora, Tora” on full volume!
LOL. How did we ever survive without OSHA, the EPA and HHS?
Nearly all leftists in DC are globalists. But a significant number of Republicans are not.
My Mom was one of Rosie’s Riveters at the Fore River Shipyard (Quincy, Mass.) during WWII while my Dad was serving as a medic on Iwo.
Also, Bath Iron Works (Bath, Maine) launched a destroyer every
three weeks during the War.
I remember the interrogation of one German prisoner. It went along the line of why he surrendered. He said that he fired a Panzerfaust and destroyed a Sherman, then he shot another Panzerfaust . . . and then a third. "But the tanks kept coming. You had more tanks than I had Panzerfausts."
[Distantly related] I was a pre-teen when the war ended but was always interested in the military. I talked with one vet who, in May 1945, was passing MILES of German POWs walking along the side of the road. The sky was almost black with aircraft and the stream of trucks and tanks was unending.
He asked one POW what he thought of Hitler now, and the guy thumbed up at the aircraft and sneered "Propaganda".
That book was full of neat stories about how we handled things, from something as simple as re-arranging production lines to taking trucks apart.
I think it was Knudsen who visited a plant and noticed how the assembly lines were laid out - the item would move along the line to the end, then be transported down to the far end of the next line to continue the process, on and on. Knudsen reversed every other line so the part just moved across the aisle rather than all the way down the end to continue. Increased production by 20% without stressing the workers
We were shipping thousands of trucks to Russia, when somebody complained that they were taking up too much room in the ships. They found that they could ship 10 times as many if they took the trucks apart. They set up re-assembly plants in Iran, using the locals, and then drove the finished product to Russia.
We won on many fronts just by sheer ingenuity.
Name on GOP Senator that is not a globalist, is not pro H-1B visa job give away and also for offshoring and anti tariff. Name one.
Of course, it depends on your definitions.
Being in favor of trade is not being a globalist.
Trade has been used to destroy the US industrial base while making Wall Street rich and the Republicans Party facilitated that.
Right now they are trying to pass a huge H-1B bill allowing 150,000 Indians into the USA ( Fairness to immigrants Act, what a joke ) by unanimous consent. None of them are stopping that.
The Republican Party used to be the party of the tariff and NEEDS TO RETURN TO THAT ASAP. They need stop being the Free Traitor™ party.
My grandfather was 34 in 1939 and thru luck chanced into pentagon contracts to first paint bases and then construct barracks and hangars etc
He and his two partners got rich doing it
And all three came from nothing
Nothing since 1866 anyhow
It changed the trajectory of his descendants via education and opportunities
So? Not all trade is bad.
Some has been, especially that with China.
In addition, some trade has been very good.
Trade in our agricultural products has been very good for the U.S.
I have no problems with Wall Street becoming rich (my investment in my 401K type fund benefit me) as long as the long term interests of the United States are put first.
My 401K type fund does me no good if the U.S. is destroyed.
Then you read wrong. The vast majority of the U.S. military equipment is made in the U.S. We have many shoe and clothing plants making all sorts of things across the U.S. There is a plant in my hometown that makes fire resistant uniforms for fire fighters, military, etc. It also makes climate controlled clothing that helps keep men cool when riding bikes, running, etc.
Hate to tell ya but U.S. industrial output today is greater than it was in the 1940’s.
During WWII, the Germans manufactured 50,000 kubelwagons. Their jeep. The US manufactured 500,000 Jeeps.
The overwhelming majority of U.S. military equipment is made in the U.S. That includes clothing and footwear.
The U.S. textile industry makes the world’s most advanced polymers and fibers.
The U.S. is also a leader in technologically advanced clothing that includes body temperature control, perspiration reduction, injury treatment, waterproofing, and bacteria blocking.
As for China, it’s industrial prowess is fading fast. Factories are closing more than opening and it is losing manufacturing jobs faster than gaining them.
Farming is only 1% of GDP and has way too much influence in politics. A patriot doesn't love his 401K more than he loves his country.
Horse pucky.
U.S. industrial output is greater now than the 1940’s.
I would only go along with that because they chose to surrender instead of fight against the leftists. Then I would agree. However, how many projects have been delayed due to lefty kook lawsuits? look to Kalifornistan for their wildfires, sparked because they don’t allow clearing and management, because of lefty kooks.
Destroyers and aircraft carriers were the two critical needs of the Navy.
The one I remember is that we stopped building half-tracks in 1943 because we had more than we could use. When I was a kid the 1970s I remember seeing ads where you could buy a complete, never-used, WW2 half-track in the original crates, some assembly required.
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