Detroit-The Arsenal of Democracy

"We must be the great arsenal of democracy."

For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war." These are the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoken over the radio during one of his famous Fireside Chats on December 29, 1940. The term �Arsenal of Democracy� would soon become synonymous with the city of Detroit. Historians and military experts agree that city�s war production machine was a key factor in America�s victory in World War II. It started when F.D.R. appointed William �Big Bill� Knudsen, the president of General Motors, to oversee war production in 1940.


Less than a year later, Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States declared war on Japan and Germany. Auto plants throughout Michigan would soon turn out tanks, artillery shells, carbines and machine guns. The government charged the auto companies with building 75 percent of all aircraft engines and nearly 80 percent of all tanks and tank parts for the war effort. The auto industry also provided more than 12 billion rounds of small arms ammunition and nearly six million guns.

Automotive historian Michael W. R. Davis recently wrote a book about this extraordinary moment in U.S. history�a story that reaches beyond Detroit�s borders. "General Motors (GM) is very big in Pontiac, Flint and Lansing, just for example," said Davis. "You had the ship building industry in Bay City, Michigan, all kinds of manufacturing in Grand Rapids and Muskegon�just to cite a few. Hundreds if not thousands of small shops around the region�tool and die shops, small manufacturing shops�were making parts for the war machine."

From 1940 to 1945, GM delivered defense materials valued at $12.3 billion. GM�s contribution spanned virtually every conceivable product from small ball bearings to massive tanks, naval ships, fighter planes, bombers, guns, cannons and projectiles.GM alone turned out 13,000 airplanes and one-fourth of all U.S. aircraft engines. One of the most amazing vehicles produced for World War II was an amphibious truck known as the �Duck�, derived from its GM nomenclature of DUKW. GM engineers, marine architects and army officers wanted to create a �hybrid� vehicle that was as equally comfortable on the water as well as the ground. The DUKW became a critical vehicle in the transportation of troops and equipment to the battlefield, as well as for carrying wounded ground forces back to hospital ships anchored offshore.

Willow Run Takes Flight

Charles Lindbergh called it the Grand Canyon of the mechanized world. He was referring to Willow Run, the largest aircraft plant in the world built in a small village near Ypsilanti. The Ford Willow Run plant assembled B-24 Liberator Bombers and at its peak employed more than 42,000 workers turning out 231 planes per month. "The aircraft industry could produce incredibly designed airplanes, but not for mass production as Detroit understands it," said Davis. "Detroit had the tool makers, the die makers, all of the suppliers for mass production." Still, the rapid growth of the plant was so great, Ford couldn�t keep up. In July of 1943, they hired 3,000 people in just one day. Housing and roads needed to be built to keep up with the influx of workers.


Many �were forced to live in temporary dorms, tents and trailers. Ford hired an unprecedented number of women for assembly line positions. Rose Will Monroe moved from Kentucky to Michigan during World War II to work at the Willow Run plant. Her name became synonymous with women�s contributions to the war effort: �Rosie the Riveter.�

In addition Ford Motor Company would produce Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines, thousands of military trucks and a funny new all-terrain vehicle with a slotted grille called the Jeep. Ford also harvested the abundant forests of the Upper Peninsula to build more than 4,000 CG-4A gliders during the war. The glider assembly plant was located in Kingsford, where Ford had been manufacturing wooden-sided station wagons. During peak production, 4,500 people worked around the clock in eight-hour shifts and turned out eight gliders per day. American glider pilots flew in the European, Pacific and China-Burma-India Theaters during World War II.

Detroit Tank Arsenal

On 113 acres of farmland in Warren, Chrysler built the nation�s largest defense plant, the Detroit Tank Arsenal. Author Michael W. R. Davis calls it an engineering miracle. "The War Department awarded the contract to Chrysler in August of 1940. Chrysler broke ground in just a farmer�s field early in September and actually had the first tank off the line seven months later." By December 1941, the plant had shipped its 500th tank. Production would increase to a total of five assembly lines and a year later, the tank arsenal set an all-time monthly production record by delivering 907 Sherman tanks. President Roosevelt visited the Detroit Tank Arsenal in 1942 and called it "an amazing demonstration of what can be done by the right organization, spirit and planning." In total, the auto industry delivered more than $50 billion worth of materials to the armed forces and accounted for 20 percent of America�s war production.

The nature of warfare has dramatically changed since U.S. troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, but Davis believes that Detroit is developing relevant technologies for modern defense applications. For instance, General Motors unveiled a driverless car recently at the Consumer Electronics Show. "I happen to be a national director of an educational organization called the Defense Orientation Conference Association and have been privy to many reviews by the various elements of the armed forces and it is very interested in high technology�unmanned war vessels and road vehicles, for example. There�s a lot of high technology that goes unrecognized in Detroit and by the auto industry, so I think that Detroit and Michigan, has much to offer that hasn�t been tapped."

Can History Repeat Itself?

On the site of the historic Detroit Tank Arsenal sits the headquarters of the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). As part of the current TARDEC organization, the National Automotive Center (NAC) is working with private industry to leverage commercial automotive technologies for military use. With more than 60 percent of U.S. automotive engineers living and working in Michigan, TARDEC has unmatched intellectual property to build the next generation of ground vehicle systems for defense support. Michigan has the research and development and manufacturing capabilities and strengths to aid the country once again. As President Roosevelt eloquently stated more than 65 years ago, it is amazing what can be done with spirit and planning.