The Government utilized as much of the nations industry as possible to gear up a fast mass producing war machine. Maytag cast aluminum aircraft parts. IHC made M1 carbines ,trucks ,airplane frames, heavy equipment. Clothing industry made parachutes , life vest . The country came together , rolled up their sleeves and whupped ass.
During WWII my Dad, who was a Captain in the U.S. Army at the time, met my Mom in Plymouth England. They got engaged at some point, but my dad ended up going around the world the long way to get to Okinawa. After that bit was cleaned up he came home to Michigan and had my Mom fly over here to get married. He met her in New York City and they flew together back to Michigan...landing at Willow Run. It's kind of fitting; all the work done there to help win the war and that's where my Mom, the War Bride comes to start her new life.
Meanwhile, back at the Rouge complex Ford was building Liberty Ships in the Dearborn Assembly plant and making steel in the Rouge steel mill. Much of this work was the vision of a few STRONG individuals and a hard working, fast learning and innovative work force. Geez, they sound like hot rodders
WW2 aircraft were Hot Rods with bombs and guns. The perfect combination of design and durability and the USA made all that stuff in 5 years,, that's the real story here.
Not to disagree with the history of it but according to the WW2 era film shown at the Yankee Air Museum Willow run was NOT an old airport that Henry turned into a car plant and then an aircraft plant. Story goes that the government came to Detroit and asked Henry about building aircraft. He took his maple syrup farm and chopped it down and build Willow Run from scratch. It was specific for the cause and was turned into an auto plant only AFTER the war. It is now the soon to be defunct home of GM Powertrain AKA Hydramatic. I work with a guy that started there as a co-op out of high school. Some of the "little people" that were there during the war that ran all the electrical in the wings still worked there all those years later. The Tri-Motor field is now the Ford Proving Grounds that are in Dearborn across the street from the Dearborn Inn and next to Greenfield Village.
If anyone gets the chance to get to the front entrance at Tenneco (Monroe Shocks/Walker Exhaust) there used to be sets of display cabinets in there with all the products they made. During the war, tube mills that made shock and exhaust pipe turned out AA ammo and mortor shells. Stamping presses that made muffler ends turned out tractor seats for tanks and bulldozers. Lots of other small bits that went into bigger bits that made big bangs were also made. Nice to see so many Michigan folks commenting on this post. There are still some of us here and we ain't leaving any time soon!
Ford was anti government intervention, I doubt he supported the Axis. If you read his biography (read free on google books) you'll also see that he employed many men back from WW1. He had jobs for one legged men. He had jobs that could be done by men missing arms. He had jobs for blind men. In short, he had seen what the war had done to people, so I imagine he didn't want the U.S. to get involved if it could be avoided. He probably also didn't like the idea that his workforce would get drafted. In his book he also talks about getting the Ford tractor to Europe before it was even being built here, and you can see how proud he was that those tractors helped keep the English from starving because their productivity allowed more men to be on the front lines.
Great post. Been to Willow run many times and once got to help out polishing the B-17 there, prior to the hanger fire a few years ago. As for Ford, he probably didn't want the US involved in the war effort because he didn't want his European factories bombed, the ones in Germany. That would cost money and slow production, as he was selling many large trucks to the German war effort as Troop Carriers. Which is why the Ford's German factories weren't converted to Military War Machines in the "Reich". As for his personal beliefs, really given the time period, he probably felt like many Americans and other's in the world about "other" people, not everyone, but many. Aside from his innovations at the plants and bringing everybody to having the need and access of owning a car.
I think a lot of folks misunderstand the source of Henry Fords philosophies (i.e. the Five Dollar Day, the Sociological Department, Pacifism, etc.). Henry Ford was a voracious reader of Emerson and Thoreau and tried to emulate Transcendentalism in his day-to-day life. The Peace Ship helps show that he was a Pacifist even before U.S. entry into the First World War. You bet. I, for one, havent given up on the Arsenal of Democracy. -Dave
The Ford Plant in Germany was actually "Liberated" and fully taken control of by the "Reich", and the Plant Manager that was sympathetic to the Reich, Prior to any US involvment in the war. So as not to digress from the intention of this thread, lets just admire the greatest industrialized Nation in the world (at that time) coming together and basically shutting down,... In order to support the War Effort, in a way that every citizen in this Nation should be proud of. Let's not delve into the political conjecture,...... which always turns out bad, and will kill a otherwise excellent thread. (IMHO)
Doesn't that look like battlefield installed armor plate protecting the cockpit (in the top right of the pic)? shovelheadrider, your link http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_photo_galle/wiilow_run_bomber/?cmd=fs_slideshow was fantastic! I looked at all 291 of the pics! Here's a link to some great reading about the B-24 and its history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-24_Liberator
See that box truck in the background in the 3rd row of pics in Ryan's first post (pic 18/19 of 26)? It's a '41 Brooks VanEtte. The Yankee Air Museum found it, bought it, and is currently restoring it. The running gear is all Ford. http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=27492
I once found a GIANT list on the internet of all the companies here in Michigan that contributed to the war effort back in those days. Tried again to find it last night, but no dice! That list was huge!!
Just thought some of you might be interested in this. I try to go every year, this year I'll be drag racing. Check it out if you can. GREAT post Ryan. www.yankeeairmuseum.org/airshow/
As I had mentioned last night, I would try to take pictures with my camera of Uncle Ed's Lapel Pin,.... didn't work,... best I could do was some lousy cell phone pictures,..... But I think you'll get the idea.
We always like to thanks a military guy for his service,but we also have to remember those who made the tools of war. And often it was Merchant Marines delivering this equipment through the shit load of Nazi U boats.
Best 10 minutes you'll spend tonight. The Willow Run Story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_CUPA0k0fw
Thank you to all who contributed to this thread. How interesting are those photos?? This stuff is golden. My office is within 1 mile of willow run.I am learning more about it in the last half hour than experiencing it for 10 years. Any other details of the crash at ridge and warren roads? Please keep this thread alive..........
A buddy and I got to ride in the Collings Foundation B-24 from Rapid City down to Scottsbluff in 1992 and it was quite a thrill. The B-17 joined up after we topped the clouds and I even got to sit in the left seat and fly for a few minutes (I was a USAF pilot then). My buddy knew the B-24 copilot and that's how we got the ride. I have pics somewhere. What a great sound. When we approached for landing at Scottsbluff (it was a Saturday) I was in the right waist-gun opening looking ahead toward the airport. The small wind blast deflector kept the slipstream off of me as I looked ahead down the fuselage at the runway. Just before we crossed the fence for landing I saw a family in their backyard standing next to their pool. They were waving at the B-24 as we passed over at about 100-150 feet and when I saw them I leaned way out the waist window and waved like a madman. After a second they saw me waving and they just lost it! You could just see that they were thrilled to see me seeing them and waving back. A few seconds later the wheels touched the runway and we taxied up to the crowd. The next day we worked the Collings' souvenier table (the crew was tired and let my buddy and I work the crowd for most of the day, which I was happy to do) and I gave several tours of the bombers to old people who had either built planes in war plants or had family who served on B-17s and 24s. One older woman walked up to me and asked if the B-17 was a B-17. I said yes it was and she asked if she could see inside. She was very quiet and I sensed something about her. She had a leather satchel with her. I walked her over to the aft door of the B-17 and showed her inside the airplane. We made our way up to the nose compartment and she asked where the navigator would have sat. I showed her the nav seat and table and told her to sit down. She began shaking a little and I finally asked her if she knew someone who had been on B-17s during the war. She looked at me and said, "Yes, my older brother." She opened the satchel and removed an 8x10 photo of her brother and his crew in front of a B-17 in England during the war. I asked her, carefully, about him and she said he had been killed on the first Schweinfurt raid. Man oh man, my eyes welled up and it was all I could do to hold it together. (60 B-17s were lost on that raid--600 men.) I let her sit there for a while and then the heat was getting to us so I escorted her out and bade her farewell. She thanked me and walked away. One of the B-17's crew, an old guy who had been a gunner on B-17s, looked at me and saw that I had just had a moment with history. He said, "Bill, that happens eveywhere we take these airplanes and you never get used to it."
Thank you very much for this thread. My Grandfather worked in the Blast Furnace at the Rouge from 1941 through 1966 when he retired. He was strong and hard working alright, as working down there was no picnic. (I like to tell people that his sweat is in the casting of my 59AB). My Grandmother was a true "Rosie the Riviter" who worked for a supplier to Ford, GM and Dodge making steering wheels which she continued with until retirement. Both had war time stories about around the clock shifts. The war effort in this town not only provided a sense of pride but also good, hard working careers that continued for a lot of people. Being older than "war age" both came out of The Great Depresion with nothing and ended up with the ability to raise families. Another point of interest on this subject is that Preston Tucker built his car at the then abandon Willow Run Plant.
Thanks Ryan and the rest of you that have kept this thread going... My grandmother worked at 'the bomber plant'. and I've lived most of my life in Ypsilanti. When I was born we lived in Willow Run Village , a project that was built to house many of the folks that worked at Willow Run... After the WWII and then the Korean War was over dad came back and put in 35 years at the Ypsilanti Ford plant and got me in there before he retired from which I just retired two years ago after 38 1/2 years.... and yea we are Ford dedicated... Side note still working on my 51 Ford woodie<G> Barry
Willow Run has more to do with cars than you might think. At the end of the war, Henry Kaiser and Joe Frazer bought the plant for their new company, Kaiser-Frazer. Kaiser and Frazer cars were produced there until 1953, when Kaiser merged with Willys-Overland. GM bought the plant and converted it to transmission production, replacing the Hydra-Matic plant in Livonia that burned down that summer. More on the history of K-F: http://ateupwithmotor.com/family-cars/216-kaiser-frazer-part-1.html http://ateupwithmotor.com/family-cars/217-kaiser-frazer-part-2.html
As everyone probably knows, the Ford B-24 plant was put on the market as a part of the General Motors bankruptcy. The Yankee Air Museum wants to buy it, but needs to raise a lot of money to do so. Originally the RACER Trust, that administers these "old GM" assets was going to tear it down if it wasn't sold by August 1, but they've apparently extended the time to October 1. Keep your fingers crossed, it would be great to see this saved. See Rosie the Riveter campaigning for donations.
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