what did the "other guys" do during world war 2 ???

as I'm trying to learn more about my 2nd orphan's family history, it seems Studebaker worked & or built engines for the B-17 Bomber... ( & they were proud to place advertisements stating that ) like lots of them...

this is just one example ( I've seen 12-15 different ads )



so what did your favorite brand do during the war ??? did they advertise their efforts ???

 

My Dad worked in the steel mill as a diesel mechanic and was kept there as the steel mills were needed in the production of war equipment. We tend to think all the men went to the front fighting, but a lot were needed to keep them supplied with the weapons they used.

Don

 

To ensure that America prepared for total war by mobilizing all the industrial might of the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned the production of civilian automobiles during WWII. The Richmond Ford Assembly Plant switched to assembling jeeps and to putting the finishing touches on tanks, half-tracked armored personnel carriers, armored cars and other military vehicles destined for the Pacific Theater. By July of 1942, military combat vehicles began flowing into the Richmond Ford plant to get final processing before being transported out the deep-water channel to the war zones. The "Richmond Tank Depot" as the Ford plant was then called, helped keep American fighting men supplied with up-to-the-minute improvements in their battle equipment. In mobilizing the wartime production effort to its full potential, Federal military authorities and private industry began to work closely together on a scale never seen before in American history. This laid the groundwork for what became known as the "Military Industrial Complex" during the Cold War years. This Assembly Plant was one cog in the mobilization of the "Arsenal of Democracy" and a historic part of what is today's

 

My Dad worked for Lennox Furnace Co during WW2,,They made aircraft parts..no furnaces duing that time period.

 

My dad was 4F,and worked in the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge. Playing with uranium 235 and 238. He was officially a chemical operator. Even the workers didn't know exactly what part in the ending of the war they were playing.

 

That is part of what concerns me about America no longer making anything here. What saved our butts in two world wars was the fact we built stuff and were able to build better war machines than our enemies. Now, the rest of the world builds stuff and we only buy.

Don

 

Dad was going to school at USC and working night shift at Lockeed building the P-38s ,then went into the Navy on a LSMR (landing ship converted to deck fire rockets) #199 at Okinawa. Thanks Dad !

 

FYI, Cadillac built tanks and tank engines...

My dad was a truck driver, delivered lots of stuff to factories all across the Midwest.

R-

 

My maternal grandfather inspected M1 Carbines built at GM's Saginaw Steering Gear plant. He also worked on the local ration board and as an air-raid warden.

 

Someone had to build the machines. Someone had to pay for them.

 

My father, had a broken back. Signed up for the war. They said he could not be in the army because of his back. He said, let me be a pilot. He only lacked a few hours of flight time to have his license. They said NO! So they sent him back home to work on vehicles since he was already a mechanic.

I lost three uncles in WWII. All of them fighting for the USA without any leave home for years. Today they cry because they have to do two tours of 6 months with leave and rest in between. Plus, they all have cell phones and acess to computers to keep in touch today. Todays military personnel could not function under the conditions the US fought during WWI, WWII, and Korean war. Vietnam was bad enough too!

God Bless our warriors that gave their all for us to continue to enjoy freedom.

"FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!"

 

nowadays we don't need as much heavy equipment. long range guided missles, "drones'' ... there would be no need for 20 million tanks.

besides, if world war 3 ever came about, that would be the end of civilization

 

I agree with you 100% and this is also our problem with the High Unemployment rate in our country, at this present time. We have very few companies here in the U.S. that manufacture anything anymore. Thanks, Russ

 

My Dad rejoined the Army just as the war started and fought in both theatres. My father in law was the head of his family as his father had died years before and he was the bread winner after that. He sailed the Great Lakes on a freighter, even though he got sea sick. I imagine he helped bring many loads of taconite (iron ore) to the plants making weapons and planes. He then worked for Chrysler where they made tanks. He gave me a set of books showing how they used up to six Mopar flathead sixes in some tanks!

 

My mother in law worked for Consolidated Aircraft in Los Angeles. She was one of those girls that rode around on bicycles delivering parts. My father in law was kept out of the military because of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. He worked as a civilian with the military on developing photography used in the war.
My mom and dad ran a gun club in Missouri. My dad's blood pressure kept him out of the war. He fought with it until he passed.
One uncle was a combat pilot with the Army Air Corps over Germany. The other uncle was stationed on a heavy cruiser in the Pacific, in the powder room below decks.
We have it so easy compared to those "depression kids".

 

A) My father got a job in the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond (CA) building Liberty ships, ended up in the USAAF as a radioman, after bouncing around a bit he ended up with a P-38 training squadron in the Midwest.

B) My mother was driving trucks on the base.

A + B = me

 

My kids at school are always amazed by the Cadillac tank ads I have. The list of manufacturers of weaponry and equipment is long and often amazing. M1 Carbines were also made by Rock Ola and Singer Sewing Machine, for Pete's sake.

 

My Dad was one of the Rats of Tobruk - under seige by the Nazis for months.
He then got sent to New Guinea and got malaria fighting the Japanese.
He died when I was 5.
Never knew my grandfather who died in WW2 at El Alamein of wounds.
We just do not know how tough these guys were - we're bitching and monaing because of the high cost of fuel and tyres and how bad it is that some guys want to put SBC's into a traditional looking car.
Wow, we are lucky!!!!

 

My dad used to joke about flying a B-17 with Studebaker engines.

 

My grandfather fought the soviets in Eastern Latvia.Towards the end of the war he fled Latvia with my grandmother,father,and uncle.They ended up in a Displaced Persons camp near Nurenburg for 5 years.They were denied immigration to Australia because of Mama's high blood pressure.America was their second choice.Actually third.I'm sure they would have prefered to return to their home in Latvia.

 

Y'know, every time we've got a break from war for ten years or so that's what all the planners say. In the '50s the Brits decided to stop building combat aircraft because missiles were going to do it all (and they needed the money for groundnuts and NHS anyway.) Now we've got drones picking off cars in commute traffic half a world away.

But when you actually HAVE something going on, not someone else's insurrection but a real US-national-interest shooting war against a real military force, suddenly it seems getting half a million boots on the ground (even in the small ones we've fought lately) and the equipment to support them and the ships and aircraft to support and protect the logistic train ends up being the difference between success and failure.

 

I'm not sure when Dad enlisted but he ended up being a tail gunner in B-25's in the Pacific flying over the same area that is now Viet Nam. He figured that out when he looked at the map to see where I was when I was in Nam. He managed to catch up with my uncle who was in a commando outfit somewhere in the South Pacific. He shocked him when he walked in the tent where he was when the plane he crewed on landed at a near by airfield for a stop over.
There were very few people in the US at that time that didn't have a hand in the war effort in some way shape or form during WWII.
When Dad was in basic he was on KP one day and another guy on KP with him was peeling spuds when he went "DAMN", They asked him what happened and he pointed to the spud sack that had his name on it. He said the last thing he did before he left for the service was dig his spuds and sack them up and sell them. Then he said if he hand known he was going to have to peel them he would have never dug them out of the ground.

 

My Father in Law was a B 17 pilot and refused to have Studebaker engines on his plane..........

 

My uncle Frank was the vice president of personnel at Convair before and during WWll.
He had ties to Boeing, who provided him with an executive plane.
Uncle Frank nixed the Boeing ship, demanded the Lockheed Hudson. He got it. LOL

 

GM built Hellcats (F6F), Packard built Merlins, Cadillac built tank engines.

 

Little Skeet... Go fuck yourself. You have no clue what today's military can or can't do. Yes, our war is different, but whoever you heard bitching are the ones that don't actually do anything. We have multiple tours, from 12 months to 18 months at a time. Not always getting leave and rest in between. And cell phones and Internet are not everywhere.

Sorry ton the rest of you, but deployment isn't easy and we are doing our part. God loves the Infantry...

 

I've got my trusty ol' M1 Carbine, made in March of '43 by Inland Division, General Motors...

 

Thought the subject was what did the independent car makers such as Studebaker, Hudson, etc. do for the war effort?
It turned into a "what did Dad or other family member do during the war" thread based on the subject of the Studebaker ad the OP posted.

Talk about a thread derailment.

 

My understanding is that's why the Dodge Brothers put the Star of David on their cars. Henry stiffed them on a contract and they did it to piss him off.