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

I enlisted in the tail end of Vietnam and That's what we all said about the plastic bits on the M16... You can tell it's Mattel... It's swell!!!!

 

Canada? Or was that just during the Nam?

 

Hot rods and customs???

 

Then why did the original poster ask this one question?
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Magnum Wheel Man wrote:

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

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That's what he wrote under the ad for Studebaker.
I don't refer to people as "brands", but that's just me...
I don't know of any person who "advertised their efforts"

I was just trying to keep down some of the posts that were getting argumentative and thought maybe we could get back on track.
Maybe not.

 

The Louisville Slugger bat company in Kentucky made millions of rifle stocks during the war.

 

Point taken...I stand corrected.

Thanx,

R-

 

My Dad had a double hernya and bad eye sight,(plus three kids,,the only single source of income for the family) was classed as 4-y by the draft board plus worked in a dairy plant (food support for the war effort).
Had one uncle in the army engineers ended up on Sipan, one cousin in the Navy Pacific, and on cousin in the Air force in Europe B-24s, thankfully all came back

 

Kawasaki built aircraft carriers, Mitsubishi built zeros. I like to point that out in the motorcycle parking lot at work when they rag me about oil under my harley.

 

My grandfather was a pipe fitter at a Mobil Oil refinery. His job was considered too important for the war effort.

 

American Car & Foundry in Berwick, PA produced M3A1 (Stuart) tanks during WWII. That must have pissed off Hitler, because supposedly Berwick, PA was on his list of targets if he could pull off a bombing run on the USA.

 

My Father served in the trenches in WW1,so he was too old to serve in WW2.So he worked civil service at the local Naval air station doing maintaince.Mostly painting.Mother was an aircraft spotter.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

F.Y.I. the major depot arsenals were not only run and staffed by the military but also civilian companies like Remington Rand G.E. and others also the military used almost all the major companies to provide skills training as these types of training had not been in the military orginization prior to the war [with possible exception of some small navy schools. In the ArkLaTex area up untill recently it was not uncommon to see women with maimed hands from working in ammunition plants. by the way there were K.I.A.s in all the plants nationwide and no Purple Hearts or Gold stars given to these families. Everybody served that could each in his own way many volunteered some were called just like the draftees.

 

as has been said, every shop/factory/forge that operated at all was put to gainful work during hostilities... every car, truck, and agricultural manufacturer basically set aside ALL of their normal production and made whatever the War Production Office deemed proper for their capacity and ability to produce. there were NO "slacker" companies between 1942 and 1946.... even the smallest shops were tasked with SOMETHING.... and, that was just HERE. in Britain, production had to be broken up into small portions and "farmed out", literally, all over the country in order to make up for material lost in France at Dunkirk. every last piece of scrap metal had to be accounted for, as every ounce could go into a new rifle, or airplane...
Germany became a master at recovering and recycling machinery; adapting and reworking captured machinery and factories to suit their own needs; not bad for a nation with only a SMALL actually technically skilled population (most Soldaten were country boys like our own).
Japan went into the war BADLY prepared to replace any material losses; all of their production facilities were well-known and their skilled workforce remarkably small. technical expertise was not widely found in the Japanese military outside the Navy.
our own military suffered a lack of skilled technical workers as well; most, as has been noted, were deemed too critical for the war effort to allow them to enlist at first... but, eventually, the need for frontline geniuses in the repair facilities made the War Office retrench their stand. all of my uncles had worked in factories before they enlisted to serve... some of my aunts worked in the war effort as well.
we'd never be able to throw ALL our nation into such an effort again.... that was the turning point in our nation's life. we went from making to buying, and that will be our downfall.

 

never underestimate a soldiers capabilities. they complained in all wars, but they soldiered on.

 

Edit: Crap I just read the actual point sorry for below but I guess people did make things so it sort of counts

Paternal grandfather too old for WW2 wrote How to Grow Victory Gardens books sponsored by Standard Oil
paternal grand mother was a housewife - dad was 13 when war started

Maternal grandmother was a Rosie at Bremmerton and Mare Island, so was Aunt Eunice and my mom.
Maternal grandfather was ww1 veteran and vanished during the depression... Probably murdered.
Moms brother Wesley joined up - he lied at 17 and was turned down by the Marines, he had a cold and couldn't pass eye test.
Next day Army took him.
As sole male in the family he could have deferred.
He didn't.
He was KIA in France in February 1945 at 18.

Had a friend who's parents worked at Convair building B24s Mr Boudreaux was 4F. They met there and married post war. He learned so much about aluminum that post war he sold Ware ever pots and pans door to door. He worked his way up, drove a black caddy every year ( his favorite was a 53) and retired with several homes he rented and left his kids millions.

Hard times for all involved.
The sacrifice and hard work is inspirational.
It's why my tag line is :
Poverty leaves an impression

 

This struck a chord with me, as a young man I tried to enlist in the marines but could not medically pass. I was talking to my brother in law who is now a Maj.Gen. in the marines about that, and how bad I felt that I could not have served and he said the same thing you wrote to me. I've done lots in the US and abroad to help keep the world moving, lights on, and warm, and that I am doing my share.

 

General Motors developed and supplied Nazi Germany with advanced Fuels so it could proceed with the attach on Poland.

"Nazi armaments chief Albert Speer told a congressional investigator that Germany could not have attempted its September 1939 Blitzkrieg of Poland without the performance-boosting additive technology provided by Alfred P. Sloan and General Motors".
During WWll, General Motors Brandenburg (opel) facilities produced bombers JU-88, trucks, land mines and torpedo detonators for Nazi Germany.<sup id="cite_ref-60" class="reference"></sup>


Charles Levinson, formerly deputy director of the European office of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) clearly stated:<sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference"></sup>

"General Motors CEO - Alfred P. Sloan and executive officers; James D. Mooney, John T. Smith and Graeme K. Howard remained on the General Motors (Opel) executive board . . . in flagrant violation of existing legislation. Information, contacts, transfers and trade continued [throughout the war] to flow between the firm's Detroit headquarters and its subsidiaries both in Allied countries and in territories controlled by the Axis powers.



The financial records of GM Rüsselsheim revealed that between 1942 and 1945 production and sales strategy were planned in close coordination with General Motors factories throughout the world....



In 1943, while its American manufacturers were equipping the United States Air Force, the German group were developing, manufacturing and assembling motors for the Messerschmitt 262, the first jet fighter in the world.



This innovation gave the Nazis a basic technological advantage. With speeds up to 540 miles per hour, this aircraft could fly 100 miles per hour faster than its American rival, the piston-powered Mustang P51."
​

David Farber, author of Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors (2002), stated that:<sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference"></sup>

"GM destroyed Sloan's files to protect itself from lawsuits regarding antitrust issues, the neglect of automobile safety and its investments in Nazi Germany."
​

<sup id="cite_ref-Sloan1964pp328-337_63-1" class="reference"></sup>

Defending the German investment strategy as "highly profitable", General Motors CEO, Alfred P. Sloan told shareholders in 1939 GM's continued industrial production for the Nazi government was merely sound business practice. In a letter to a concerned shareholder, Sloan said that the manner in which Hitler and the Nazi government ran Germany "should not be considered the business of the management of General Motors...We must conduct ourselves as a German organization"

<sup id="cite_ref-wpost-30nov98_64-0" class="reference"></sup>
After 20 years of researching General Motors, Bradford Snell stated, "General Motors was far more important to the Nazi war machine than Switzerland (Finance) ... Switzerland was just a repository of looted funds. General Motor was an integral part of the German war effort. The Nazis could have invaded Poland and Russia without Switzerland.
They could not have done so without GM.



.

 

My Grandfather was in Cali at Lockheed.

 

I've always thought the armored car that Preston Tucker designed was badass. It was powered by a Harry Miller modified Packard V-12...talk about a hot rod! Although the military didn't like the car (they thought it was too fast) they liked the turret and used them on the B-17's and B-29's.

 

All of the automotive companies as well as appliance manufacturers, toy manufacturers, and virtually every every other manufacturer of domestic goods was geared up to support the war effort. Magazines during the war were filled with ads from these companies touting their war efforts and later their soon to reappear civilian goods as the war drew to a close. It was a time that will never be repeated and a proud moment in our history as we were instrumental in defeating the Axis powers in every theatre of the war.

 

When I was younger I knew a lot of older people who held a deep hatred for the Japanese people because of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Even years and years after the war they still had these feelings and nothing could sway them . My ex Father in Law was one of them, we had some conversations about it and he was still bitter 50 years after the war ended.

Here is some interesting reading on what home life was like during ww II.

Don

http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_collections/subtopic5h.html

 

My mother-in-law sewed parachutes.

 

Even people who couldn't fight or work found something to do; in a collection of old railroad files I found they loaned use of all kinds of unused plots of their lands for victory gardens. Often the land or right of way they owned was much wider than what was actually used for trains or rail-related uses, so this was a productive use and if I remember right people more or less just had to ask for permission to plant one.

 

That about says it all.

And Don, you are unfortunately correct.

 

It just can't be said too much.

 

Don't forget about good old "Jody" - the guy who stayed home and stole your girlfriend!

They still call cadence for him! Gary

 

It can be interpreted either way I guess.
When I saw the word "Orphan", and saw the OP owns a 1938 Nash, an orphan automobile, then posted an ad from Studebaker which is yet another orphan automobile, I took the phrase "other guys" to mean other orphan automakers.

Meh, semantics. Whatever.
It's all good stuff.

 

You forgot to point out that America was officially neutral until December 1941. Before that time did they cooperate with the German government? What choice did they have? And after that time GM had no control over its European assets which were in the hands of the Axis powers, in fact they wrote them off on their income tax.

Or that the high octane leaded fuel technology had been well known in the industry since the late twenties.

Or that the head of the CIO is hardly an unbiased critic of General Motors, and the unions never let the truth stand in the way of bashing GM.

I also seriously doubt that the Nazis with their spy mania, would let information, technology, or personnel freely pass between Germany and the US. It would have been a wonderful opportunity for American espionage if they had.

 

BTW... I was refering specifically to the other automobile ( & or other manufacturing ) to stay within the rules of the forum ( BTW... some of this stuff is really the father of Hot Rodding )

this is pretty much where I started... ( ...er... well curious as to what all auto manufacturers were making, not just the orphans ) sorry, maybe should have made that more clear...

However... if the mods are OK leaving the thread with what peoples families did I'm OK with it as I'm finding it quite interesting & informational...

 

2800hp of R-2800 with a bowtie on it.
Thats what you call a Chevrolet Big Block!