Last week, I discussed the role of America in the defence and defense of the allies in the lead up to World War II. When, thanks to the back-up of American production, Britain was able to fight the threat from its enemies. As the war progressed, the allies were facing greater threats and assembly lines were needed to keep the allies armed.
On 7th December Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Tension between the two countries was extreme and had been rising for a long time starting with the American disapproval of the Japanese Army behaviour in China. As a sanction, America progressively denied supply of materials to Japan until it reached breaking point with the complete embargo on oil supplies without which Japanese industry could not operate.
Japan was well aware of the American vulnerability of weak defenses and there was strong support within the military to invade California. The decision not to invade was due entirely to the fact that it was known that there were many guns in the hands of the civilian population and California was very far from Japan which made supply a logistical nightmare.
Attention then swung to an attack on the American Pacific fleet based at Pearl Harbour to put it out of action and eliminate the risk of it coming to the aid of its army in the Philippines and its allies if and when Japan decided to invade SE Asia to secure its vital supplies.
There were several strategies debated within the Japanese high command and Admiral Yamamoto, the senior officer of the Japanese navy was appointed to plan and lead the attack. Yamamoto had been stationed in Washington as a naval attaché and was very conversant with the potential of American industry. He accepted the appointment on the condition that the strike would be carried out according to his instructions and that condition was accepted.
Yamamoto laid down three targets to be achieved if the raid was going to proceed.
First was that the American carrier fleet had to be destroyed. Yamamoto knew from the experience of the sinking of the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse in December 1939 that the days of the battleship were numbered as against air power and that the future lay in aircraft carriers.
Second was that the oil storage tanks at Pearl Harbour had to be destroyed so that American ships based at Pearl Harbour did not have the ability to sail back to the US mainland.
Third was that the raid would inflict so much damage that America would be forced to sue for an armistice.
It is now a matter of record that the raid failed to meet Yamamoto’s conditions and in the aftermath, he is recorded as saying that “The war is lost. All that we have done is to wake a sleeping giant”.
The American carrier fleet was still at sea when the raid took place and was not even attacked. The loss of the ships in “Battleship Row” had little or no effect on American fighting ability. The oil storage tanks were undamaged and the hope of forcing an armistice vanished with them.
Yamamoto’s lament that a sleeping giant had been awakened was fatally correct. A state of war then existed between Japan and America which threw off the cloak of restrictions imposed by the Neutrality Acts. Adding to the American relief, Germany and Italy declared war on America the next day so that there was now no debate in any quarter about America’s ability or willingness to participate in and supply foreign nations at war as long as they were on the same side as America.
A State of Emergency was declared and the American people were galvanised into a union with one single purpose: to avenge Pearl Harbour.
This new state of affairs also changed the attitude of Henry Ford. He was no longer committed to isolationism but was equally fervently committed to the defense and protection of his country. The debate about production of Rolls Royce engines was long past and a new, more substantial project was on the horizon.
The War Council decided that the key to a successful offensive war against Germany was the four-engined bomber. During the Battle of Britain Germany did not have one. Its bombers were two engined and less formidable as opponents for British fighters. Attention turned to the ways and means of producing a four engined bomber quickly and in large numbers. The selected aircraft was the American B24 Liberator made by the Consolidated Aircraft Company and it was needed in thousands.
CORRECTION: In the beginning of this video, it was said that the B-24 Liberator is the most produced military aircraft of all time. This is not correct. The B-24 is the most produced bomber of all time, but the most produced military aircraft of all time is the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik.
American industry was willing but it was not ready at the outbreak of war. It was still saddled with the lethargy of the depression years, antipathy between the Democrat President Roosevelt and the industrial giants and hang overs of unionism that put a brake on production in the interests of preserving jobs. The war solved these handicaps. The depression was over because there were now more jobs than workers, Roosevelt extended the olive branch of almost carte blanche freedoms and the role of unions became redundant.
It was calculated that America would need to produce 125,000 planes per year. This, in addition to other war materials, was calculated by Knudson to require an expenditure for start-up of $4 billion dollars.
Once again Knudson turned to the Ford Motor Company and this time was greeted with enthusiasm. Henry Ford was no longer interested in making engines or parts. He wanted to build complete aeroplanes and to this end Ford constructed the biggest factory in the world at that time at Willow Run exclusively for the production of the B24 bomber. The Willow Run factory was about 25 miles from Detroit and covered an area of 4,200,000 square feet.
To run a factory of this scale required an outstanding expert with experience and organisational skills. To do this job Ford and Knudsen selected Charles Sorensen a retired Ford employee of 35 years standing who had risen through the ranks from pattern maker to Vice President of Manufacturing. It was he who designed and oversaw the production line of the T model Ford.
Sorensen attended a meeting in Detroit where the requirements were laid before him. On conclusion he returned to his home in San Diego and set to work planning the factory from his meeting notes. Within 24 hours he produced a complete plan for the factory lay-out and production organisation with the prediction that he could produce one B24 bomber every hour. This conclusion was met with derision by the chiefs of the Army and they wanted to stop the contract. But Sorensen prevailed and the Army let a $200 million contract to get it moving. Sorensen’s plan was for two production lines moving at the rate of one movement per hour.
At the outset, production targets were well short of predictions due to constant modifications of the design. In the end Sorensen insisted that the design phase be completed and settled without further modification. Sorensen made a deal with Consolidated that he would build 400 bombers of one design. At the end of that run any further alterations could be made and that was the final alteration. This was essential to maintain a constantly moving production line.
By the end of March, 1943 the production time of 200 hours for a B24 consisting of 1,500,000 individual parts had been reduced by 90%. Sorensen’s initial target of one B24 per hour was achieved and the fastest rate was one every 55 minutes. The mind boggles at the thought of a plane of this size being produced at the rate of one per hour. There were more B24 bombers built during the war that any other type of aircraft on either side and half of them came from the Willow Run factory.
At the same time the other heavy bomber manufacturer, Boeing, based in Seattle had been steadily producing its B17, the Flying Fortress. For several years it had been working on a project for a new revolutionary bomber which was so sophisticated that the Army wanted nothing to do with it so Boeing carried on alone. After 4 years of development work Boeing final settled on the design and produced the B29, known as the Super Fortress. This plane was adopted by the Army on the basis that the island hopping strategy of Admiral Nimitz would take a long time and suffer high casualties. The B24 did not have the range to reach the Japanese home islands so the B29 was brought into the front line.
This plane was so huge that it required a new factory to accommodate its production. Boeing built a new factory at Wichita, Kansas with subsidiary plants being built by other aircraft manufacturers. The War Production Board wanted nothing to do with it so it was left to the American aircraft industry to co-ordinate itself to produce the aircraft. This new factory was bigger than Willow Rum. The plane itself consisted of double the number of parts of the B24 and its sheer size reduced the B24 to medium bomber status.
The most famous aeroplane ever built was, I think, the B29, Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on 6th August, 1945. A separate story in itself.
Following the end of the war the factories at Willow Run and Wichita have fallen into disuse and are now largely derelict.
At war’s end Bill Knudsen, the master of manufacturing had left his post. His task was completed three months earlier. On his watch, the American aircraft industry produced 342,000 aircraft at 6 times the rate of production of the rest of the world. Knudsen died in 1947 but he left behind him a legacy that had propelled America into the greatest manufacturing juggernaut the world has ever seen or likely to see. Its capacity to produce the weapons of war has guaranteed the safety of the Western world and will do so for a long time because the techniques developed on Knudsen’s watch are now embedded in American industry as standard practice and shared with its allies unstintingly. The rise of Japanese and Chinese production can all be traced back to what was developed during Bill Knudson’s watch.
Churchill’s speech on 9th February, 1941 when he said “give us the tools and we will finish the job” could also apply to the policies adopted by President Roosevelt who gave Knudsen a free hand to do whatever he thought was best and backed him up with the power of his office.
Two thirds of all of the equipment used by the Allies during WW2 was produced by America. Not only was it supplying Britain, it was also supplying huge quantities to Russia. The perils of the Murmansk convoys are well recorded but in addition, many aircraft were supplied by flying them from Alaska.
Australia relied heavily on American supplies of equipment and munitions. New Zealand less so because its army was always a part of the British army in North Africa and Europe. Its direct engagement with the Japanese was minimal compared to Australia.
If you missed Part One - https://joomla.vps101246.mylogin.co/index.php/3113-god-bless-america-episode-1-the-eagle-awakes
Next week, we explore the war at sea.
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