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A review by johnmarlowe
The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War by A.J. Baime
5.0
I loved this book. My liking it though, was undoubtedly tinged by my having worked in a GM auto assembly plant for 18 years. It was fascinating to read about the Detroit of the 1940’s and how it became the “Arsenal of Democracy” during WW II. A lot of the story had to do with Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Henry Ford II and all the people who helped them. That was fine with me because that story was also fascinating. Henry Ford, the one who started his family automotive empire, was a genius who was also a despicable person, especially to his son Edsel. Edsel however, was an admired and respected person to most people around him at the time. I knew nothing of the story of Edsel Ford before this book. The main story in the book was that of the Willow Run Bomber Plant, which eventually churned out a B-24 Liberator at the rate of a “bomber an hour” toward the end of the war, something people did not believe was possible. Edsel Ford and his people did an unheard of thing by producing complicated airplanes in the manner of an automobile assembly plant. All through the book I had the nagging memory that “Willow Run” was a GM plant, but it was newly built by Edsel Ford to be a B-24 bomber assembly plant for the war effort. It was only at the end of the book that I discovered that the plant, which was incredibly huge, was sold to GM in 1953 and produced transmissions for years. There is so much I don’t know, or have forgotten about the history of Ford, GM and Chrysler and many, many other well known companies concerning what they did for the war. I had also forgotten that there were NO cars, trucks or auto parts produced for commercial purposes from 1942 to 1945. This fact is making me want to find out what my GM assembly plant produced during the war. I have a vague memory of being told that they made trucks, but I’m not sure, and hope to find out.
8/1/14: I found out that the GM Norwood (OH) assembly plant made 4x4 trucks during the war years. This was called "Plant C" during the war, the "C" meaning Cincinnati. It was astounding to find out, according to the book "Echoes of Norwood", that the plant also made the Norden bombsight during the war, and was one of 6 factories that made it. Also made at the plant where I worked for many years, were "combat aircraft landing gear". What revelations!
8/1/14: I found out that the GM Norwood (OH) assembly plant made 4x4 trucks during the war years. This was called "Plant C" during the war, the "C" meaning Cincinnati. It was astounding to find out, according to the book "Echoes of Norwood", that the plant also made the Norden bombsight during the war, and was one of 6 factories that made it. Also made at the plant where I worked for many years, were "combat aircraft landing gear". What revelations!