WW2 Tank Factory

[Jimaz]

Building The B-24 Bomber During WWII "Story of Willow Run"

Made by the Ford Motor Company during WWII, "The Story of Willow Run" explains the company's role in producing the Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. Narrated by Harry Wismer, the film explains how Ford manufactured and built B-24 Liberators under license from Consolidated Aircraft Company. Production rates were so great at the plant that a new B-24 rolled off the production line every 55 minutes.

The plant began production in summer 1941; the dedication plaque is dated June 16. The plant initially built components; Douglas Aircraft and the plane's designer Consolidated Aircraft assembled the finished aircraft. Remote assembly proved problematic, and by October 1941 Ford received permission to produce complete Liberators. Willow Run's Liberator assembly line ran through May 1945, building almost half of all the Liberators produced.

In early 1941 the Federal government established the Liberator Production Pool Program to meet the projected demand for the B-24, and the Ford company, joined the program shortly thereafter. Ford Motor would not only build the bombers, it would supply the airfield as well; the farm at Willow Run was an ideal location for the airfield's runways.

Architect Albert Kahn designed the main structure of the Willow Run bomber plant, which had 3,500,000 square feet [[330,000 m2) of factory space, and an aircraft assembly line over a mile long. It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world. The Willow Run plant featured a large turntable two-thirds of the way along the assembly line, allowing the B-24 production line to make a 90° turn before continuing to final assembly.

Despite intensive design efforts led by Ford production executive Charles E. Sorensen, the opening of the plant still saw some mismanagement and bungling, and quality was uneven for some time. Although the Ford Trimotor had been a success in the 1920s, the company had since shied away from aviation, and initially, Ford was assigned to provide B-24 components with final assembly performed by Consolidated at its Fort Worth plant, or by fellow licensee Douglas Aircraft at its Tulsa, Oklahoma plant. However, in October 1941 Ford received permission from Consolidated and the Army to assemble complete Liberators on its own at its new Willow Run facility. Even then it would take nearly a year before finished Liberators left the factory.

A 1943 committee authorized by Congress to examine problems at the plant issued a highly critical report; the Ford Motor Company had created a production line that too closely resembled an automobile assembly line "despite the warning of many experienced aircraftmen."

Although the jumping of an automotive company into aircraft production posed these quality problems, it also brought remarkable production rates. The plant held the distinction of being the world's largest enclosed "room." The first Ford-built Liberator rolled off the Willow Run line in September 1942; the first series of Willow Run Liberators was the B-24E.Henry Ford was cantankerous and rigid in his ways. He was violently anti-union and there were serious labor difficulties, including a massive strike. In addition, Henry Ford refused on principle to hire women. However, he finally relented and did employ "Rosie the Riveters" on his assembly lines, probably more because so many of his potential male workers had been drafted into the military than due to any sudden development of a social conscience on his part.

At the request of the government, Ford began to decentralize operations and many parts were assembled at other Ford plants as well as by the company's sub-contractors, with the Willow Run plant concentrating on final aircraft assembly. The bugs were eventually worked out of the manufacturing processes, and by 1944, Ford was rolling a Liberator off the Willow Run production line every 63 minutes, 24 hours a day,7 days a week.At its peak, Willow Run produced 650 B-24s per month. By 1945, Ford produced 70% of the B-24s in two 9-hour shifts. Ford produced half of the 18,000 total B-24s at Willow Run, and the B-24 holds the distinction of being the most produced heavy bomber in history. A total of 6,972 Liberators were built at Ford, and 1,893 knock-down parts were provided for other manufacturers.

Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. We collect, scan and preserve 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have films you'd like to have scanned or donate to Periscope Film, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the link below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k.

• PeriscopeFilm.com

[Henry Whalley]

committee authorized by Congress

Senate committee visit Ford Motor Company plant, April 13, 1942 - POLITICO

Eighty-two years later Congress encourages war-profiteering.

[Henry Whalley]

National War Labor Board [[1942–1945) - Wikipedia

[Jimaz]

National War Labor Board [[1942–1945) - Wikipedia

That link failed because DetroitYES corrupted the URL with those left brackets.

Here's an alternative link to the same page via TinyURL.com: National War Labor Board {1942–1945}.

[Jimaz]

BUILDING A TANK WWII M-3 MEDIUM TANK PRODUCTION DETROIT TANK ARSENAL & FORT KNOX

This film is about American tank production and shows work at the Detroit Tank Arsenal in the 1941-1942 era. A shorter version of this film was released narrated by Orson Welles.The film details the manufacture and use of M-3 medium tanks. Tanks are assembled and treads, motors, guns, and turrets are put in place at a factory. Shows stock of many parts required. At the end of the film, tanks stage an attack at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Detroit Arsenal {DTA}, formerly Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant {DATP} was the first manufacturing plant ever built for the mass production of tanks in the United States. Established in 1940 under Chrysler, this plant was owned and managed by the U.S. government until 1952 when management of the facility was turned over to the Chrysler Corporation. This plant was owned by the U.S. government until 1996 . It was designed by architect Albert Kahn. The building was designed originally as a "dual production facility, so that it could make armaments and be turned into peaceful production at war's end. Notwithstanding its name, the 113-acre {0.46 km²} site was located in Warren, Michigan, Detroit's largest suburb.

Chrysler's construction effort at the plant in 1941 was one of the fastest on record. The first tanks rumbled out of the plant before its complete construction.During World War II, the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant built a quarter of the 89,568 tanks produced in the U.S. overall. The Korean War boosted production for the first time since World War II had ended; the government would suspend tank production after each war. In May 1952, Chrysler resumed control from the army, which had been unable to ramp up production.

The M3 Lee, officially Medium Tank, M3, was an American medium tank used during World War II. In Britain, the tank was called by two names based on the turret configuration and crew size. Tanks employing US pattern turrets were called the "Lee", named after Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Variants using British pattern turrets were known as "Grant", named after Union general Ulysses S. Grant.

Design commenced in July 1940, and the first M3s were operational in late 1941. The U.S. Army needed a medium tank armed with a 75mm gun and, coupled with the United Kingdom's immediate demand for 3,650 medium tanks, the Lee began production by late 1940. The design was a compromise meant to produce a tank as soon as possible. The M3 had considerable firepower and good armor, but had serious drawbacks in its general design and shape, including a high silhouette, an archaic sponson mounting of the main gun preventing the tank from taking a hull-down position, riveted construction, and poor off-road performance.

Its overall performance was not satisfactory and the tank was withdrawn from combat in most theaters as soon as the M4 Sherman tank became available in larger numbers. In spite of this, it was considered by Hans von Luck {an Oberst {Colonel} in the Wehrmacht Heer and the author of Panzer Commander} to be superior to the best German tank at the time of its introduction, the Panzer IV {at least until the F1 variant}.

Despite being replaced elsewhere, the British continued to use M3s in combat against the Japanese in southeast Asia until 1945. Nearly a thousand M3s were supplied to the Soviet military under Lend-Lease between 1941–1943.

The M3 Lee was also the medium tank counterpart of the light tank M3 Stuart.

The M3 Stuart, officially Light Tank, M3, was an American light tank of World War II. It was supplied to British and other Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. into the war. Thereafter, it was used by U.S. and Allied forces until the end of the war.

The British service name "Stuart" came from the American Civil War Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart and was used for both the M3 and the derivative M5 Light Tank. In U.S. use, the tanks were officially known as "Light Tank M3" and "Light Tank M5".

Stuarts were the first American-crewed tanks in World War II to engage the enemy in tank versus tank combat.

The Stuart was also the light tank counterpart of the M3 Lee, which was a medium tank.

[JBMcB]

BUILDING A TANK WWII M-3 MEDIUM TANK PRODUCTION DETROIT TANK ARSENAL & FORT KNOX

Periscope Films does great archival work. They have neat industrial and propaganda films from WWII as well. Things MGM, Disney and Warner Brothers have *never* commercially released, but were scanned in from private collections.

https://archive.org/details/ephemera

Periscope is a subset of a film collection on archive.org that specializes in ephemera. All kinds of neat stuff in here - old random VHS tapes, videodiscs from motion simulator rides, training films for AT&T...

[Richard]

BUILDING A TANK WWII M-3 MEDIUM TANK PRODUCTION DETROIT TANK ARSENAL & FORT KNOX

That’s cool information in that the government still retained ownership in the plant until 1996,most stuff was returned to private enterprise after the war and many got stuck with tons of materials because they got that phone call to immediately cease production.

But and a really big but - Narrated by Orson Welles ?

The same guy that at the age of 23 convinced the entire country that we were being invaded by martians and everybody believed it .

A testament to the power of radio back then and how people got their information.

[Jimaz]

....

Bite me, Dick.

[Henry Whalley]

Bite me, Dick.