World War II became a race of production and the Ford Motor Company stepped up in a big way to help bring down Hitler. As the militaries of the Allied and Axis Powers geared up for battle, creating the tools of war became as critical as the fighting. As President Roosevelt said on May 26th, 1940, the government needs to “harness the efficient machinery of America’s manufacturers.”
Seemingly endless lines of B-24 Liberators on the production line at the Ford Willow Run plant in Detroit were valuable to America's war effort during World War II. (Getty)
The President aimed to create 50,000 combat aircraft over a calendar year to face the “approaching storm” of world war. In order to meet that colossal goal, Ford literally moved heaven and earth to equip Americans with the means to defeat the Nazis. This is the story of Ford Motor Company’s war effort.
Ford Met With Skepticism
By out producing the Axis Powers America strangled their hold on Europe.
To put President Roosevelt’s objective into perspective, 50,000 aircraft exceeded the total of all planes built since the Wright brothers’ invention in 1903. At the time America possessed less than 3,000 warplanes, most of which were obsolete. To win the war, the government decided that the B-17 and B-24s capable of striking deep into German territory were necessary.
A Massive Undertaking
B-24s under construction at Ford’s Willow Run line. Civilian automobile manufacturing was curtailed during the war as the emphasis shifted to war production. (Library of Congress)
Ford’s automobiles of the day were made up of 15,000 parts weighing roughly 3,000 pounds. By comparison, the B-24s required 450,000 parts, including 360,000 rivets in 550 different sizes. They also weighed over 36,000 pounds! To switch from making cars to making warplanes looked like an impossible task. It sounded downright crazy when Ford’s production chief Charles Sorensen declared they would build an assembly line for the planes!
How About Just Wings?
The output of the infamous Willow line helped turn the tide of the war.
It sounded so ridiculous to government officials that they countered with the suggestion that Ford simply makes the wings. Sorensen responded to that idea by saying, “We’ll build the whole plane or nothing!” He also declared that Ford would assemble a new B-24 every hour, an outlandish claim at the time. Dutch Kindleberger, President of North American Aviation, called it poppycock, asserting “You can’t expect a blacksmith to make a watch overnight.”
The Ford Way
Ford made more than planes as well. Tanks, amphibious jeeps, and armored cars were also on the docket. (Ford)
When Sorenson took a tour of the San Diego plant that built the B-24s, he was not impressed. As he put it, “There was no sequence or orderly flow of materials, no sense of forward motion, no reliance on machined parts,” he said. “They were producing a custom-made plane put together as a tailor would cut and fit a suit of clothes. No two were alike.” After spending many sleepless days and nights designing the new assembly line, Sorenson ran into further problems with the blueprints for the planes.
From Top To Bottom
The turn around time for these huge projects also beggars belief.
Ultimately, they decided the plans were useless and ordered a thousand engineers to work around the clock taking apart two B-24s to create their own blueprints from scratch. Even working 24 hours a day seven days a week, it took almost a year to create their own schematics of the planes. In the end, they created five million square feet of blueprints along with custom designs for 1,600 machine tools, 11,000 fixtures, some of which were 60 feet tall and capable of grinding parts to thousandths of an inch!
“The Most Enormous Room In The History Of Man”
Ford factory women workers during 2nd World War. Creator Unknown. (Photo by National Motor MuseumHeritage Images via Getty)
To house this massive project, Ford built the largest assembly line in the world at that time. Over a 1,875 acre tract, they built a plant over 3,200 feet long and 1,279 across at its widest point. The 80-acre interior dwarfed the Empire State Building’s floor space by 20%. One critic referred to it as “a sprawling mass of industrial ambition.” Three days after initial construction finished, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the pressure to succeed became even more palpable.
Women To The Rescue
Fueling much that vital war production was the labor of America's women.
As the war intensified, more and more men were called into duty, leaving thousands of crucial jobs unattended. Everyone was asked to “Do Their Part” and the women of America came through in spades. Collectively known as “Rosie the Riveter” 12,000 women stepped in and worked the nine-hour shifts morning and night to keep production up. In a nod to progress, the women were paid the same 85 cents an hour their male counterparts earned. The shift from men to women also became the model of diversity for future generations to come.
By 1944, Ford hit their promise of rolling off a B-24 every hour, an incredible feat that took years and years of work to achieve. By the end of the war, Ford built over 86,865 aircraft, 57,851 airplane engines, and more than 4,291 military gilders. They also built tanks, armored cars, and jeeps. Recognizing their incredible achievements, the American Legion awarded Henry Ford their distinguished Service Medal.
