Factories retool to support war effort in World War II
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, is reported to have written those thoughts in his war diary shortly after what appeared to be a spectacular success.
Yamamoto had spent several years in America and well understood the enormous resources and industrial capacity, which Japan could not hope to match. He would not survive to see his nation destroyed as he had feared.
The United States would indeed crush the Axis powers in World War II by producing every conceivable product needed by our fighting forces in quantities that are almost impossible to imagine today. A preview of that scenario had played out during the two years after war broke out in 1939.
Almost immediately there was a great need for war materials to help the Allied nations fighting in Europe. The United States, in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, would be “The Arsenal of Democracy.” Weapons and supplies of every kind were sent to England, and later the Soviet Union, using the Lend / Lease program. This maintained the fiction that America was a neutral nation in the conflict by “loaning” our weapons to the Allies.
After Pearl Harbor the entire country enlisted in the war effort. Millions of men entered military service, and the men and women who stayed behind worked to supply the needs of modern warfare. Victory on the homefront would become every bit as important as winning on the battlefield, and in fact made that success possible.
Just a few examples can illustrate the incredible capacity of American factories during the war. The Willow Run plant in Michigan was built by the Ford Motor Company to produce airplanes, primarily the four-engine B-24 that would become the most widely produced bomber in history. This plane contained over 1 million parts, which were assembled to create a finished aircraft every 63 minutes. Nearly 7,000 planes were built at this factory alone.
The entire automobile industry was mobilized for war. Automakers made 3,000,000 cars in 1941, but produced just over 100 during the next four years. Instead, every auto assembly line in America was converted to military production. The Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant, built by Chrysler, produced 36% of the 49,234 Sherman tanks that became the primary American fighting vehicle in the war.
The Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, and the Winchester Company in Connecticut, made more than 4 million M-1 Garand rifles, half of all the battle rifles produced by the U.S. during the war.
The M-1 steel helmet, otherwise known as The Steel Pot, was used by every branch of the service and even civil defense personnel on the homefront. By 1945 there were 22 million in use worldwide.
Thousands of ships were needed to transport these products to England and Russia. Using a single design simplified the construction of these 14,000 ton freighters that could each hold 10,200 tons of supplies. They became known as Liberty Ships and 18 new shipyards were created to build them.
The first ship was finished in 244 days, but that time would continually improve. By the time the last of the 2,710 ships was launched, final average reached 42 days. The fastest recorded time for one ship was an incredible five days from start to finish.
During the war years, American shipyards would also produce over 1,000 major fighting vessels of all types. This included almost 100 aircraft carriers, which became key to victory. The last major navy battle in the Pacific saw three Japanese carriers among 67 ships facing an American fleet of 300 vessels, including 35 carriers. The results were totally predictable, and the Japanese navy ceased to exist as a fighting force.
The Keystone State was a leader in this massive war effort. The mills of Western Pennsylvania, along with Bethlehem Steel in the east, supplied one third of America’s most vital wartime material — steel.
Pennsylvania also led the nation in Portland cement, made the best lubricating oil, and refined millions of gallons of 100 octane gasoline for aircraft engines.
With 900,000 men and women from our state serving in the armed forces, a huge need for industrial work opened. More than a million women entered the work force at jobs traditionally held by men. Tens of thousands of poor, mostly Black, workers left the South for northern cities like Pittsburgh and dozens of other mill towns in our region.
More than 2.5 million Pennsylvanians worked in industry, and another 1.5 million would find work in defense related jobs such as civil defense, equipment maintenance, and administrative tasks. Goods such as meat, sugar, gasoline, rubber, coffee, and other vital products were rationed on the homefront to save them for the fighting forces. Billions of dollars were collected by the sale of government bonds, which would be paid back in 10 years.
Coal was the primary source of power for locomotives, industry, electric generation and home heating. This was one of the most important resources, and our region led the way. Strip mining revolutionized coal production, which more than doubled in Butler County to over a million tons by 1944. This new technology also caused a rapid decline in the need for coal miners, despite the large number who left to serve in the military. Another unfortunate side effect was environmental devastation that is still with us today.
Dozens of Butler County factories played their part in winning the war by making more of their primary product, or producing other items that were needed by the armed forces. Some did both.
Pullman Standard in Lyndora was a leading producer of railroad cars for the Allies both before and during the war. In addition, this company developed new methods of creating shells for ammunition. The Pullman factory forged over 7 million artillery shells, plus thousands of casings for rockets and 500-pound bombs. The same plant machined 4 million additional shells. Many women found work as welders and riveters, with several dozen remaining after the war ended.
The Spang company was a leader in petroleum machinery and tool making, with products used nationwide. This factory, located in East Butler, developed shell producing equipment and manufactured 6-inch shells for British forces. Many other specialized machines were also created by this pioneering firm.
The American Rolling Mill Company retained as many employees as possible during the Great Depression and was able to ramp up quickly when war came. The ARMCO steel plant, located off Route 8 south of Butler, compiled a truly impressive record in producing wartime materials. Sheet and specialty steels were used in countless ways, including gas cans, radar equipment, armor plate, air raid shelters, corrugated sheets, motorcycle parts, propeller blades, oxygen tanks, and dozens more.
ARMCO also worked with the Army and Navy to develop substitutes for other vital metals, such as copper and zinc. As common metals became increasingly scarce, employees would spend countless hours searching for donations to the company scrap drive. They ultimately collected over 1.2 million pounds to help keep the plant operating at full capacity.
Women were hired to fill hundreds of jobs throughout the factory, with many of them recruited from ARMCO families. The company was careful to avoid taking women from other essential jobs.
In October 1942, ARMCO was presented the “Army-Navy E Award.” Of the 85,000 companies that produced wartime materials, 5% of them received this honor for “Excellence in Production.”
Another important product often overlooked when discussing wartime equipment is clothing for service personnel. The Spaide Shirt Company, on Brugh Avenue in Butler, played a large role in filling that need. In 1940, a new olive drab field jacket was designed for use by the U.S. Army. More than 23 million of these M-1941 jackets would be produced during the war by nine contractors, including Spaide.
Butler’s most famous contribution to the war effort was the invention of the Jeep by the American Bantam Car Company in 1940. Bantam filled a first order of 2,500 but was not given the contract to build these legendary vehicles during the war. Willys-Overland and Ford eventually built 643,000 Jeeps. This multipurpose vehicle was hailed as a key to victory in the war.
Bantam did earn important contracts to build British torpedo motors, and subassemblies for Helldiver bombers. What really saved the company was a contract to make 1-ton Jeep trailers. Over 100,000 were built and American Bantam also earned the coveted “Army-Navy E Award.” In 1946, the army gave permission for Bantam to sell a civilian version of the trailer, which allowed the company to survive until 1953.
Tens of thousands of Butler County residents, men, and women, young and old, did their part to achieve final victory over the Axis powers. Our factories and workers fulfilled the promise of FDR to make our nation “The Arsenal of Democracy.”
Steve Cicero, a former history teacher with the Butler Area School District, gives presentations on history as The History Hobo and can be reached at thehistoryhobo@gmail.com.
