Only One Way to Win It: American Manufacturing in WWII

When Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, President Franklin Roosevelt and the nation were finally convinced that the United States entering World War II was necessary for an Allied victory. In January of 1942, Roosevelt formed the War Production Board, knowing that without a strong manufacturing base in place for wartime supplies, the Allies would be unable to achieve victory. He turned out to be right. The incredible output of munitions and military vehicles made by American plants during wartime had a tangible effect on the war effort, helping lead to an Allied defeat of the Axis powers.

Shortly after the decision to enter combat was made, the War Production Board (WPB) published a pamphlet to guide manufacturing plants on how to carry out production during wartime, establishing quotas and doing a little patriotic cheerleading to stoke the fire. As President Roosevelt himself states at the beginning of the pamphlet, “victory depends in large measure on the increased war production we are able to get from our factories and arsenals in the spring and summer of 1942. What has been done so far must be exceeded. This is total war…No one is a spectator; we are all belligerents.” While the military would be fighting abroad, Roosevelt and the WPB worked to ensure the home front that their role was just as important – if not more so. As the pamphlet gravely states, “the enemy has the most machines…unless we do catch up quickly, we face defeat.”

Although the US had been providing supplies to the Allies before they entered the war, thanks to the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in 1941 – when America’s military joined combat, the goal was to ensure that our boys at the front lines and the trenches got their supplies quickly.The production of consumer goods like cars, bottled sodas, and bedding took a backseat to making war supplies. Efficiency experts were sent to factories to ensure that workers were using their time and skills in the best possible manner. Unions pledged not to strike. Everyone was so fired up about victory over the Axis powers that, in 1942, American manufacturing exceeded 60 thousand planes and 45 thousand tanks. By 1944, some plants were able to finish bomber aircraft in just over an hour. (Whitman 20)

By the end of the war, America’s plants had produced $183 billion in arms, with half of that solely being due to aircraft and ships. At the Tehran Conference in 1943, Josef Stalin himself raised a toast “to American production, without which this war would have been lost.” Amazingly, despite being the least mobilized of all combatants in the war, America out-manufactured every other country combined - thereby lessening their overall collateral damage. (Herman 335-337) The largest difference between American efforts and foreign efforts was that America’s economy vastly improved as a result of their manufacturing efforts, while other countries – Germany, Russia, and Great Britain in particular – saw their economic output drop off, since they were either unable to employ a comparable number of workers to US factories, or (especially in the case of Germany) were using unwilling laborers. America’s fervor drove them to out-produce both their enemies and their friends, ensuring that they would be on top of the pile at the war’s end.

America’s home front was more akin to a force of nature than a bunch of factories getting behind a war effort. Their ability to produce munitions with a fevered fervor created a massive stockpile for Allied usage. American manufacturing helped feed, clothe, and arm the Allied forces far beyond what the European allies would have been able to on their own. Without them, it’s much more likely that the Axis powers would have overcome the Allies, especially in the European theater. Thank goodness for strength in numbers.

Works Cited

Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. New York: Random House, 2012. 

"Industrial Production During World War II." The New Jersey Digital Highway. Institute of Museum and Library Services, n.d. http://njdh.scc-net.rutgers.edu/enj/lessons/ww_ii_industrial_production/.

War Production Drive Official Plan Book. Washington, DC: War Production Board, 1942.

Whitman, Sylvia. V is for Victory: the American Home Front During World War II. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1993.