by A. J. Baime
]–[>], [>]–[>]
view of, among Willow Run workers, [>], [>]
war production achievements, [>]
on World War II as war between systems of production, [>]
See also B-24 Liberator; Ford Motor Company; Highland Park factory; River Rouge factory; Willow Run bomber plant and individual members of the Ford family
Soviet Union, Nazi German invasion of, [>]
Speer, Albert
appointment of Schmidt to head Ford of Germany, [>]
concerns about US four-engine bombers, [>]
movement of production to caves, [>]
reports to Hitler on effects of Allied bombing assault, [>]
responsibility for war production, [>]
Spirit of St. Louis (airplane), [>]–[>]
Spitfire fighter planes, [>]
Spreckels Building, San Diego, [>]
Stalin, Joseph, [>], [>], [>]–[>]
Stalingrad, Russia, defeat of Nazi forces at, [>]
Stark, Harold, [>]
State of the Union Address (Roosevelt)
1942, [>]
1943, [>]
Steinbeck, John (Bombs Away), [>]
Stephenson, William (“Intrepid”), [>]
Stermer, James Edson
experience as new employee at Willow Run, [>]–[>]
on life in Willow Lodge dormitory, [>]
riveting school, riveting, [>]–[>]
transportation to and from Willow Run plant, [>]–[>]
Stettinius, Edward, [>]
Stilwell, Joseph, [>]–[>]
Stimson, Henry, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
stock market crash, 1929, [>]–[>]
Stout, William, [>], [>]
Stout Metal Airplane Company, [>]
Studebaker, [>]
Stuka dive-bombers, [>]
Supreme Court, ruling on labor union contracts, [>]
Tallberg, V. Y., [>]–[>], [>]
tank destroyers, GM production of, [>]
tanks
advertisements featuring, [>]
Chrysler-built, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
condition during the Great Depression, [>]
Ford-built, [>], [>], [>]
German Panzers, [>], [>], [>]
German roads for, [>]
and the invasion of Poland, [>]
M5 light tank production at GM, [>]
numbers ordered and used, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
plastic coating for, [>]
unloading during D-Day, [>]
use during Detroit Race Riot, [>]
Targoviste, Romania, during Operation Tidal Wave, [>]
tarpaper shacks at Willow Run, [>]
Taylor, Sam, [>]
TBF Avenger fighter plane, [>], [>]
Tehran Conference, [>], [>]–[>]
Thorpe, Jim, [>]
Time magazine
on Detroit as a boomtown, [>]
Henry Ford cover, [>]
on power struggles at Ford, [>]
Truman cover, [>]
Time Study Department, Willow Run, [>]–[>]
“Tin Goose” (Ford Tri-Motor airplane), [>]
tires, B-24 Liberator, [>]
Tocco, Joe, [>]
Todt, Fritz, [>]
Trading with the Enemy Act, [>], [>]–[>], [>]
training schools at Willow Run, [>], [>], [>]–[>]
trucks, military
number used in the invasion of Sicily, [>]
produced by Ford at Dagenham, England, [>]
produced by French and German Ford factories, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>]
produced by German GM factories, [>], [>], [>], [>]
produced in the US for Allies, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
requests for from European and Soviet allies, [>]
Truman, Harry S., Truman Committee
announcement of Nazi surrender, [>]
commitment to fighting corruption in defense production, [>], [>]–[>]
gift of Ford’s first postwar auto to, [>]
investigation into Bomber City construction, [>]
investigations at Willow Run, [>]
political rise, [>]–[>], [>]
on Time cover, [>]
Willow Run investigation, [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]
Tully, Grace, [>], [>], [>]
Tulsa, OK, Douglas Aviation bomber assembly, [>]
UAW. See United Auto Workers (UAW)
U-boats, [>], [>], [>], [>]
Udet, Ernst, [>]–[>], [>]
Unfinished Portrait (Shoumatoff), [>]–[>]
United Auto Workers (UAW)
Battle of the Overpass, [>]–[>]
contracts with GM and Chrysler, [>]
contract with Ford, [>]–[>]
efforts to organize at the Rouge, 1937, [>]–[>]
HF’s refusal to recognize, [>], [>]
initial opposition to Ford’s federal contracts, [>]
objections to hiring of prostitutes, [>]
respect shown EF, [>], [>], [>]
River Rouge factory strike, 1941, [>]–[>]
tribute to EF, [>]
US Air Mail Service, [>]–[>]
US Army Air Corps
Allison engine, [>]
Arnold’s success in building, [>]
casualties among airmen, [>]
directive to destroy the German air force, [>], [>]
FDR’s recognition of importance of, [>]–[>]
Lindbergh’s efforts to get reinstated, [>]
Lindbergh’s resignation from, [>]–[>]
preference for daytime precision bombing, [>]
role during D-Day invasion, [>]
status of, in 1940, [>], [>], [>]
successes following US entry into war, [>]
See also heavy bombers; military airplanes, airpower; Waco CG-4A gliders; war production; specific airplanes and military operations
US Congress, FDR’s request for funding military production, [>]–[>]
US military, size of, [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]
US Navy, HF2’s enlistment, [>], [>]–[>]
US Treasury Department, investigations of EF, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]
Van Auken, Charles, [>]–[>], [>]
Vance, Harold, [>]
Vanity Fair, exposé of the Rouge, [>]
Van Wagoner, Murray, [>]
V-E Day, [>]–[>]
Velz, Robert, [>]
Very Long Range Liberators, [>]
Victory Through Airpower (de Seversky), [>]
V-J Day, [>]
Vogue magazine, invitation to Josephine Ford to pose, [>]
Volksmotorisierung (Fordism), Hitler’s implementation of, [>]
Volkswagen (“people’s car”), [>]
von Schell, Adolf, [>]
Voorhess, Charles, [>]
Waco CG-4A glider
building of at Ford’s Kingsford mill, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
numbers produced, [>]
role during D-Day invasion, [>]–[>]
Wagner Act, [>]–[>]
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, NY, meeting of auto industry leaders, 1940, [>]
Wallace, Henry, [>]
Wall Street Journal
on impact of EF’s death at Ford, [>]
on the Willow Run plant, [>]
Ward Furniture Company, production of Waco CG-4A gliders, [>]
War Manpower Commission, [>]
Warm Springs, GA, FDR’s death at, [>]
war production
amounts of matériel produced, [>], [>], [>]
by auto industry, goals for, [>]–[>], [>]
as competition between Allies and Axis, [>], [>]
deprivations associated with, [>]–[>]
as great collective achievement, [>]
lagging, [>], [>]
in Michigan, [>]–[>]
Nelson’s 1943 report on, [>]
nighttime building activities, [>]
See also arsenal of democracy concept; military airplanes, airpow
er; River Rouge plant; Willow Run bomber plant and specific types of matériel
War Production Board, [>], [>]
Warren (airplane navigator), on Operation Tidal Wave, [>]
Warren, MI, Detroit Tank Arsenal factory, [>]
Washington Post
Clapper article on wartime employment, [>]
EF interview, 1943, [>]–[>]
interview with Iwanowa, [>]
on State of the Union Address, 1943, [>]
on transformation of Detroit to war production, [>]
on the Willow Run plant, [>]
Washtenaw County, MI, Wayne County, MI, and Willow Run bomber plant design, [>]
Welles, Orson, [>]
Welles, Sumner, [>], [>]–[>]
Wells, H. G., [>]–[>]
Westinghouse Electric, Jersey City, military production, [>]
“What Is a Boy” (HF), [>]
Wheeler Airfield, Pearl Harbor, bombing of, [>]
White, Walter
efforts to resolve 1941 UAW strike, [>]–[>]
on police response to 1943 Detroit Race Riot, [>]
on victimization of blacks during 1943 Detroit Race Riot, [>]–[>]
Wibel, A. M., [>], [>]–[>]
The Wild Blue (Ambrose), [>], [>]
Willow Lodge neighborhood, Bomber City, [>]–[>]
Willow Run airfield, [>]
Willow Run bomber plant (Ford)
accidents and amputations at, [>]
accommodations for workers near, [>], [>]–[>], [>]
assembly line rules, [>]
atmosphere following race riot, [>]
bomber construction area, [>]
cafeteria, [>]
center-wing construction mechanism, [>]
closing down of, [>]
construction process, [>], [>]–[>]
coverage of, in the American press, [>]
dedicated machining tools, [>]–[>]
difficulties meeting production goals and deadlines, disassembling Liberators after the war, [>]–[>]
display of US airpower for FDR at Willow Run, [>]–[>]
diversity of workforce, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
and EF’s commitment to meeting production goals, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
EF’s final walk-through, [>]
employees, numbers and training, [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]
ending of B-24 Liberator production at, [>]
famous visitors, [>]
foundries at, [>]
high-altitude experiments, [>]–[>]
highway to Detroit from, [>]
increasing production speed and volume, [>], [>]–[>], [>]
inefficiencies and delays in production process, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]
Kahn’s design for, [>]–[>]
“knockdown” assemblies, [>], [>]
Lindbergh’s 1942 visit to, [>]–[>]
L-shaped building design, [>], [>]
on-site hospital, [>]
percentage of total B-24 Liberators produced by, [>]
pressures to build and open quickly, [>]
problems receiving raw materials, [>]
production of parts for the B-24, [>]
purchase by General Motors, [>]–[>]
quality concerns, addressing of, [>], [>], [>], [>]
receipt of Army-Navy “E” Excellence Award, [>]
response to EF’s death at, [>]
rolling out of Bomber 01, [>]
Roosevelts’ visit in Sept. 1942, [>]–[>]
security concerns, [>], [>], [>]
siting of, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
subassembly areas, [>]–[>]
subcontracting part production, [>]
Time Study Department and efficiency focus, [>]–[>]
training schools at, [>], [>], [>]–[>]
Truman Committee visit and report, [>]–[>], [>]
use of hard-steel dies, limitations, [>]
use of X-ray machines, [>]
worker turnover, absentee rates, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]
work stoppages, [>], [>]
See also B-24 Liberator; Ford, Edsel Bryant; Ford, Henry, II; Sorensen, Charles
Willow Run Creek, [>], [>]
Willow Village, [>]
Willys, enlistment in defense production, [>]
Willys-Overland, Sorensen’s move to, [>]
Wilson, Charles, [>]–[>], [>]
Wilson, Woodrow, [>]–[>], [>]
Wingo-Wango (B-24 Liberator), [>]
Winter (GM employee in Germany), [>]
Wismer, Harry, [>]
WJR Radio, Detroit, report on River Rouge strike, [>]–[>]
women workers, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, [>]
workers
for designing machine tools for the B-24, [>]
diversity of, at Highland Park factory, [>]
diversity of, at Willow Run plant, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
frequent turnover among, [>]
and in-migrations to Detroit area and San Diego, [>]
recruiting, for the Willow Run plant, [>]–[>], [>]
tributes to EF, [>]
wildcat strikes in response to Service Department actions, [>]–[>]
World War I
armistice, [>]
FDR’s service during, [>]
HF’s peace crusade, [>]
World War II
as battle between two systems of production, [>]
cataloguing of documents associated with, [>]
conscription act, [>]
first eight months, [>], [>]–[>]
first major Allied victory, [>]–[>]
opening of and Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), [>]
and the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, [>]
US entry into, [>]
Wright brothers, [>], [>]
Wyatt, Bert, [>]
yacht racing, [>]
Yale University, HF2 at, [>]
Ypsilanti, MI
Bennett’s home in, [>], [>], [>]–[>]
Camp Willow Run, [>]–[>]
community surrounding Willow Run, [>]
See also Bomber City; Willow Run bomber plant
Yugoslavia, joining of Axis alliance, [>]–[>]
Zero airplanes (Mitsubishi-powered), [>], [>]
Zoerlein, Emil, [>]
About the Author
A. J. BAIME is the author of Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans, which was optioned for film by Twentieth Century Fox. A longtime magazine editor and journalist, he is currently a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and an editor at large at Playboy. He lives in Chicago.
For more information, visit www.ajbaime.com.
To contact the author, visit Facebook.com/ajbaime.
Footnotes
* The advent of the Manhattan Project was still many months in the future.
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* Charlie Sorensen and others have staked a claim to the idea of the moving assembly line. Nevertheless, history has given Henry Ford the credit.
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* Lochner would later become a major figure in journalism, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for his reporting on Nazi Germany.
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* Not that the investors didn’t make out themselves. One investor who put in $2,500 in 1903 walked away with well over $29 million.
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* When Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1925–1926, Henry Ford was the only American mentioned: “It is Jews who govern the stock exchange forces of the American Union. Every year makes them more and more controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions; only a single great man, Ford, to their fury, still maintains full independence” (Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews, [>]).
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* For centuries, intellectuals had written of fl
ying machines engaged in warfare, from Leonardo da Vinci at the turn of the sixteenth century to the British poet Lord Tennyson in the nineteenth, to the most harrowing and prophetic account: H. G. Wells’s The War in the Air of 1908, with its startling imagery of New York City consumed in flames because of bombs dropped from above.