Ford Motor Co. in WW11

[Allen]

Though there were a lot of contributors for the war effort I ran across this while reading up on the B-24. Thought it might be of some interest.

http://www.usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/ford.htm

[Bill E]

Very interesting and informative. Thanks much for posting.

[leftyo]

knew they had made most of that, i did not know they had knocked off the V1 .

[Allen]

knew they had made most of that, i did not know they had knocked off the V1 .

Me neither. They were first launched in Oct. 1944 but never in combat. I suppose they would have used to soften the Japanese if used.

GM produced so many items they just made a list of it.

http://usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/generalmotors.htm

[Ken The Kanuck]

Good stuff, thanks for the post.

KTK

[JB White]

Excellent reading there Allen! Thanks. It's almost mind boggling that so many small bit and pieces were made under rush conditions and things still interchanged out in the field.

[Major Tom]

Here in Burlington, IA at the J.I.Case Company, they made wing componets for that bomber. My Dad worked there before he went into the Army. The plant is still here today, much modernized, and building the Case Backhoe. Now known as Case New Holland. I retired from there in 2002 after 40 years.

[jon_norstog]

Ford also continued its German operations throughout WW II, building trucks for the wehrmacht. Supposedly this was some kind of "arms length" deal, but I'd love to knew where the money went.

Ford wasn't the only American company to work both sides of the street. IBM helped set up the machinery and the databases that were used by the Gestapo in rounding up jews, political opponents, gypsies, and other people who were then liquidated.

I would have been shocked if I had any faith in capitalist human nature, to tour the captured German submarine at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and see the identical DeLaval fuel purifier that I had to run and clean on my WW II-vintage, ex-USN, ship - sitting in a corner of the engine room of the Kraut sub.

JN

[Griff Murphey]

It is interesting to me that the Richard Widmark - Karl Mauldin Army basic training movie TAKE THE HIGH GROUND which was filmed at Fort Bliss about 1953 shows a V-1 copy Loon being fired up.