The Good Ole USofA was called the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II...
During the Second World War, "Arsenal of Democracy" was the slogan used by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a radio broadcast delivered on 29 December 1940. Roosevelt promised to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by giving them military supplies while the United States stayed out of the actual fighting. The president announced that intent a year before the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
One of the most important ships constructed during the War was the Liberty Ship...
Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. The class was developed to meet British orders for transports to replace ships that had been lost. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945, easily the largest number of ships ever produced to a single design.
Here comes the Just Plain Interesting Part (see subject). Actually I think it is the Really Interesting Part...
Ø In January 20, 1942 it took 250 days to build a Liberty Ship.
Ø By December of that same year it took only 50 days.
Ø The Oregon Shipbuilding Company in Portland later produced one in 10 days.
Ø Not to be outdone the workers at the Henry J. Kaiser plant in Richmond Yard #2, working around the clock, built one from keel to launch in exactly 4 days 15 hours and 29 minutes.
Huh? Go back and look at the picture above. That’s a really large ship!
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The source for the 2 bold small print parts above was Wikipedia.
The source for the 4 Bullet Points above was The Great Courses course World War II: The Pacific Theater narrated by Craig l, Symonds, PhD.
The Great Courses are Great! ... https://www.thegreatcourses.com/
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: Mike, as I already told you,
I don’t get a kickback from The Great Courses. My sole motivation for plugging
them is they are Just Plain Interesting!
3 comments:
4 days!!! Very interesting.
There is a lot wrapped up in this blog post. It shows what we were once capable of doing in the face of a real national emergency. We had an abundance of manufacturing capacity at the time and the ability to convert it to produce the product necessary to fight the war.
Flashing forward 75 years of so we no longer have the massive reservoir of manufacturing capacity. Granted we still have a great amount of manufacturing capacity but not nearly at the level required to match the Liberty ship production you list.
However if a war were to occur and the weapons were Hamburgers, Meatless Hamburgers and Opinions, we could whip anyone in the world. (tongue firmly planted in cheek)
Trivia...I Think that the vessel that won the war according to Ike were the Landing Crafts designed and built by Higgins in New Orleans.
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