Images from the Arsenal of Democracy

Preface

This book grew directly out of my work in researching the well-known Arsenal of Democracy story. What has inspired me and at the same time has driven me to write this book is a remarkable collection of surviving photographs portraying the wartime auto industry. The Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA)—the auto industry trade association at the time of World War II—reconstituted itself on 30 December 1941 as the Automotive Council for War Production (ACWP), with the stated goal of coordinating auto industry war work. By the end of the conflict, the ACWP had collected an enormous amount of information about how the auto industry had operated during the war. The documentation includes many thousands of photographs of war products and war production in auto plants throughout the United States. In the early 1950s the AMA donated the wartime records to the National Automotive History Collection (NAHC), part of the Detroit Public Library. I wish to thank many individuals who helped me along the way. First and foremost are the archivists and librarians who assisted my efforts with considerable skill, energy, patience, and good cheer. Paige Plant and Mark Bowden of the National Automotive History Collection (NAHC) at the Detroit Public Library were extremely helpful, as was Barbara Fronczak, who processed the collection of the Automotive Council for War Production held by the NAHC. Terry Hoover, Chief Archivist ix preface x p r e fa c e at the Benson Ford Research Center at The Henry Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, helped me navigate through the war records of the Ford Motor Company. Gregory Wallace, the director of the General Motors Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and Christo Datini, the archivist, were also extremely helpful. David White at the Richard P. Scharchburg Archives at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, led me to additional General Motors materials relating to war production. Randy Talbot, Command Historian at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command (TACOM) in Warren, Michigan, made TACOM’s historical images available to me. I owe a special thanks to friends and colleagues for their assistance and encouragement. Mike Davis, the author of an earlier pictorial history of the Arsenal of Democracy and a good friend, made his extensive photographic collection available for my use and encouraged me to move forward with this book. Larry D. Lankton, longtime colleague and friend, shared research files he had compiled quite a few years ago, when he had planned to write a book similar to this one. ...