Willow Run Plant In WWII - Building B-24s In 55mins! Very Cool Video!

[DougGuy]

The amazing stories of those who we call "The Greatest Generation" truly tell it like it really was, during the day. Sad to say but cooperation, planning, and execution like this is pretty much a done deal. You couldn't get an assembly line to do 1/10th of the Willow Run production in modern times.

It's a good thing they started building Willow Run in the 1930s, it's quite obvious that somebody, had a CLUE!

Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2zukteYbGQ

[shaper]

Thank you for posting that. I really enjoyed it.
I wonder if there is a library somewhere that saves these old films and have them for viewing at any time.

[JWT]

Thanks for the post. I watched it with special interest since my grandpa was a tool maker there. I didn't see him, but I will be sending the link to my family.

[DougGuy]

Thank you for posting that. I really enjoyed it.
I wonder if there is a library somewhere that saves these old films and have them for viewing at any time.

Youtube has quite a few Military channels, a lot of stuff is posted for viewing. I have seen all kinds of aircraft vids, testing guns, engines, building them, dogfights, etc.. And like all the other Youtube vids, watching one leads to another, and another, and another..

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcH0_oc0cPBt6_ySAHcWy4A

(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcH0_oc0cPBt6_ySAHcWy4A)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxHZqHwVOKM

[bedbugbilly]

We had a man who worked on my Dad's construction crew who helped build the plant . . . he worked for me when he was in his mid 80s and of course, he has passed and is long gone now. He told of material being dropped off to be used the next day - it would disappear quickly . . . imagine that. Lumber, building materials, etc. were "rationed" and extremely difficult to come by unless for use in the defense industry.

As a side note . . . a friend of mine is now working as a flight engineer for a private airline that carries freight. Their headquarters is located out by the old Bomber Plant is . . . or I should say . . . used to be. He said they were tearing down what was left of it. Evidently, they had some real difficulty with some of the concrete . . . the plant was constructed with a possibility of being bombed if long range bombers were ever able to come over the Continental U.S.

If any of you want an excellent "read" . . . get a copy of "The Arsenal of Democracy" by A.J. Jaime. (you can get it on Amazon). I recently picked up a copy and am in the process of reading it. It tells of Henry Ford and the story of the Ford Motor Company, etc. and the call of the industry to perform such feats as the Bomber Plant, production, etc. It's a great book . . . one of the best I have read in a long, long time.

[country gent]

What is really amazing inst just that one plant. Willow run was a part of whatwent on accross the nation after Pearl Harbor. Kaiser building liberty shipd in sections to be welded aand wired at the docks, Almost every manufacturerer retooling to the war efforts needs. WHile we didnt have the technology of today we had the skill knowledge and most of all PRIDE to make it happen. Factories were retooled, built, and workers were retrained or trained from scratch. Remember alot of the male work force went to the military and new workers brought in and trained. Younger men and women new to factory work and assembly lines.

[mjwcaster]

Great video, like always I continued on to watch many others.
Fired up youtube player on the TV.

The neatest so far was one on 'shuttle bombing' missions with US bomber bases in Russia.
Fly from england, bomb germany, land in russia, rearm, bomb germany, return to england (or africa).

Shuttle Bombing WWII (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6qktPNFfD8)

Plenty of other great videos, but this was something I had never even heard of before.

[Charley]

My mom built B-24s at Consolidated's plant in Fort Worth. Worked as a riveter, in the fuselage waist section. I still have her small ballpeen hammer she used in my shop. She had one of her friends in the machine shop use a mill/drill to put her initials on the handle.

[jaysouth]

It is instructive to reflect upon the fact that America got attacked, built up a war industry that armed the free world, fought two tyrants on two fronts 10,000 miles apart, put six million men under arms and won the war in less time than it takes obongo the monkey boy to build a web site.

[legend 550]

Thank you for posting that. I really enjoyed it.
I wonder if there is a library somewhere that saves these old films and have them for viewing at any time.
Here's a really good link I have http://imageevent.com/okbueno/mopic
enjoy, hours of films

[white eagle]

great video didn't watch all of it yet but what I have seen
it's on the must watch list
although not at that plant my parents met at a munitions factory
during the war
I give that generation alot of credit
truly a great time in history

[leadman]

The way the USA produced war goods was mind-boggling. My mother used to tell me of the drives that took place to gather all kinds of metal and other items to supply the war effort.
Really liked the video.

[winchester85]

It is instructive to reflect upon the fact that America got attacked, built up a war industry that armed the free world, fought two tyrants on two fronts 10,000 miles apart, put six million men under arms and won the war in less time than it takes obongo the monkey boy to build a web site.


that about sums it up!

[winchester85]

after watching, IMPRESSIVE!

[DougGuy]

What is really amazing inst just that one plant. Willow run was a part of whatwent on accross the nation after Pearl Harbor. Kaiser building liberty shipd in sections to be welded aand wired at the docks, Almost every manufacturerer retooling to the war efforts needs. WHile we didnt have the technology of today we had the skill knowledge and most of all PRIDE to make it happen. Factories were retooled, built, and workers were retrained or trained from scratch. Remember alot of the male work force went to the military and new workers brought in and trained. Younger men and women new to factory work and assembly lines.

Speaking of Kaiser.. I was a shipyard worker for most of the 70s and 80s, we saw quite a few "Liberty Ships" that were still in use hauling cargo. In doing repairs on them I have cut into pieces of engine block made into the steel, ran into a piece of cast imbedded in the steel that had part of a threaded hole still intact. you would hit pieces of car bumper with the chrome still on it while torch cutting the 3/4" plate they made the hull out of.

I read a big bronze plaque placed in one of these ships once, that said the keel was laid July 7th 1943, and it sailed under the Golden Gate with a load of cargo bound for Europe, on July 17th 1943. I was dumb struck. That totally blew my mind. This one was built at Kaiser shipyard.

You could read this in a book and not think much of it but being a shipyard worker who saw keels laid and who worked in the double bottoms sections of ships being built, this was nothing short of astounding in the biggest way. 10 days. TEN days.. Unfreaking believable...

[Parson]

If I remember correctly they built a Liberty ship a day at the peek

[dagger dog]

The ships that left the Willow Run assembly plant were flown to smaller fields across the US to be outfitted with the equipment needed for the theater operation to where they were designated.

The Second Air Division of the 8th AAF were mounted with twin 50 caliber Emmerson (later models ) electric nose and tail turrets produced by Ford at satellite plants across the US then flown to AAF bases to be assigned to the crews that would eventually fly them to East Anglia England.

The Mighty Eight Air Force was made of 3 forces, 2 of B17's and 1 of B24's
Each had their qualities the Forts could fly higher @ 30,000+ plus build , and the Lib's had the range, capacity and speed going for them.

If you have ever had the chance to talk to any 17 or 24 crews they only had the best to say of each other and in friendly jest.


If you live near any of the smaller airfields that still dot the US check into their history, they may have played a part in the WWII war effort.






.

[Elkins45]

Thanks for posting that, I really enjoyed it.

The guys who did the production, jigging and fixturing design were just as impressive to me as the ones putting them together. I can only imagine how mentally exhausting it must have been to try to design a system where you can manufacture and assemble over one million parts into a complete airplane every hour.

I got a chuckle out of how the narrator didn't think we could tell which workers were women or midgets and had to point it out :)

Was anybody else amazed to find out that a 1200 horsepower engine was held to the wing with only four 5/8" bolts? Those must have been some GOOD bolts!

[Geezer in NH]

It is instructive to reflect upon the fact that America got attacked, built up a war industry that armed the free world, fought two tyrants on two fronts 10,000 miles apart, put six million men under arms and won the war in less time than it takes obongo the monkey boy to build a web site.:drinks:

[Bigslug]

WING MIDGETS! THAT'S AWESOME!! I bet the staffing and scheduling of that division is a story in itself!:lol:

Pretty staggering that they could bolt together about 60% of a heavy bomber in the time you spend watching that film.

[g5m]

Kaiser also made many aircraft parts during the war. My father supervised a night shift at a local plant making B-24 wing spar extrusions.

[MtGun44]

Very cool. My grandparents tell of a local pilot, too old for combat, who got a job as a
production test pilot at Willow Run. Every so often he would come home and beat up the
small southern Illinois town with a B-24. They swear he would come screaming in from
fairly high, hit max speed just clear of the trees along the RR tracks in the center of town
and pull up into a barrel roll. I thought they were kidding, but they insisted that he was
a good aerobatic pilot and that a properly executed barrel roll is a 1G maneuver so there
was no danger of oil or fuel problems.

Amazing time, a whole country pulling together and working hard to win the war, doing
incredible feats on a daily basis.

[swheeler]

Thanks, that was a good video!