THE B 24 The Genius of Henry Ford.

[firefly1957]

Bad Water Bill thanks for the look we talked about Willow Run once before if i remember correctly you had a relative that worked there my grand father worked there i can not remember what he did other than hone cylinders and i am not sure which ones he was a tool and die man but during the war Would have worked were needed. Being born in 1898 he was to old for service with 4 kids at home. I do remember he got robbed in Detroit one payday and the guy took his pants,as it was common to keep money hidden, and then the Detroit cops arrested him up for vagrancy! My how times have changed with no money and no I.D. today they would register him to vote!

[Gee_Wizz01]

Interesting video, my Dad was a B-24 Flight engineer and crew chief and eventually the line chief. He spent from Jul of 42 until April 45 in the Pacific, at such exotic places as Guadalcanal, Bouganville, Funi Futi, New Hollandia, and numerous other small islands. He used to complain about all of the shoddy workmanship on brand new B-24's. He said that ferry pilots flew the planes to Hawaii and the squadrons picked them up there and flew them to their current station. He said when they landed at Guadalcanal the fighting was still going on, and they were getting shot at, as they refueled and rearmed the aircraft. He said he was supposed set up the maintenance area there while the aircraft flew a bombing mission to another island, but he volunteered to fly flight engineer to get off the island. He said itwas safer flying a combat mission than staying on Guadalcanal.

G

[Ed Barrett]

Ford also built a plant out southwest of Chicago that built the aircraft engines for the bombers. After the war Tucker automobiles were built there. It was all torn down and a shopping mall called "Ford City" was built there. Most people don't remember the engine plant or the Tucker cars.

[Bad Water Bill]

HE___HE

Not only do I remember the FORD PLANT in Chicago (where my dad built the engines) BUT I actually have one of the fantastic tool boxes they used there.


And to prove just how ancient I am I was invited to tour the TUCKER PLANT as well. And yes I did. And around 1963 I met the man and his wife who owned 17 of them somewhere in Florida.

What a shame that vehicle was not allowed to reach its potential. Many lives could have been saved IF just the swiveling center headlight had survived.

[Ed Barrett]

HE___HE

Not only do I remember the FORD PLANT in Chicago (where my dad built the engines) BUT I actually have one of the fantastic tool boxes they used there.


And to prove just how ancient I am I was invited to tour the TUCKER PLANT as well. And yes I did. .

When I was about 8 or 9 years old A friend about the same age and I pedaled our bicycles from my Grandfathers farm in Oaklawn to the Tucker plant. We were looking in the windows and some of the workers came out to see what we were doing. We told them where we came from and they bought us each a Coca-Cola and let us look inside. That was the best tasting coke I ever drank. We pedaled home and I told Grandparents and they said fine just watch out for traffic if we did it again.
How things have changed,

[pmeisel]

Just correcting any potential misunderstanding -- by the time Willow Run started building B-24s Henry was largely senile. The production planning genius was provided by his lieutenants, most notably Charles Sorensen but also with contributions from many others. The basic concepts of mass assembly were pioneered by Ford, but other people working for him (Sorensen and Peter Martin, et al) worked out all the details.

[Gee_Wizz01]

An ely elderly gentleman who was one of the line supervisors told me that Henry Ford constantly aggravated govt inspectors at the plant. He said at one point they threatened to seize the plant and keep Ford out. They said he could be very obstinate.

G

[Three44s]

I grew up holding the B17 in much asteem and the B-24 not so much.

All things mechanical are subject to compromise ........ the B24 was no exception ......... as they had a huge payload and a very long range, they were not built as tough as the "17" .........

And it's my understanding that the Liberator was also jokingly refered to as: "Bomb'em, Straif'em and FALL on them!"

My wife's uncle flew B-25's over China ........ he had a 75mm cannon mounted in the nose and he said everytime you corked that baby off ....... you spent some time back at base with the maintenance crew replacing rivets. The Zeros liked to hit the B25's head on ....... but when they experienced a ship like his with that "75" ...... they'd chicken out ......... RIGHT NOW!

He said that the big gun was great for catching the Japenese troops in a corner of a rock fence area with their horses pulling artillery pieces while going through an opening. He'd light'em up ...... and all hell broke loose!! ......... horses going everywhere ....... of course that 75 was backed up with going all out with the forward 50 cals.

I better apologize for messing up this thread and I promise to start another in a day or two and tell the story about his being shot down behind enemy lines ..........

Three 44s