The Arsenal Of Democracy

FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War

A. J. Baime

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780544483873
• eBook ISBN: 9780547834443
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Biographies
• Index: Business

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. The story of the dramatic transformation of Detroit from "motortown" to the "arsenal of democracy," featuring Edsel Ford, who rebelled against his pacifist father, Henry Ford, to build a manufacturing complex that was crucial to winning WWII.

As the United States entered World War II, the military was in desperate need of tanks, jeeps, and, most important, airplanes. Germany had been amassing weaponry and airplanes for five years—the United States for only months. So President Roosevelt turned to the American auto industry, specifically the Ford Motor Company, where Edsel Ford made the outrageous claim that he would construct the largest airplane factory in the world, a plant that could build a "bomber an hour." And so began one of the most fascinating and overlooked chapters in American history.

Drawing on unique access to archival material and exhaustive research, A. J. Baime has crafted a riveting narrative that hopscotches from Detroit to Washington to Normandy, from the assembly lines to the frontlines, and from the depths of professional and personal failure to the heights that Ford Motor Company and the American military ultimately achieved in the sky.

"A touching and absorbing portrait of one of the forgotten heroes of World War II . . . A. J. Baime has given us a memorable portrait not just of an industry going to war but of a remarkable figure who helped to make victory possible." — Wall Street Journal

"Fast-paced . . . the story certainly entertains." — New York Times

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Note: EF = Edsel Ford, HF = Henry Ford, HF2 = Henry Ford II, FDR = Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ford = Ford Motor Company

A

Aachen, Germany, bombing of, 256

Adonis, Joe, 44

affordable mobility concept, 7, 11, 17

aircraft superchargers, 121

airplanes

Air Mail Service, 27–28

civilian air travel during the 1930s, 71

EFs interest in, 26–27, 29

See also Battle of Production; heavy bombers; Luftwaffe; military airplanes, airpower; US Army Air Corps and specific airplanes and factories

Albert, Heinrich

false reports about Nazi control of production, 76

as head of Ford’s German division, 54, 82, 289

monitoring by the FBI, 55

and profitability of Ford of Germany, 58–59, 61

role in obtaining raw materials and trucks for the Nazis, 54–56, 58–59, 289

Allis-Chalmers, Milwaukee, production of navy turbines, 106

Allison aircraft engine, 53–54, 209

altitude experiments, 203–5

aluminum

in airplanes, 96, 146, 162, 164

supplies/production of, 71, 148, 155, 252, 269

Ambi-Budd, 60

Ambrose, Stephen E. (The Wild Blue), 23, 286

America First group, 102–4

American Mercury, on Bennett, 115

ammunition. See guns and ammunition

Anderson, Clinton, 118

Anfa Hotel, near Casablanca, Morocco, 187

anti-aircraft guns

in Berlin prior to war, 52

Dodge-produced Oerlikens, 259

88-millimeter, in Ploesti, 232–36

Ford-produced M-7s, 120

anti-Semitism

charges of against HF and Lindbergh, 102

and European pogroms, 60–61

expressed by HF, 33–34

expressed by Liebold, 213

and Kristallnacht, 61–62

and Nazi genocide, xvi, 187, 282

ongoing, in the United States, 61

Antwerp, Belgium, bombing of Ford plant at, 77

appeasement, Lindbergh’s desire for, 103–4

Ardery, Philip, 231, 235–36

area bombing, 188–89

Arizona (battleship), 123

Army Air Corps. See US Army Air Corps

Army-Navy “E” Award for Excellence, 195–96, 272

Arnold, Henry Harley “Hap”

on the Double Wasp engine, 111

on FDR’s early support for US Army Air Corps, 70

heart attacks, 253

introduction to HF2, 264–65

on Lindbergh’s testimony on the Luftwaffe, 103

on need to build heavy bombers, 70

on need to destroy Nazi means of production, 264–65

order to destroy Germ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Epigraphs
• Cover Image Information
• Frontispiece
• Introduction
• Prologue
• The Motor City
• Henry
• The Machine Is the New Messiah
• Edsel
• Learning to Fly
• Father vs. Son
• The Ford Terror
• Danger in Nazi Germany
• The Liberator
• Fifty Thousand Airplanes
• “Gentlemen, We Must Outbuild Hitler”
• The Liberator
• Willow Run
• Photos
• Awakening
• Strike!
• Air Raid!
• The Big One
• The Grim Race
• “Detroit’s Worries Are Right Now”
• Will It Run?
• Bomber Ship 01
• Roosevelt Visits Willow Run
• A Dying Man
• The Rise of American Airpower
• Unconditional Surrender
• Taking Flight
• “The Arsenal of Democracy Is Making Good”
• Death in Dearborn
• D-Day and the Battle of Dearborn
• Operation Tidal Wave
• The Detroit Race Riot of 1943
• “The United States Is the Country of Machines”
• Ford War Production Exceeds Dreams
• D-Day
• The Final Battle
• Epilogue
• A Note on the Text and Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• Sample Chapter from The Accidental President
• Buy the Book
• About the Author
• Connect with HMH
• Footnotes