The Axis powers were ill-prepared at the dazzling speed with which American industry and the government built and operated defense plants and the avalanche of war materials produced by warís end. A month after Pearl Harbor, FDR called for the production of 60,000 planes, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 anti-aircraft guns, and 8 million tons of merchant shipping. For 1943 FDR wanted 125,000 planes, 75,000 tanks, 35,000 antiaircraft guns, and 10 million tones of merchant shipping. And that was just part of what was needed to fight a war.

The War Production Board, established January 16, 1942Ö. was in charge of the entire war production program. War work was readily available at the beginning of the war, but skilled workers were in short supply. War posters were created to persuade Americans to join the working ranks. Factory agents recruited workers door to door. … With 13 million men in the armed services, the defense-plant workers came to be regarded as the soldiers of the home front, their roles as imperative to victory as those who served in the military. …

Industries geared up for massive wartime production. Factories were converted from making peacetime to wartime products. They changed from making sewing machines to bombs, shirts to mosquito netting, and kitchen sinks to cartridge cases. The Kleenex company switched to making two-gun and four gun .50 caliber machine gun mounts.

WOMEN & MINORITIES

POWDER GIRLS OF SUNFLOWER MUNITIONS

"THE BIG FOUR" IN KANSAS CITY