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August 1942. "Detroit (vicinity). Chrysler Corporation Dodge truck plant. Hundreds of deft operations are required to assemble and finish the long lines of Dodge Army truck bodies that move daily to final production lines." Just one of the thousands of production lines that spelled doom for the Axis. Medium-format negative by Arthur Siegel, Office of War Information. View full size.
I believe this picture was taken inside the Albert Kahn designed Dodge Truck Plant in Warren Michigan, just north of Detroit. This plant, like many other Kahn designs, was famous for ushering in a new era of the use of glass in industrial architecture, bringing much more light into once-dark factories.
In the right background is a line of Command Car bodies being prepared for the same chassis. They also produced an ambulance body (as seen on "MASH") and a 3/4 ton pick-up known as the Weapons Carrier.
An interesting read on how we ramped up war production, see "Freedom's Forge" by Arthur Herman, 2012, Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
Among the subjects discussed was the role that the auto industry played - especially GM which produced 10% of all the war goods (by value) during WWII.
At the bottom right corner is a Presto-O-Lite acetylene tank used for welding and heating torch sets. Note that just above the tank one can see the "oxygen" regulator attached to and using the shop air system rather than oxygen. Presto-O-Lite was formed in part by James Allison of Allison Engineering fame to produce compressed acetylene for early automobile headlights which were reportedly "Nominally superior to darkness." Out of James Allison's hobby of racing early automobiles began Allison Engineering, Allison aircraft engines, Presto-O-Lite, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (to test James' and his friends race cars) and many other endeavors. Presto-O-Lite is now part of Union Carbide and General Motors purchased Allison Engineering which became the Allison Division of General Motors. There is a lot of history behind that little acetylene tank.
1942 War Production Board poster by artist Fred Ludekens previously seen at Give Him The Best You've Got: 1942.
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