Detroit's Wartime Industry

Just as Detroit symbolizes the U.S. automobile industry, during World War II it also came to stand for all American industry�s conversion from civilian goods to war material. The label �Arsenal of Democracy� was coined by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in a fireside chat radio broadcast on December 29, 1940, nearly a year before the United States formally entered the war. Here is the pictorial story of one Detroiter�s unique leadership in the miraculous speed Detroit�s mass-production capacity was shifted to output of tanks, trucks, guns, and airplanes to support America�s victory and of the struggles of civilians on the home front.