Find Reviews by Make:
GM’s famed Willow Run plant closed for good at the close of business yesterday, reports Automotive News [sub], and will revert to a Motors Liquidation trust unless it finds a buyer in the next week. To memorialize the closing of one of Michigan’s most iconic assembly plants, and a symbol of the “Arsenal of Democracy” we present the following passage from Michael Elliott’s book “The Day Before Yesterday” [via Time]:
Did unions, management, civic leaders and just about everyone else in Michigan mismanage the postwar years? Of course. But the real point about Detroit is not that it fell so far, but that it once rose so high. Its economic success during World War II and the immediate aftermath was a freak of geopolitics. With most of the rest of the world (including some regions that were as technologically advanced as Michigan) consumed by war, only the U.S. and Canada were able to develop the high-tech industries of scale that were needed to fight the Axis powers. So successful were those North American industries in developing a mass middle-class standard of living that three generations of Americans were seduced into assuming that the prosperity of Detroit’s golden age was normal and how America should be. It was nothing of the sort. It was an accident of world war, and the sooner we recognize its transitory, contingent nature, the shorter will be our mourning for its passing.
42 Comments on “Quote Of The Day: Willow Run RIP Edition...”
Read all comments
So much of America’s modern identity can be traced to the war…this is a great blurb. Our suburban planning schemes, our baby boom entitlement mentality (which is both good–a motivator–and bad–taken for granted), even our position in the modern military/political scene. Almost all of it was precipitated, or at least accelerated, by Pearl Harbor.
What the passage does not say is that this was like the race between the tortoise (Japan and the rest of the world) and the hare (us). We had a 50 lap lead in the auto industry. We turned out powerful, comfortable sedans when BMW was making Issetas and Toyota was making sewing machines. And we sat on our laurels, gave the farm away to the unions and blew it, bigtime.
“our baby boom entitlement mentality”
Yeah, well, I’m not so sure – when I was growing up, I did feel the world owed me a living. The USAF re-adjusted me of that notion real quick! Nevertheless, it was a unique time in history that ended in the early 1970’s with a barely perceptable slide in to where we are today, sadly.
But this too shall pass and tomorrow is another day! Look ahead, always look ahead!
This one quote illustrates the greatest problem in the US—he is basically saying: get over it, we will never be a leading nation again. Nice defeatist attitude.
+1. And it comes from a magazine that does not like the United States.
Wasn’t Willow Run originally built and operated by Ford? Seems to me that Edsel Ford was a driving force behind it, in spite of his Father’s interference.
Yup, they built the B-24 there, but it passed through Kaiser to GM.
If I remember right Ford built the plant to build B-24s for WWII. Obviously the above picture would be during the time of Fords ownership.
Willow Run was designed by Charlie Sorensen, Ford’s head of manufacturing, to build B-24 Liberators under license to Consolidated. (Here’s an article about it: http://www.strategosinc.com/willow_run.htm)
I don’t know that Ford technically owned it; at the end of the war, it was disposed of by the federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Kaiser-Frazer leased it in late 1945, and eventually bought it outright. By 1953, Kaiser couldn’t afford it, so after they merged with Willys, they shifted production to Toledo and sold Willow Run to GM to replace the Hydra-Matic plant in Livonia that had burned down earlier that year.
Yup, bombing your competition to rubble, when they have no chance of bombing you back, can really give you a competitive advantage.
Is that your view of WWII? Would you rather they ‘had the chance’ to bomb cities in the US and Canada, to make things fair? Or are you suggesting that the war was unfairly waged by us to benefit our industries, as though FDR pre-imagined “Government Motors”?
Pretty dumb comment, unless I radically misunderstand your point.
As my 7 year old is fond of saying to his 5 year old brother….
“He started it….”
Perhaps I too am missing your point though.
No, it’s actually an insightful comment.
The “golden age” of union labor in the US was absolutely dependent on the fact that international competition was either destroyed by war (Germany, Japan, UK, Korea) or completely hobbled by communism (USSR, China). This fact basically subsidized the American worker until at least the late 1960s.
If American unskilled labor is to be worth what UAW thinks it is again, we’ll either need massive tariffs or another war that will destroy the productive capacity of our trade competitors again. Otherwise, it’s time to grow the F up and deal with global competition.
Canucknucklehead –
You’re welcome to have whatever opinion of the United States you want. I don’t have much of an opinion of Canada this evening. However, you’re not entitled to create your own facts.
Ask the people of China what they think about Japan during WWII. You might start by googling “The Rape of Nanking”.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/nanking.htm
You might also read a book called “Flyboys” to get some feeling as to why it was necessary to bomb Japan to rubble.
Quite seriously, you’re embarrassingly uneducated, even for a knucklehead.
That’s ok Canucknucklehead. It’s about winning the war, And then we paid to rebuild all those cities and industries so that today their infrastructure is newer than ours. Eastern Europe was not as fortunate being under Soviet rule (the Soviets bombed plenty of cities and industries too, while their vital war plants had been moved past the Ural mountains out of reach of Nazi war planes – pretty much the same situation as the US and Canada). As late as 1980’s and 90’s, you could still see bombed out buildings in Easter Bloc countries that were never rebuilt by their governments or their Soviet overseers.
At its peak, Willow Run was producing 650 B-24 Liberators a month. Basically, a bomber per hour. The B-24 had over 100,000 parts.
Arsenal of Democracy
Ponder:
USA refrain from WW1.
Appears Germany was winning.
Ignore pro-ally anti-Axis propaganda.
Would power realignment been all that bad within Europe with an Axis victory?
Would WW2 have been averted?
Would no Holocaust have occurred?
Conjecture, of course, that is all it can be.
Still…. possibility exists that it was, in a roundabout manner, the USA that ensured the ensuing WW2 after WW1.
Does not preclude possibility of conflict with Japan later on.
But one can conjecture forever but actual historical fact WAS USA involvement in WW1 when it need not have occurred.
Still, the “Arsenal of Democracy” of the late 1930s and 1940s was incredible and awe-inspiring and, in my opinion, at the end of WW2 for multi-faceted reasons, the USA was the first and only nation-state in a position to actually have a chance of success at world domination IF “morality” as how our country/culture tends to define it, was tossed aside.
Destroy the “enemy’s” war machine creation capabilities, infrastructures such as power generation, food production, etc. and how can those folks fight back?
I believe world domination could have been achieved and been accomplished quicker and easier with assistance from the Allied alliance.
Of course, We, the People were tired of war and our social/cultural constraints precluded our following that route.
Sure don’t ever hear the ‘world community” ever mumbling any thanks or gratitude over what MIGHT have been.
Too bad, in a way, though, that the USA taxpayer was literally financially ravaged for many years to assist those who became our competitors but que sera sera.
Interesting question. Essentially you’re asking if Nazism would not have developed in Germany had WWI ended differently. Regarding the Holocaust, I think Hitler’s mania regarding Jews was so profound that he would have implemented the Final Solution no matter what his path to power was, had he been able to gain power.
I like both the question and the answer above.
I’ll also add that A.H. creating a cause and an enemy, within certain favourable socio-economic conditions, was necessary for his rise to power, and that then turning on that enemy once in power, was probably as close to pre-destined as anything ever in history, the lesson from history to all of us is that the german people and nation were never pre-destined to embrace and participate in a psychotic pillaging murderous criminal state, no more than an individual way down on his luck is pre-destined to become a mass-murderer. Choices have consequences.
The terms of the Versailles Treaty and then adding “The Great Depression” 10 years later created an atmosphere that enabled Hitler to come into power. Had the WWI treaty not been so hard on Germany I don’t think Hitler would have come to power. Just my opinion.
Disagree. Ponder:
WW I was the first industry-based mass warfare.
How decisive was the involvement of the US to the outcome of WW I?
Wasn’t it that the initial combatants were bleeding to death already (think of “Paths of Glory”)
What happened between WW I and WW II in Europe?
– Russia lost the war before Germany did.
– Communists took over in Russia, making no prisoners
– Germany / Austria lost, too. Their empires broke.
– Communist riots / bloody fights occurred in the aftermath of this war.
– The Versailles Treaties did not help to ease the situation.
– The “elite” in Germany/Austria was able to put the blame of the lost war to those who were fighting the war from the very beginning (resulting, e.g., in the killing of Rosa Luxemburg (“Die Sau muss schwimmen”, “Es schwimmt eine Leiche im Landwehrkanal”) and Karl Liebknecht.
– A lot of people got rich by WW I in Germany, and still are. Ask the Flicks, ask the Quandts (“Reichswoll-AG”, on how to get rich by delivering poor quality outfit to soldiers so that they can comfortably freeze to death).
– The working class was already broke in WW I. The middle class went broke with the inflation of 1923. Then came 1929.
– Everyone who had some money still left to operate then was in fear of communism and socialism. That’s when Hitler came in. Anti-communism and anti-socialism was Hitler’s main agenda. That’s why he got money from those who still had it. Anti-semitism was just an embellishment in his program to attract the masses. Of course, this went well, given the idiocy of majorities, asking for somebody to blame they don’t like for the shit they are in.
So, if the question should be if Nazism would not have developed in Germany had WWI ended differently the answer might be “Yes”. But we should try to find an answer to the question why Germany/Austria went into WW I. We might be embarrassed by the facts that a bunch of bloody idiots in power there where not able to check the consequences of what they were doing.
Thank God, the US not only had the industrial and military power but also the political will to combat this gigantic, man-eating idiocies.
Obbop:
The Versailles Treaty and its overly punishing results had a lot to do with it, too.
Obop –
Unlike Canadianknucklehead, your question is an interesting one…. Speculation about what may have happened if Germany hadn’t lost WWI and therefore Hitler would not have come to power is fascinating.
However, we have some clues that suggest that perhaps Hitler did not act alone, and did not act so far out of the national character as we all fondly wish to believe.
Here’s a little tidbit from WWI that suggests that things might not have ended up that much differently without Hitler.
http://belgiumstuds.blogspot.com/2007/08/anniversary-of-dinant-massecre.html
I’ll also belabor the point a little farther by mentioning that poison gas wasn’t one of Hitler’s personal inventions either.
This is not to say that America is not without blame for our conduct both before and during the war, but I’m more of the school that history is the result of the actions of many people, and that while single actors can influence history, they can’t entirely alter where it would have gone anyhow.
If there had been no Napoleon, there would have been another French General. If there had been no Hitler, there would have been another German leader.
Ponder: If the treaty of Versailles was not so severe on the German people and if Wilson’s failed League of Nations had been done differently so as to be more successful, then WWII might not have happened (although there would have been smaller wars in Europe). It was not America’s entry into WWI that ensured WWII would happen, rather it was the bungled aftermath of WWI that ensured WWII would take place.
.
Ponder: If WWII had not happened, how many smaller yet destructive wars would have happened in Europe between 1930 – 2000? How many people killed and displaced by 70 years of on-again off-again wars? Would VW, BMW, MB, FIAT, Renault, SAAB, Volvo, Ferrari, Porshce, Rolls, and Bentley be making cars right now or even be in existence?
Adolf Hitler was fortunate to be the right person, in the right place, at exactly the right time (not the aborted putsch of 1922, but later). Had the Treaty of Versailles not been so punitive, the Weimar republic might have been able to weather the depression much better, and had the Allies not raped Germany of most of it’s industrial might, the effects of the depression would not have been so severe.
Woodrow Wilson admonished the French and British negotiators to to no effect, and every single nation and political group favoured by the Allies were able to include their, in some instances outrageous, demands in the Treaty. Wilson eventually tired of the process, and it’s suspected that the demands on his mind and body wore him out to the point where he suffered a debilitating stroke.
No single German allied country suffered the impositions of impossible reparations as did Germany – the payments demanded by the Allies, and the removal or destruction of most of Germany’s industrial strength doomed the country to an economic depression a dozen years before the rest of the world.
The other Central powers were dealt with in separate treaty negotiations, and only Germany was forced to accept sole and total responsibility for causing the war.
I wish I was at home to reference several of the books I have on this subject, but I don’t, so I’m afraid I’m posting this from my middle-aged and tired memory.
It has been suggested that had the Americans not entered the war in 1917, that Germany would have been able to sue the British for peace on much more equitable terms, thus removing many of the factors that allowed political and economic unrest – the very factors Adolf Hitler was so able to exploit.
A bit of trivia about Willow Run is that after the war, fledgling automaker Kaiser-Frazer obtained the sprawling plant (for dirt cheap, if I recall correctly). Alas, the plant was vastly too large for K-F’s small production and was ultimately sold to GM after Kaiser merged with Willys in 1954.
In fact, the Frazier’s slogan was “The Pride of Willow Run.”
All correct, except the date — Kaiser merged with Willys in mid-1953, and completed the sale of Willow Run to GM in November.
this loss of production capacity and decline of the American middle class will by far pale in comparison to the loss we will incur shortly as the dollar is losing it’s position as the world’s reserve currency. the trillions of dollars printed by the Fed are going to cause hyper inflation, the likes of which one can’t even imagine. hold on, it’s going to be brutal, much worse than the past couple years.
True the United States built up an enormous industrial complex during WWII, and was the only major power to come through the war with its economy intact. To a large extent England, most of Europe, Japan and the (then) Soviet Union were left in ruins and had to virtually rebuild from scratch. The United States had virtually no competition which gave the government, its citizens, corporations and unions a false sense of security and the belief that the good times would continue forever. In my opinion that era ended around 1965 but the country was slow to realize it-now there’s basically a level playing ground worldwide. Get used to it.
The German Ford and GM factories made trucks etc. for the Wehrmacht. Nothing patriotic about making money. Allied bombers even avoided the Ford/GM factories and Ford/GM got reimbursed by the US later for collateral damages by some accidental allied bombings. In a sense, that avoiding to bomb German ford/GM factories prolonged the war and increased profits for Ford/GM even more since a longer war meant longer US production of arms. It is a win-win for arm dealers, a lose-lose for the people.
The same way “Standard Oil” refueled German U-boats in the Caribbean.
There really is nothing patriotic about what GM / Ford, or whoever, did to produce arms. They did it for both sides and made good money.
Besides that corporations are what they are… as a German I’m happy the Nazis were defeated and we “lost” the war. Even growing up in communist Germany, it still was better than Nazi Germany (or Nazi Europe if the Axis had won). I know the US goes to war for many bad reasons, but in the end many can be grateful that the US steps up for the right cause every once a while.
Re: obbop – in the 90s the ex-Soviet Union finally got around to releasing the German State Dept. and military records from 1906-1931. Interesting reading. Could change your mind about WWI, maybe Teddy R. was right. The quote is not “defeatist”, it is really a plea to recognize that what made the US great was a function of that era. It is not that the US is not or cannot be great, simply not in that particular fashion. Times change, as simple as that.
CliffG …..Yes indeed, times do in fact ,change. It just that sometimes it is very hard for us older people to accept.
I wish I could say something profound enough to commemorate the historical significance of this plant, but words fail me.
I’ll always remember the plant for three things, Ford, bombers, and GM B-body.
It was a long time ago..mid August 1976 when we had had Willow run people in, to observe our launch of GM B-body. We were running Chev and American Pontiac,and if memory serves me right Willow run, was doing American Pontiac and Olds.
Many B-body fans believe the Willow Run cars were better built than the Arlington, TX ones. (Of course that’s just perception but there’s a small community of enthusiasts that will only buy B-bodies with a VIN that indicates Willow Run production.
So ironic that I resuscitated a 1992 Buick Roadmaster Limited that had been an inop for three years on the very same day Willow Run closes shop.
So sad. Another piece of Americana destroyed.
Damn! It must have been a real bitch to efficiently assemble cars with so many heavy bombers littering the plant floor…
p.s. Merry Christmas from me to all that celebrate it, and happy holidays to all the rest. May each of you, and your loved ones, find maximal relaxation and joy as you enter the new year.
So successful were those North American industries in developing a mass middle-class standard of living that three generations of Americans were seduced into assuming that the prosperity of Detroit’s golden age was normal and how America should be. It was nothing of the sort. It was an accident of world war, and the sooner we recognize its transitory, contingent nature, the shorter will be our mourning for its passing.
Sorry, but I don’t buy this for a minute. As a nation we got MAYBE a 15 year bump from WWII. After about 1960, it was all on Detroit. It managed the first ten years in fine style, and the bad choices and abysmal failures of the remainder of the time through to the current era are well documented. People who are politically inclined to blame the UAW aren’t going to look very hard at the other causal factors, and there are many–but the pivotal choices were made by the CEOs of GM, Chrysler, and Ford.
Periodic economic swings are always going to affect monoeconomies much more profoundly than diversified economies, and paradigm shifts can be fatal. If anyone was paying attention in the late 1970s, the same thing happened to Pittsburgh and the steel industry. A quarter million jobs in SW Pennsylvania evaporated within four years. Similarly, overcapacity, complacency and a failure to modernize caused this shakeout too, though the unions get the blame for that one as well. Until Detroit diversifies its economy, it’s going to continue to be subject to boom and bust cycles.
A BIG +1! The UAW was NOT in charge of the D3; its management[s] were.
It’s sad for me to hear of this, as I am just a few miles from there for the weekend. In fact, I drove past the factory this morning on the way to visit friends.
I remember as a very small child going with my parents to take a tour of the factory. They were building X-body Novas there, and my dad lifted me up and put me inside of a white coupe. I couldn’t have been no more than three years old, but I remember it well.
And, my very first car, a 1985 Buick Skylark, which was also my parents first new car, was made at Willow Run, and sold across town at the old Serbay Buick of Ypsilanti.
It’s sad to see Ypsilanti turning into a miniature Detroit…
Alas, poor Ypsi, I knew you well…
The B body wasn’t assembled at Willow Run until the 1991 models, and then not in the bomber plant. The assembly plant was a much smaller building next door.I started my career at Hydra-matic, in 1965, as a coop student. There were more people working in theplant than the entire population of the city I came from in New York. Despite the fact that I left GM in 1967, it still saddens me immensely to see this plant close.Bob