‐ [Narrator] Previously on "The Titans That Built America,"
a car rivalry has turned into a skyscraper war.
‐ So we'll be four feet taller.
Chrysler could stick an umbrella on top
and say he's taller.
‐ [Narrator] But the Depression has threatened to destroy
their proudest achievements.
‐ Mr. Morgan, what's happening?!
‐ The worst is over.
Everything's gonna be okay.
‐ I'm shutting Ford Aviation down.
‐ But we have orders!
Could be huge!
‐ Edsel, it's over.
‐ [Narrator] President Roosevelt
works to build back the nation, commissioning the Hoover Dam
and systematically attacking the titans.
‐ Did you manipulate the stock market for your own gains?
‐ Yes; no.
‐ William Boeing? ‐ What's this?
‐ [Narrator] Turning them into bitter enemies.
‐ You are nothing short of a war profiteer,
a merchant of death.
‐ [Narrator] But when America is threatened
by German aggression,
FDR needs their help to defend the nation.
‐ No country in Europe would stand a chance against Germany.
(explosion booming)
Neither would America.
‐ [Narrator] Now, the titans will have to choose
between their hatred of the president
and saving the world.
(reverent music)
(uneasy music)
(tank rumbling)
(explosions booming)
(plane engines whirring)
(guns firing)
In the fall of 1939,
Adolf Hitler launches an invasion of Poland,
proving to the world just how powerful
his military had become.
‐ What Hitler's army introduced
was the onset of mechanized warfare.
So, this is tanks supported by infantry,
artillery supporting them.
And then, on top of that, you had tactical air support.
They were all coordinated, synchronized, harmonized,
and moving very, very rapidly.
‐ [Narrator] The Germans call it blitzkrieg,
or "lightning war."
And in just three weeks, Poland is defeated.
‐ Everybody's breath kind of stopped because they realized
that now no country in Europe was safe.
‐ [Narrator] But in the US,
the conflict in Europe couldn't seem more distant.
‐ The American public was very much against
any repeat of involvement in a European war.
The United States was mentally
and physically unprepared to fight a war.
‐ Knowing what we know today about Hitler and World War II,
we sometimes forget that nobody in that period
knew what was gonna happen.
So, it shouldn't be surprising
that 80% of Americans hoped to stay outta the fight.
‐ [Narrator] President Roosevelt sees
the growing threat abroad and knows he needs to act.
But he is also eying an unprecedented third term.
He needs to get himself elected
by telling people we aren't going to war,
while preparing for the opposite.
‐ FDR was really good at playing both sides.
While he's campaigning and promising
to keep America's boys out of war,
he's also at the same time silently building
America's capacity to make war at a rapid pace.
And there are really only a handful of people in the country
equipped to handle such a task,
and some of them has been his bitterest rivals.
(uneasy orchestral music)
‐ [Narrator] One man has been tasked
with approaching the titans with FDR's proposal.
He's not a politician or a general.
He's an auto industry executive
who worked at both Ford and General Motors.
‐ William "Big Bill" Knudsen
was a legend in the automobile industry.
‐ Not only was he this very famous executive,
but he had all the connections in Detroit.
So, Knudsen was called in to get corporate America
onboard with this program to build military equipment,
which was a tricky thing to do
because most people at the time
believed that we were not gonna enter the war
in the first place.
(soft traffic humming)
‐ [Narrator] Knudsen thinks there's one titan
that might be easier to get onboard than the rest.
And if he says yes, maybe the others will follow.
‐ Hey, Bill.
‐ Forgive me if I skip the pleasantries, Ed,
but I'm gonna jump right into it.
Right now, Germany have over 10,000 warplanes,
and they're not gonna stop producing any time soon.
America is behind the eight ball
and we need to catch up, fast.
I want Ford Motor Company
to start building aircraft engines.
Can you do that?
‐ We can build anything, but...
Why us?
Why not use the military?
‐ Well, they have the design and the expertise,
but they just don't have the infrastructure.
Nobody else can produce the scale that we need
and in the timeframe that we need it,
except Ford.
(soft orchestral music)
‐ Edsel Ford really wanted aviation to be his future.
His dream of being an aviation pioneer
had been taken from him.
This was his chance.
‐ What do you say?
‐ I'm in.
‐ Great. ‐ Great. (laughing)
(soft violin music)
‐ Now, let me get this straight.
You wanna change our entire factory
to make engines for military planes, hmm?
‐ Not the entire factory.
‐ What then?
A quarter?
Half?
‐ I haven't fully assessed the situation.
‐ Really?!
‐ America has nowhere near the planes that Germany has.
‐ America's not at war with Germany!
‐ Well, we can't pull out now; I've promised FDR.
‐ Well, you can tell FDR
that Ford makes cars, not planes.
If he wants planes,
you can tell him to go to a damn plane‐maker!
(pensive orchestral music)
‐ [Narrator] Henry Ford has never liked
giving up market share,
so he certainly isn't going to change over his factories
if it means making fewer cars.
‐ Henry was against the war.
He was anti‐FDR.
Part of what was so shocking
to these titans of the automobile industry,
it wasn't just that they had to build
this enormous amount of stuff.
It was that they had to put
all of their self‐interests aside.
‐ Yeah, I know.
I don't know what else to tell you.
The old man says no.
‐ [Narrator] With Ford out, Knudsen turns to another titan,
someone who has experience with the weapons of war.
But he could be even harder to convince than Henry Ford.
‐ They're outproducing us right now 20 to 1.
We cannot afford to lose this race.
‐ So, build more factories.
What do you need me for?
‐ I wish it were that simple.
We have the manpower, we have the finances.
What we need is someone to run the operation efficiently,
someone who knows the business.
‐ I don't think I'm understanding you correctly.
‐ [William] I know it's a big ask.
‐ Yes.
You're asking me to start producing munitions again.
‐ It's not just me that's asking.
The president is asking as well.
‐ The same president who labeled me the "merchant of death"?
‐ Undoubtedly, the du Pont Company and its executives
appreciated a certain sense of irony
that the very government that had been vilifying them
just a few years before were now coming to them
in need of their product.
‐ [Narrator] For the past five years,
du Pont has done everything in his power
to rebuild his image.
In addition to GM, he's revived his chemical company
and branded it as a way to improve society,
developing consumer products
like nylon stockings and cellophane.
‐ DuPont was one of the greatest branding experts
of all time because of the shifts they were able to make.
"Whatever it takes, we're gonna do it.
"We're better living through chemistry."
And that's a very, very high perch
and lets you get past some of the things
that consumers can think are negative about you.
‐ [Narrator] The last thing du Pont wants to do
is return to the business of death.
So far, Knudsen's mission to get America ready for war
has been a failure.
And news from overseas has only gotten worse.
(intense orchestral music)
In the spring of 1940,
Hitler is scoring victory after victory.
Denmark and Norway are occupied.
Then the German Army sweeps across
the Netherlands and Belgium.
Europe makes a desperate stand in France,
but they're no match for German armor and airpower.
And by June, Hitler's in Paris.
The Germans' next target is Britain.
(thunder rumbling)
(somber orchestral music)
‐ Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name‐
‐ [Narrator] As the world gets darker by the day,
at a cemetery in New York,
a group of titans deal with loss on a personal level.
Walter Chrysler is dead, succumbing to a stroke.
Chrysler's burial is a who's‐who
from the automotive industry.
Even his old rival, Pierre du Pont, pays tribute.
For each of these titans, it's a time of reflection.
‐ I think the summer of 1940 is one of the scariest times.
By that time, Germany has taken control of France.
They pretty much control the western part of Europe,
which is the heartland of the world economy.
Japan is in control, not just of Manchuria
but now large parts of China
and they've built a military machine
that looks invincible in Asia.
This is a very, very scary moment,
and the United States looks very weak.
‐ [Priest] And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgave those who trespassed against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil, amen.
‐ [Narrator] But Knudsen continues to struggle
with his mission because FDR is still playing both sides
by telling the American public that we'll never go to war.
‐ I have said this before,
but I shall say it again and again and again.
Your boys are not going to be sent
into any foreign war. (audience cheering)
‐ [Narrator] But even if America has no interest
in going to war,
(intense orchestral music)
war will soon be coming to America.
(light upbeat big band music)
‐ [Reporter] Hello, NBC.
Hello, NBC.
I am speaking from the roof
of the Advertiser Publishing Company Building.
There has been fierce fighting going on
in the air and on the sea.
‐ Pull!
(gun firing)
Pull!
(gun firing)
‐ Sir?
Sir?
Please come quickly.
‐ What is it now?
‐ [Reporter] I am speaking from the roof
of the Advertiser Publishing Company Building.
We have witnessed this morning‐
‐ What's happening?
‐ There's been an attack in Hawaii.
‐ [Reporter] And the severe bombing
of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes.
‐ Who's bombing? ‐ Japan.
(rising suspenseful music)
(plane engines roaring)
‐ [Reporter] The city of Honolulu has also been attacked
(explosions booming)
and considerable damage done.
One of the bombs dropped within 50 feet of KGU Tower.
It is no joke, it is a real war.
‐ [Narrator] For years, JP Morgan's bank
has provided the Empire of Japan with a lot of money.
Now, it's all too clear:
The loans may have helped revive Japan's economy,
but they also helped build up its military.
‐ This was not Morgan's intention.
But when you invest in a society,
you cannot always control how that money is used.
In fact, you can never control where that money goes.
(sullen orchestral music)
‐ Yesterday,
December 7th,
1941,
a date which will live in infamy,
the United States of America
was suddenly and deliberately attacked
by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
As commander‐in‐chief of the Army and Navy,
I have directed that all measures be taken
for our defense.
Hostilities exist.
There is no blinking at the fact that our people,
our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.
And the Japanese Empire‐
‐ [Narrator] President Roosevelt declares
that the United States and Japan are now at war.
And there's worse news to come.
‐ When Pearl Harbor happened,
it's called the day that will live in infamy by FDR,
and it surely does.
But four days later,
the United States is at war against Germany.
We have a two‐front war
and we're still not out of the Great Depression.
‐ [Narrator] Where war once felt far away,
conflict on American soil now feels very real.
‐ There was a real dramatic anxiety in the country.
‐ [Reporter] From bases in Western Europe,
German long‐range bombers
could fly to our East Coast and return.
‐ There were serious concerns
about the Japanese invasion of California
or the West Coast of the United States.
‐ [Reporter] Almost every section
along the entire Pacific coast
is within range of enemy planes.
‐ Americans sort of grew up as a nation
with the idea that potential enemies
were thousands of miles away across that ocean,
and now this ocean isn't very big.
In fact, instead of being a protective moat,
has become this avenue
for enemies to come right to our shore.
Americans were instructed to put blackout curtains
in their windows at night.
‐ Air raid precaution services
go into operation when the bombs drop.
‐ [H. W.] Americans had reason to be worried.
‐ [Narrator] But in the face of fear,
Americans also feel a sense of duty
and a need to act.
‐ The bombing of Pearl Harbor
was a inflection point for the United States.
On December 6th, 1941,
the majority of Americans were against war.
On December 8th, 1941,
it was the biggest day in recruiting history.
America suddenly flipped.
‐ Volunteerism went sky‐high.
Everybody wanted to be part of the war effort
and to sign up and do their duty.
You are joining an effort to save the American way of life.
‐ [Narrator] Yet it takes more than just patriotism
to wage war.
‐ That war spirit,
it was burning hot right after Pearl Harbor.
But soldiers were drilling,
in some cases, with fake wooden weapons.
We needed planes and trucks and tanks
and bullets and bandages and boots
and everything that was required to win a war.
‐ [Narrator] The first thing the US needs is weapons,
and there's one person who can make that happen.
(pensive electronic music)
He got away from munitions and took over GM.
He was vilified as the "Merchant of Death."
But now the war has started,
and du Pont knows what he must do.
‐ It was clear the explosive business,
the gunpowder business was absolutely crucial
if the United States is going to be engaged
in a two‐front war.
(phone ringing)
‐ Hello?
‐ I'll do it.
(intense orchestral music)
‐ [Narrator] DuPont agrees to turn over
all of General Motors
and his chemical labs to the war effort.
Within weeks, he'll break ground
on over 50 new munitions factories.
But the last time du Pont made weapons
was during the First World War.
‐ We've made lots of advances,
especially in the last few years.
This is the Mk 2, or the "pineapple."
We'll need 40 million of them.
This is your general purpose six‐inch‐caliber shell,
mainly to destroy units.
We'll need five million.
This is an eight‐inch shell.
It's good for concrete demolition and bunkers.
And the 18‐inch?
It's mostly for naval purposes,
and that can do a lotta damage.
Here, follow me.
We're testing a new heavyweight bomb, the earthquake.
(explosion booming)
(reverent orchestral music)
Pretty good, huh?
We can take out a whole platoon with just one of these.
‐ [Narrator] DuPont makes his choice.
To help save the country,
he must once again become the "Merchant of Death."
‐ [Narrator] FDR knows one of the key paths
to the US and its allies winning the war is airpower.
He wants to build an arsenal
to compete with Germany and Japan's far superior air forces.
He asks for thousands of high‐tech modern fighters
and bombers.
And the plane they're pinning their hopes on
is the B‐24 bomber.
(plane engine roaring)
‐ FDR saw the bomber aircraft as the key to winning the war,
but not just the fact that it was powerful and destructive.
There had to be a tremendous number of them.
Because if we could launch bomber aircraft over a country,
even if they were all shot down,
there could be a wave behind them
and a wave behind them and a wave behind them,
and that would make the enemy defenseless.
That was how they thought they could win the war.
‐ No.
Those days are gone.
We need planes, mass‐produced.
I don't know, thousands.
I'm not saying that.
Well, how many can you deliver?
To be frank, 200 is just a drop in the ocean.
The president has asked for thousands.
Okay, thank you.
‐ [Narrator] Knudsen tried the aviation industry,
but no one has the capacity
to make the 20,000 bombers that FDR wants.
In the end, there's really only one company
who could possibly get it done.
Thanks to Edsel's persistence,
the Fords had already spent $47 million of their own money
to build Willow Run, the largest plane factory in the world,
almost one mile long.
‐ They come up with this plan
which was about to shock the world.
They decided that the biggest, fastest,
most destructive bomber in our arsenal
they could build at a rate of one an hour, 400 a month.
And the idea is that they would build
the entire thing themselves.
They would have to start from scratch.
They hadn't built an airplane
since the Trimotor in the very early 1930s.
When all of the aviation executives around the country
were saying this couldn't be done,
I think they really believed it,
because no motor car company, no company of any kind
had ever tried to manufacture this kind of product,
something that had about a half a million
different pieces and parts.
‐ [Narrator] But Edsel runs into a problem.
(clock ticking)
(pensive orchestral music)
‐ Hi.
Sorry for keeping you waiting.
Okay.
Take a look at this.
‐ [Soldire] Hmm.
‐ The biggest problem really was the idea that
as these ships start to get built
the Air Force starts wanting to change the airplane.
‐ This bay door is too narrow.
You're gonna have to widen that.
And this ball mount should be three‐and‐a‐half,
not three‐and‐a‐quarter.
‐ [Narrator] With the production of his planes
already underway, any setback could prove costly.
(phone ringing)
‐ Back in a minute.
Hello?
‐ Ford Motor Company had come up with this idea
to build this airplane the way they built automobiles,
and key among that was to be able to build one
that was exactly like the one before
and exactly like the one before.
‐ We're moving as fast as we can,
but every adjustment means a delay in assembly.
Well, we still have to update the line.
‐ If they wanted to change that part,
the machines and the dies
that they created to build that part
had to be scrapped and started from scratch.
‐ I know.
I understand.
Got it.
Thanks.
‐ [Narrator] The design changes keep coming.
‐ So, where are we at here?
‐ We should swap out the .30‐caliber Brownings with 50s,
so you'll need to augment the turret opening more.
And these bay doors, they need to retract into the fuselage,
so you'll have to expand the opening more.
You got that?
‐ Yeah, sure.
We'll make it happen.
Anything else?
‐ [Man] Not today.
(ominous music)
‐ [Narrator] FDR isn't just demanding planes.
Control of the seas is just as important to winning the war.
The raid on Pearl Harbor destroyed
the heart of America's Pacific Fleet,
so the US was not ready for full‐scale war right away.
The United States still had to build thousands of ships
to really get its navy in a position
where it could project power.
‐ [Narrator] America's current shipyards
can't churn out anywhere close to the numbers needed,
(pensive electronic music)
so FDR turns to someone who has delivered big things before:
Henry Kaiser.
‐ Kaiser was FDR's miracle man.
He had built the Hoover Dam, an engineering feat,
on time and under budget.
‐ [Narrator] There's just one issue.
Henry Kaiser has never done anything like this before.
Now, he's promised to build 500 ships a year
when it typically takes a year to build just one.
‐ That was Kaiser's bread and butter.
"Tell me how many you need
"and I'll get 'em to you even faster than you imagined."
He loved that.
‐ I wanna build six shipways here and one over there.
(pensive orchestral music)
‐ [Narrator] Along a stretch of marshy Pacific coastline,
in the shadow of another Kaiser project,
the Oakland Bay Bridge,
Kaiser builds shipyards
totaling the size of 800 football fields.
Constructing a shipyard is one thing.
But he quickly learns
building ships is a whole different challenge.
‐ [Henry] What's taking them so long?
‐ Working as fast as they can.
‐ I've seen workers down there not doing anything.
‐ They're waiting for the hull to be locked into place,
then they'll start constructing
the steering columns and the engine room.
‐ Can't they do something else?
‐ Not really.
‐ This isn't working.
We need to move faster.
‐ The Liberty ships Kaiser is building are gigantic.
If you stood one up, it'd be 50 stories,
almost as tall as the Hoover Dam.
Liberty ships are so big,
they literally have to be built in place from the bottom up;
first the keel, then the frame, then the hull.
And this is how ships have been built for centuries.
‐ [Narrator] At the rate he's going now,
it will take Kaiser a hundred years
to build the number of ships he's promised FDR.
(rising suspenseful music)
(water splashing) (suspenseful music)
(airplane engines whirring)
‐ [Narrator] Six months after their attack
on the United States, Japan seems unstoppable.
(bombs explode)
(airplane engines whirring)
‐ After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese executed a plan
to try to seize a perimeter that they could defend.
And so they tried to push as far out as they could
into islands to include the Philippines, Dutch East Indies.
(suspenseful music continues)
‐ You saw the advance of the Japanese
on a very rapid and almost terrifying scale.
‐ [Narrator] Japan now controls half the Pacific Ocean
and gains territory by the day.
Across the Atlantic,
Hitler has landed troops in North Africa,
and pushed deep into the Soviet Union.
(military tank crashes)
‐ Of course, the Blitzkrieg,
the mechanized forces were able to take them all the way
to the outskirts of Moscow.
‐ [Narrator] If Hitler conquers the Soviets,
he'll move the full force of his army west
to invade Britain.
And if Britain falls, his next target is America.
(suspenseful music)
Germany and Japan are advancing so quickly,
FDR fears the US will be overtaken
before it gets into the fight.
But war production is moving too slowly.
(telephone ringing)
‐ Yeah.
Yes put him through.
Yes, Mr. President.
Yes, sir.
We're, we're seeing forward progress
just Fords of modifications are,
are requiring an extension on our timetable.
‐ Willow Run was not living up to its objectives.
What Knudsen was saying was,
"Hey, these planes are in terrible shape."
‐ They've manufactured two.
No sir, not two planes, Mr. President.
Two parts.
‐ Things are going extraordinarily wrong
and the same press that had been so high in this idea
of building the largest airplane factory in the world
as a means of defeating Japan and defeating Hitler,
were now really down on the Fords and the whole project.
And Willow Run became known in the press as "will‐it‐run?".
(suspenseful music)
‐ [Narrator] But then, Knudsen and FDR
finally get some good news.
‐ [du Pont] How much time do we need to make this happen?
‐ Eight weeks, nine max.
‐ [Narrator] du Pont has wasted no time
converting his factories.
(upbeat music)
‐ In just a matter of weeks,
du Pont has changed over production lines
and is cranking out explosives
and shells for the war effort.
‐ [Narrator] And then there's another breakthrough.
(engine revving)
(suspenseful music)
‐ Bill, should be ready any minute.
(suspenseful music continues)
‐ This better be worth the trip.
‐ It will be.
‐ What's taking so long?
‐ Just a minute.
(engine sputtering)
‐ [Narrator] Even though Chrysler no longer
has its founder,
the company has figured out how to make a tank.
(engine roaring)
‐ Knudsen turned to Chrysler to build tanks,
even though Chrysler never built tanks before,
almost no one had ever built tanks before.
And Chrysler was known for its manufacturing excellence
and its engineering excellence.
‐ [Announcer] Here in the world's
first great tank arsenal,
devoted entirely to the mass production of the tank,
we forge the armaments of victory.
‐ [Narrator] Chrysler's new tank is the M3.
‐ I'm upping the order.
Get me 3000.
‐ Done.
(upbeat dramatic music)
(metal grinds)
‐ [Narrator] To build his ships faster,
‐ We don't need to have a ceremony
every time we're launching a ship, we've got...
‐ [Narrator] Kaiser has workers going three shifts a day,
‐ Do what you can.
‐ [Narrator] seven days a week.
By the fall of 1942,
Henry Kaiser has not only launched his first ship,
but dozens more.
(spirited upbeat music)
Kaiser is a far cry from the 500 he promised,
but the nation can't wait any longer.
(spirited upbeat music)
Kaiser's ships are loaded with Chrysler's tanks
and du Pont's munitions.
Along with thousands of soldiers
who have been waiting for this moment
to take the fight to Hitler.
‐ The Americans in 1942, wanted to invade Western Europe.
Go into France and let's get it over with,
but that wasn't feasible militarily
so they compromised on North Africa.
‐ The decision to invade North Africa
is largely a matter of "Look we just have to show the world
that the United States is in this war."
‐ [Narrator] The United States is finally on the ground
and ready to show the Germans what they're made of.
(birds chirping)
‐ The President's waiting for you.
‐ Glad you could join us.
‐ We have a problem with the M3,
they're a complete disaster.
(suspenseful music)
The 75 millimeter gun must be forced into position
and it's getting out maneuvered.
(dramatic music) (gun fires)
The height of the tank leaves it vulnerable.
(dramatic music)
The armor is proving to be too thin.
(dramatic music)
‐ The M3 had very severe design defects.
The main gun could be moved up and down,
but not horizontally.
So in order to aim at a moving target,
you had to move the entire tank around.
‐ It had a very tall silhouette.
It was easy to hit.
It was not that great off‐road and it was a flawed vehicle.
‐ [Narrator] The M3 was rushed into the field,
but it wasn't ready for battle.
‐ What Americans learned in the North African campaign
was that the Germans were pretty tough customers.
‐ [Narrator] The United States
with all its industrial might,
faces a German army that is far superior,
better trained, and with better weapons.
(suspenseful music)
Knudsen realizes, even with the titans doing their part,
it will take something bigger to win this war.
(waves crashing)
While the allies struggle in North Africa,
Hitler brings terror to the seas.
(sonar pings)
(dramatic music)
(torpedo explodes) (dramatic music)
In 1942, U‐boats sink more than 230 American vessels,
over 10,000 souls lost.
‐ When the U‐boats popped up in these convoys
largely made up of Liberty ships, they were sitting ducks.
‐ [Narrator] Hitler is destroying Kaiser's ships
and Chrysler's tanks faster than they can build them.
But Kaiser can't figure out how to speed up production.
(telephone rings)
‐ Yeah. (suspenseful music)
Yeah.
Yeah. I did say that.
Well we've had some uh, material shortages and...
(suspenseful music)
No, I understand.
Yeah, I will.
‐ Okay. Thank you. ‐ [Kaiser] Yeah.
‐ [Narrator] Knudsen has assembled
the greatest industrial leaders in the nation
to build his war machine but it's not working.
Something is still missing.
(dramatic music)
‐ [Kaiser] Well we've had some material shortages and...
(suspenseful music)
(phone clicks)
‐ Knudsen had the idea to get companies
that usually were at each other's throats
to share plans, to share designs,
to share intellectual property,
in order to produce what was necessary
in order to win this war.
‐ Ford.
‐ In many ways, when there is a common threat,
there is no choice but to act together.
A crisis brings together people in ways that
you can't even imagine would be possible.
(telephone rings)
‐ It's Bill.
Listen, change of plan.
How soon can he get on a plane?
Detroit.
(plane engine roaring) (bright music)
‐ [Narrator] Knudsen sends Kaiser to Ford,
to learn the secret of mass production.
(typewriter clicks)
‐ Is that him? ‐ It is.
‐ Are you coming?
(upbeat music)
(gears turning)
So this is the pre‐production.
Working on suspensions.
‐ [Narrator] Ford gives Kaiser unprecedented access
to his operations
where army Jeeps are now assembled by the thousands.
‐ So you make the plates further up the line,
and then you weld them here?
‐ No, no, no.
All the pieces are made in factories offsite.
All we do here is put them together
and roll off the finished product.
‐ [Narrator] For Kaiser, the factory tour is a revelation.
(upbeat music)
Ford's secret to mass production is prefabrication.
Rather than build each car part‐by‐part,
he pre‐assembles components and then puts them together.
‐ Kaiser never had any kind of experience with
or working in the automobile industry.
He didn't know about how Henry Ford built
assembly line production for automobiles.
‐ Let me show you something else.
(upbeat music)
‐ [Narrator] Kaiser realizes that what Ford had been doing
with cars, can be translated to ships.
‐ The big change that Kaiser brought to shipbuilding
was you could assemble all these parts,
not just at the dock where you're building the ship,
but do it on land first
and then move big sections of the ship in, one by one,
and then assembling them like big Lego.
‐ [Narrator] From construction areas
spread across the entire shipyard,
prefabricated sections are hoisted
by massive Worley cranes,
running on railroad tracks and able to spin 360 degrees.
‐ Everything was carefully marked, you know,
tab A into slot A,
and so it was simply a question then of assembling,
welding everything together and moving onto the next stage.
‐ [Narrator] Thanks in part to Ford's insights,
Kaiser can now build a Liberty ship every month.
And by operating a total of seven shipyards,
he's launching a ship every two to three days.
‐ You were able to get a ship built and out onto the water
in ways that no one who was a conventional ship builder,
could ever have imagined possible.
(upbeat music)
I think you can safely say,
that Henry Kaiser was the father of modern ship building.
(dramatic music)
‐ [Narrator] While Kaiser finds success
with his Liberty ships,
Chrysler has made significant improvements to their tanks.
‐ The M3 tank was discontinued, and was replaced by the M4.
‐ The M4 was easy to produce, it wasn't very expensive,
had a good gun to it, initially, a 75 millimeter.
‐ [Narrator] Weighing in at nearly 35 tons,
it's a major improvement over the M3,
but this big new tank requires a much more powerful engine.
‐ [Knudsen] So effectively it's five, six cylinder engines
arranged around a central shaft?
‐ [Engineer] Correct, sir.
‐ No, it's too big.
Where are all the crew gonna go?
I mean if we can't fit a five man crew
and enough munitions inside then what is the point?
‐ Chrysler's engineers took an existing motor,
that Chrysler had used in its automobiles,
and they devised a way of arranging five of those
around in a circle.
And that's why it got the name the quint‐engine
or the egg‐beater.
‐ [Narrator] Knudsen needs to find a smaller engine
that's still robust enough to power the M4.
(anticipatory music) (paper crunches)
(telephone dial turns)
‐ Hello. I'd like to speak to Mr. Ford,
Mr. Henry Ford.
(gentle music)
‐ So, V8?
Right?
Who's it for?
Who did you say?
‐ [Narrator] Giving advice to a shipbuilder
like Kaiser is one thing,
but sharing trade secrets, like engine designs,
with a rival automaker, is completely different.
‐ Sometimes when we work with others,
even people we think we intensely dislike,
and these titans intensely disliked each other,
when we can somehow set that aside
for a purpose larger than themselves,
truly great things can happen.
(dramatic music)
(wood creaking)
‐ [Narrator] Ford agrees to give Chrysler the designs
for his 500 horsepower V8.
‐ Okay.
‐ [Narrator] One of the most powerful engines ever built.
‐ It's a great example how companies
who once were competitors worked together
to help us save the United States of America.
You know, and that's one of the beauties of this nation.
‐ [Narrator] The M4 will be better known by its nickname,
the Sherman tank.
Now 400 Shermans are quickly assembled
and sent to North Africa.
The allies now, have a formidable new weapon,
in the fight against Hitler.
(ominous music)
(dramatic orchestral music)
‐ [Newsreel Reporter] After early defeat,
America's back in the fight in North Africa.
And they've got the Nazis on the run.
‐ Most heartening of all is the news
from Egypt and North Africa.
Some of them Nazis beaten off in their first real battle
with American troops, surrender.
‐ [Announcer 3] The Yank tracer bullets go up,
and Nazi planes come down.
(dramatic music)
‐ [Newsreel Announcer 2] First blow falls on the Japanese,
in the strategically important Solomon Islands,
in the South Pacific.
Here for the first time,
the weight of of American production makes itself felt.
(cannon explosions)
‐ [Narrator] A little more than a year
after the US joins the war,
there is finally some positive news,
as America's military gets stronger by the day.
(upbeat music)
At home, it seems like everyone has the same goal,
to build the greatest war machine in history.
‐ It's true the borrowing is unprecedented,
but I wouldn't worry.
Massive spending will stimulate the economy.
So by the end of the war, economic growth
together with inflation will all but wipe out the debt.
‐ [Narrator] Morgan now holds weekly meetings with FDR,
to make sure the war gets the financing it needs.
‐ This is very good.
‐ One of the most surprising elements
of the whole story of World War II,
was the degree to which these rivals
successfully came together
to build the arsenal of democracy.
‐ Right, that's good in theory but in practice
just one bottleneck will halt the whole production line.
‐ [du Pont] I understand.
So what if we pre‐assemble parts in different factories?
Do you think that would help?
‐ They were rivals before the war,
now they're working together.
There was a writer at the time who said it was almost
as if players of the New York Yankees took a few days off
to win some games for the Dodgers.
‐ [Announcer] American industry
has met the challenge of war.
In hundreds of peaceful towns,
thousands of small industries were fitted
into the national war production plan.
(suspenseful music)
‐ [Narrator] Now nearly every factory in the country
has become part of one giant, coordinated war machine.
‐ The way these companies came together
in our country's time of need was extraordinary.
They put their business competitiveness
and their own needs aside,
and said we've gotta step up for our country.
‐ Companies big and small all over the country
were doing things that none of those people
who worked at those companies,
ever dreamed would be possible.
General Electric was building
30,000 horsepower naval turbines.
Westinghouse Electric was building radar equipment.
The Kleenex tissue company was building
50 caliber machine gun mounts.
(dramatic music)
‐ [Narrator] FDR even embarks on a secret tour
to see the military production firsthand.
He visits Henry Kaiser's shipyards,
and gets a close up look at Chrysler's Sherman tank.
(gentle apprehensive music)
But when he checks on the progress of Ford's B24 bombers,
the news isn't good.
‐ At the time,
Willow Run was not living up to its objectives.
Only one bomber ship had been built
at the time of FDR's visit.
This was a disaster.
‐ We can redesign it with a single tail fin.
(tense suspenseful music)
Hold on, we, we've discussed this.
Yeah, but that won't fix it.
Look, I understand what you're asking,
but we're talking about two different...
I don't.
Hold on.
Military is still trying to make changes.
Understood. We'll talk later.
(gentle brooding music)
I wanna show you something.
(upbeat dramatic music)
‐ Willow Run was falling desperately behind
and one of the ways that Edsel Ford
managed to fix this problem
was to come up with something called modification centers,
where changes could be made.
‐ We manufacturer one standard model, one.
As soon as they roll out the door,
they fly off to a modification center
and this will save time.
That's what I'm telling you.
(bright music)
Sounds good?
‐ Every time the military ordered a new design tweak
or a new change to the aircraft,
the modification center would handle that particular change,
without having to retool the entire assembly line.
‐ Come on.
This should be it.
(airplane engine turning over)
‐ [Narrator] Modification centers are a game changer.
(gentle upbeat music)
By early 1943,
Willow Run is cranking out B‐24s at record speed.
‐ These planes are coming out of the factory so fast
that the test pilots, their test flight
was actually to be delivering it to the military.
And it was really Ford's effort
I think that made the B‐24 what it still is today,
which is the most mass‐produced American military aircraft
of all time. (plane engine roaring)
(gentle piano music)
(gentle piano music continues)
‐ Good work.
Good.
(tense music playing)
‐ [Narrator] Edsel Ford has finally figured out
how to do something that's never been done before;
Mass Produce Bombers
But now, he has a new problem.
‐ We are moving as fast as we can.
I know.
‐ Edsel Ford realized that the labor force
was gonna be a major issue.
When Willow Run was conceived,
it was thought that a hundred thousand
people were going to work there.
But so many young men were being drafted into the military.
‐ [Narrator] Every factory in America
faces the same challenge.
But then, a surprising group comes to the rescue.
Women.
(bright upbeat music)
‐ Before that of course, there were
acceptable professions for women.
We could be teachers or we could be nurses.
Although the most important one was mother and wife.
Then you get to World War II.
And for the first time, we are needed in factories.
‐ And so women came out in droves
to work in those factories and said
we want a chance to demonstrate what we can do.
‐ [Narrator] 19 million women take jobs in factories,
shipyards and military bases.
Making up nearly 40% of the US workforce.
One of Willow Runs Factory hands will go
on to inspire the nation.
Her name is Rose Will Monroe.
But she'll become immortalized with another name.
‐ Rosie the Riveter was actually a real woman
who moved to Willow Run from Kentucky
and they were first going to give her a secretary's job
but she figured out that if she was a riveter
she'd make twice as much money.
They asked her if she had experienced
and she said, yes, she lied, she didn't.
But she got a job as a riveter.
‐ [Narrator] Rose becomes part of a government campaign
to boost morale and turns in to an icon.
‐ Rosie the Riveter mattered so much
at that point in history.
She was in a man's world.
It took away this brand that we could only be the woman
behind the man or the damsel in distress.
She could survive and thrive in a man's world.
‐ [Narrator] Out west, groundbreaking changes
are also taking place at Kaiser Shipyards.
(serene music playing)
‐ Kaiser had absolutely no sense that there was a need
to discriminate in the jobs that men could do
and women can do or African‐Americans as well.
And when you look at, for example
photographs of shipyard teams working together,
what you see is a diversity of Americans
which is really extraordinary at the time.
‐ There extremely limited opportunities
for African‐Americans to have prominent roles
during the second world war.
They also are fighting two wars.
The war to support the effort against what's happening
in Europe, and the struggle for quality home.
But African‐American labor is essential
in helping to build the arsenal of democracy.
(tense music playing)
‐ [Narrator] Now with America's factories
at peak production, FDR can finally
make plans for what's next.
‐ What Roosevelt realized right away,
is that the United States is at war in two theaters.
In the Pacific and in the Atlantic.
And the Atlantic theater Europe
is the one that takes precedence in his mind.
All the why Americans were thinking,
okay, we're going to invade France one day,
to prepare for the kind of final blow against Germany.
‐ The amount of things, armaments that we would need
was staggering, 5,000 ships,
thousands and thousands of bombers and tanks
and the country leaned into it.
‐ [Narrator] But as American industries
race towards invasion, (plane engine roaring)
allied intelligence learns alarming news.
Hitler is secretly developing a devastating new weapon.
One that could instantly end the war,
(bomb explosion) the atomic bomb.
And FDR must once again, turn to du Pont.
(car engine revving) (ominous music)
(footsteps clacking)
‐ [Soldier] Haigerloch, Germany.
This could be the site of the laboratory.
We're waiting for intelligence confirmation on that.
Our field agent reports that this man
is a regular visitor, Heisenberg.
(serene music)
Our understanding is that he has been working
with Germans for the last two months.
Designing what we believe is a nuclear device.
‐ [Showden] At the time there was research happening
around nuclear fission.
‐ [Soldier] Uranverein translates as Uranium Club.
‐ This emerging technology could result in a bomb
of the size and scale that we had never seen.
‐ Their goal is to create a sustained nuclear chain
reaction capable of delivering a large impact.
‐ There was a serious fear that Nazi Germany
would acquire this weapons technology
before the United States.
And that all bets would be off.
‐ So far, they haven't succeeded,
but it's only a matter of time.
‐ Whoever figured this out first was gonna win the war.
(tense music playing)
‐ [Narrator] Code named the Manhattan Project.
America's attempt to build an atomic bomb
is led by theoretical physicist, Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer has figured out the science
but now he needs the fuel.
du Pont is being asked to do something
that's never been done before.
Build a nuclear reactor to produce plutonium.
‐ Nobody even really knew what that meant,
but what the government saw was that
the DuPont company was extraordinarily well managed.
And if anybody could figure this out,
it was going to be DuPont.
‐ [Narrator] After working so hard
to leave munitions behind,
du Pont now holds in his hands' plans
for the most destructive weapon on earth.
(serene music)
(car engine roars)
As du Pont tackles an impossible task,
he finds out some devastating news.
(birds chirping)
(door knocking)
‐ Mr. Morgan, Mr. Morgan.
(door creaks open)
(curtain rattling)
Mr. Morgan.
(solemn music plays)
‐ [Narrator] In the spring of 1943, JP Morgan Jr.
dies in his sleep from a stroke.
Word of Morgan's death is withheld
until after the stock market closes.
So as not to cause a crash in share prices.
(dramatic music playing)
Morgan's influence could be felt in
every corner of American society.
He bankrolled the country's largest industry, cars.
Fueled the wild spending of the roaring twenties
and then was targeted when the depression hit.
‐ Are you familiar with defense bonds?
‐ [Narrator] But in the end, Morgan was able
to do something good for the country.
And now his banking empire continues on.
‐ The legacy at JP Morgan Jr, is JP Morgan chase today.
Back then it was only a couple hundred people.
It was a smaller institution,
is now basically two or three thousand
companies a part of it.
So it's quite the company they started.
They'd be, hopefully, they'd be very proud of it.
‐ [Narrator] Then just two months later,
another Titan dies.
(solemn music playing)
Henry Ford's only son, Edsel.
In order to concentrate on his bomber factory,
Edsel didn't tell his family that he's been
suffering from stomach cancer for over a year.
‐ Henry was heartbroken by Edsel's death.
He would talk about how he had this
lump in his throat that couldn't go away.
‐ [Edsel] Get your coat,
I want to take you somewhere.
‐ We should get into this. (plane engine roaring)
(tense upbeat music playing)
‐ [Narrator] Edsel may be gone,
but he leaves behind his greatest achievement.
His factory is now rolling out a new bomber every hour.
B‐24s leave Willow Run by the thousands,
heading directly for Europe to take part
in the biggest invasion the world has ever seen, D‐Day.
(radio static)
‐ [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
The President of the United States.
‐ [FDR] My fellow Americans last night,
when I spoke with you I knew at that moment,
the troops of the United States
and our allies were crossing the channel.
In this poignant hour,
I asked you to join with me in prayer.
(tense music playing)
Our Mighty God, our son's pride of our Nation,
this day have set upon a mighty endeavor,
a struggle to preserve our republic,
our religion, and our civilization,
and to set free a suffering humanity.
(plane engine roaring)
(bomb exploding)
‐ Allied invasion of Europe D‐Day as they call it,
was the biggest amphibious operation in history.
5,000 ships, thousands and thousands of men
from landing craft and then the paratroopers then bombers.
Logistics, that it's hard to describe.
But then you bring it down to the soldier.
(bomb explodes)
The people landing on any of the beaches
in the first waves that morning
we're going into this incredibly difficult fight.
(gunshots and bombs blaring)
(bright soft music playing)
‐ [Narrator] The invasion succeeds.
Thanks in part to Kaiser's Ships, Chrysler's tanks
Ford's bombers, and du Pont's firepower.
The allies have a small toehold into Hitler's Europe,
(tense music)
which allows a vast unbroken supply line
between American Factories and the Front.
‐ The war really did ultimately become
a contest of mass production.
The speed with which each side can build tanks,
airplanes and hurl them into war.
‐ We were very slow to be mechanized.
And then we exploded.
There was no one who could make more
planes and ships than we could.
I mean, it's shocking.
There was nobody who could beat United States.
‐ [Announcer] Today we slogged across the flooded fields
of France, American, British and Canadian
in eight weeks came the big breakthrough
and suddenly Paris was free.
Six great allied armies pushed the
Western Front into Germany itself.
Against fanatical resistance, we reached the River Rhine.
‐ [Announcer] And to the east Moscow radio
tonight three Savage fighting‐
‐ [Narrator] Despite the good news from Europe,
a stunning loss is felt at home.
‐ [Announcer] The one good heave all
together to end the war in Europe.
We take you now to NBC in warm Springs, Georgia.
‐ [Announcer] Late this afternoon,
the representatives of the press and radio
were called in and given the shocking news
of the president's passing at 3:35 PM.
Mr. Roosevelt is said died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
Mr. Roosevelt while Warm Springs was to go
on all American radio networks tomorrow night
at about 9:50 PM, Eastern wartime,
and a special Jefferson day message to the American people.
(solemn music)
Warm Springs as the rest
of the nation is now in deepest mourning.
They're our greatest friend and benefactor
has passed from their midst.
‐ [Narrator] No matter where they stood
before the war, Americans stand together now
in mourning their president.
‐ You go back and you look at all these industrialists
all these great Titans.
Then you look at FDR, and they hated FDR.
Yet all those guys ended up getting behind him
because at the end of the day,
they were smart enough to know they needed to.
If I had to use one word to describe FDR
I would say, savior.
I mean, he really saved our country
and brought the pieces together.
He was the man for the moment
(plane engine roaring) (tense music playing)
‐ [Narrator] America presses on without FDR.
And just two weeks later, Hitler realizes he's lost.
On April 30th, 1945, Adolf Hitler commits suicide
in his Berlin bunker.
Allied troops soon discover the full horror
of Hitler's reign.
Death camps.
Where the Nazis mass murdered 11 million people
6 million are Jewish.
‐ Anybody alive in the 1930s started hearing
about Hitler's antisemitism.
And then they heard about the round‐up of Jews.
The world didn't know quite how bad it was
till we really got the visual evidence
‐ [Narrator] On May 7th, Germany surrenders unconditionally.
And the war in Europe is over.
(crowd cheering) (serene music)
‐ VE day is amazing.
Everybody's parties, screams, kisses, hugs.
It was just the euphoria,
the idea that Europe had been liberated.
That Hitler had fallen.
This meant everything to people.
‐ [Announcer] Victory in Europe brought
wild rejoicing throughout the allied world,
as the Big‐three announced the downfall of Nazi Germany.
New York celebration is typical of the Nation of joy.
At the end of nearly six years of war in Europe.
It's a great day.
As a thankful people let loose their pent up emotion.
‐ For Americans this was great.
The mission accomplished in Europe
but that was only halfway there.
Japan was still fighting.
And so many of the units that fought in Europe
were then brought back to the United States
and put on trains to the Pacific coast
and they would head out and prepare
for the invasion of Japan.
(tense upbeat music)
‐ [Narrator] The Titans know they cannot rest.
Kaiser,
Ford,
and du Pont's efforts,
now turn squarely on defeating Japan.
A task they and the entire country
realize will not be easy.
(tense music)
‐ [Narrator] With the war still raging against Japan,
the DuPont company has secretly built the world's
first full‐scale nuclear reactor.
‐ The DuPont Hanford reactor, was the first reactor
to be built at that size, at that scale.
The nuclear reactor was critical
to the Manhattan Project because they were
after the production of plutonium,
the nuclear fuel, right?
And plutonium is a radioactive element
that is not present on earth in vast quantities.
So they needed to generate this material
to develop a nuclear bomb.
‐ [Narrator] The enormous complex requires 50,000 workers.
(tense music)
‐ The DuPont company, of course,
when they're approached about the Manhattan Project,
the outcome of this was uncertain.
The risks were great.
Nobody knew if this was even possible.
(bright upbeat music)
‐ [Narrator] Now du Pont's reactor is up and running.
In the morning, he'll send the first shipment
of enriched plutonium to Los Alamos New Mexico.
Where Robert Oppenheimer will use it
to test the world's first atomic bomb.
(bomb explosion)
The test is a success.
Justice du Pont's plutonium and Oppenheimer's bomb
have unleashed the power of the universe.
(tense music playing)
The new president, Harry S Truman
is finalizing plans to defeat Japan and end the war.
‐ Much remains to be done.
The power of our people to defend themselves,
against all enemies will be proved
in the Pacific war, as it was proved in Europe.
(solders stomping)
‐ American leaders were thinking about
the invasion of Japan.
They were thinking that they might take
a hundred thousand or even a million casualties
killed and wounded to try to subjugate all of Japan.
‐ Having experienced the earlier casualties
in the island hopping campaign
knowing that the Japanese soldiers
and aviators are going to fight to the death.
All of this is weighing on Truman.
‐ Franklin Roosevelt never informed Truman
about the Manhattan Project.
So he was quite stunned to find out
that we had this atomic bomb program
and the last one had been tested in New Mexico and it worked.
And now this became the secret weapon.
(plane engines rumbling)
‐ [Narrator] And to carry this weapon, America has a new
Ultra‐Long Range Bomber able to reach Japan.
The Boeing B‐29 superfortress.
William Boeing has come out of retirement
to help design and build it.
‐ This was on a new scale.
We had this weapon that could change history forever.
And president Truman had to go
through that decision‐making process.
There was a moral part to it. (solemn music)
Nobody quite knew what the atomic weapon would do.
‐ The gambit of Truman was to save American lives.
So he wanted to show Japan that we've got this weapon
and we're willing to use it in.
And Japan didn't know how many of these bombs we have.
‐ There are only two of them however.
And you don't necessarily want to have a test run
if you're not sure it's going to work.
He ultimately makes that very, very difficult decision
to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(solemn music playing)
(telephone rings)
‐ Yes.
I see.
Thank you.
(sighs heavily)
‐ [Narrator] The war is over.
Bringing an end to the deadliest conflict in human history.
(bright soft music)
‐ We about Normandy, we talk about Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
the war was also won inside the
United States by factories and industry.
(bright music playing)
So in the end World War II was a triumph
of Ford and Kaiser, Boeing and du Pont
as well as FDR and the Soldiers of Democracy.
(orchestral music playing)
‐ Ford shutdown Bomber production in 1945
and never built an airplane again.
The giant Willow Run Factory was put up for sale
and bought by Henry Kaiser.
Kaiser close to Shipyards, to once again
jump into something he'd never done before, cars.
William Boeing returned to retirement after the war.
Today his company's planes carry
over 2 billion passengers each year.
(bright music playing)
du Pont vowed to get out of nuclear weapons,
and gave all the patents to the government.
But during the cold war, du Pont was called on once again
and helped build the world's first hydrogen bomb.
(orchestral music)
‐ Before the war, the country was politically divided
economically divided mired in depression,
the industrialist loathed the president.
And yet when the war came,
all of these people came together, work together,
and won the biggest war in the history of mankind.
‐ It's a great lesson.
These fierce competitors are now United
in order to try to achieve a common goal.
‐ So, why is that?
Is it that we're all basically common good underneath it,
we can work for a greater cause?
Or were they necessarily inherently great Patriots?
I don't know.
But what I do know is I believe in the
goodness of people and I believe that
it found the best in them and they were able
to put their competition aside.
‐ If we're not coming together to do all
those things that we needed to do to win,
how would we define ourselves?
What would the name of this country be?
Would it be the United States of America?
We come together during our greatest times of need
and that's when amazing things happen.