Detroit's Wartime Industry: Arsenal of Democracy (Images of America: Michigan)

Just as Detroit symbolizes the U.S. automobile industry, during World War II it also came to stand for all American industrys 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 Detroiters unique leadership in the miraculous speed Detroits mass-production capacity was shifted to output of tanks, trucks, guns, and airplanes to support Americas victory and of the struggles of civilians on the home front.