US Industrial Might in World War II

choi

American business in wartime | Democracy’s Arsenal; The 'dollar-a-year' men and what they achieved. Economist, May 19, 2012
http://www.economist.com/node/21555532
(book review on Arthur Herman, Freedom’s Forge; How American business produced victory in World War II. Random House, 2012)

Quote:

"By the end of 1942 America’s output of war materiel already exceeded the combined production of the three Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. By 1944 its factories built a plane every five minutes while its shipyards launched 50 merchant ships a day and eight aircraft carriers a month.

Note:
(a) William Knudsen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Knudsen
(1879-1948; president of General Motors from 1937 to 1940)

This Economist article describes him as "a General Motors executive." Mr Knudsen was not the top leader. See
GM's History of CEOs. Los Angeles Times, date unknown.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-hy-gm-ceos-pg,0,477093.photogallery
(first CEO: Alfred P Sloan Jr (1875-1966; CEO 1923-1946))

(b) Henry J Kaiser
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Kaiser
(1882-1967; known as the father of modern American shipbuilding, he established the Kaiser Shipyard [in Richmond, California, part of San Francisco Bay Area] which built Liberty ships during World War II [at a rate of 45-day construction time for a cargo ship])

(c)
(i) Utica, New York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utica,_New_York
(county seat of Oneida County; Utica, Tunisia, the ancient Carthaginian city)
(ii) Utica, Tunisia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utica,_Tunisia
(an ancient city [now ruins] northwest of Carthage near the outflow of the Medjerda River into the Mediterranean Sea, traditionally considered to be the first colony founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa; "Utica is from the Phoenician meaning 'old [town],' contrasting with the later colony "Carthage," meaning 'new town'" in Phoenician also)
(d) Bechtel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechtel
(the largest construction and engineering company in the United States; founded in 1898 by Warren A Bechtel; Headquarters  San Francisco; From 1933 to 1936, Bechtel helped build the 4.5 mile (7 km) long San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge; In 1937, Bechtel joined forces with John McCone's engineering company to form an engineering/construction firm called the Bechtel-McCone Company)
(e) gawp (vi): "chiefly British : GAWK"
www.m-w.com