Amazing WWII Facts ( pictures & info added)

[Wyandot Jim]

1.Before World War II, the U.S. manufactured about 3 million automobiles per year. During the next 3 years, only 139 were produced as the Office of Production Management was tasked with regulating industrial production for the war effort. cadillac-tankengine

2.During World War II, 276,000 aircraft were manufactured in the US.



3.In total, 43,581 aircraft were lost during the war. Sadly, 1,000 of those were lost simply on their way to the Pacific and European Theaters.



4.Over 14,000 aircraft were lost in the continental U.S. due to accidents. Between training and aircraft malfunctions, that would not be an acceptable number by today's standards. Again, we're talking about putting this in perspective.


5.America averaged 170 planes lost a day from 1942-1945. That's 7 per hour. For three years!

6.Between 1942-1945, U.S. planes consumed 9.7 billion gallons of gasoline. That's 5,787 gallons a minute consumed JUST by U.S. aircraft. Now think about tanks, ships and cars that needed to be fed too!



7.Between 1943-1945, 7.9 million bombs were dropped over Europe. That's 329,166 per month or 457 per hour on average, non-stop for two years.



8.Also between 1942-1945, 459.7 billion rounds of aircraft ammo were fired. That's about 295,588 per minute or 4,926 per second. Yes, you read that right!



9.Although some lucky P-51 pilots would be given 30 hours in training, more often than not they'd be given 5, sometimes even 1 hour. Then they were sent off to fight.



10.The 12,731 B-17s produced during the war would extend 250 miles if put wingtip to wingtip. That's the distance from Buffalo N.Y. to Detroit, Michigan.

 

[Merle1948]

impressive stats!!! :shock:

 

[wolfsong]

Most impressive stat? All of those factors, and a few more, meant WE WON!

 

[Bob Wright]

The aircraft lost, plus the tanks lost, plus the ships lost, all took their toll in young men. Young men who never had a chance to go to college, marry, raise children. Many died before reaching their 21st. birthday.

Men went out, flying, sailing, riding, or marching, knowing that some before them had gone the same way, never to return.

No wonder its called "The Greatest Generation!"


Bob Wright

 

[clintsfolly]

If I remember correctly Willow Run but a plane on the runway ever 12 minutes.

 

[Bob Wright]

If I remember correctly Willow Run but a plane on the runway ever 12 minutes.

That may be true, the building of B-24 Liberators their forte. But early on the plant had so many problems it was known as "Will it Run."


Bob Wright

 

[Snake45]

9.Although some lucky P-51 pilots would be given 30 hours in training, more often than not they'd be given 5, sometimes even 1 hour. Then they were sent off to fight.

You know I love ya, Jim, but I gotta call BS on that one. Any pilot being sent out to combat with "one to five" hours in a P-51 would have already been an experienced fighter pilot with boo-coo hours in P-47, P-40, Spitfire, P-39, P-38, etc., not to mention already a graduate of the very demanding AT-6 training program. I've read MANY WWII fighter pilots, both USAAF and USN/USMC, say something like, "By the time you'd mastered the T-6 (SNJ), there weren't any real surprises in any of the fighters."

I know that most of the 8AF fighter groups ran their own training programs in England for new or transitioning fighter pilots. These were sometimes called "clobber college" or something of the sort. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that other commands had similar programs.

Yeah, there's that famous crack from Don Blakeslee, when he was trying to get the brand-new P-51s for 4FG (then flying P-47s, having come to those from Spitfires), "We'll learn to fly them on the way to the target!" But the fact is that when they did start getting the Mustangs, they were a few weeks getting everyone checked out and up to speed on them before they went operational with them.

Did "one to five hours" happen? Undoubtedly. But I really don't think it was "more often than not." And that figure doesn't accurately represent the individuals' previous experience and flight hours prior to that.

 

[Thumbcocker]

I once got to talk to a WWII fighter piolet. He got few training hours on P51's BUT his unit had been flying P47's for quite a while. He told me that he talked to his commander about the few training hours they were getting before escorting bombers. His commanders reply was " you can list them as training missions if you want to but I am listing them as combat missions because that is what gets you home." He was a classy man and a pure gentleman.

 

[jollymon]

Don't think we could do that rate of production today , To much off shore out sourcing

 

[vito]

Not only in production, but in EVERYTHING we are not in any way prepared to engage in a war as did those during WWII. We are now two generations at least away from the concept of sacrifice for the common good. Today it is all about "me, me, me". We have some terrific young people in our Armed Forces, but if we had to mobilize a 15 million person force as we did in WWII (and remember that the U.S. population was less than half what it is today) I don't think we could do it. I would not be surprised that if we were engaged in a major war, we would STILL have environmental groups suing to stop factories from being built because the environmental impact study was not complete enough, or the land MIGHT be ancient native American sacred soil, or some other BS. And today, so much of what is manufactured is done outside the U.S. and those factories would not be available for us, especially if we are fighting China.

And I am not sure we, as a society, could handle the collateral damage of major combat operations. Our population is so used to being teary eyed over a few unfortunately civilians killed while we are taking out a terrorist bomb factory or something similar, I don't know how they would tolerate enemy civilian deaths in the thousands every day. Although, we were suffering massive civilian deaths as well, maybe then the American public would get over its concern about civilian deaths on the other side.

And I also remember how 17 dead soldiers led to our country changing its entire policy toward Somalia, and how 242 Marine deaths in Lebanon caused us to cut and run from that area that we said we would not do. Would America tolerate the kind of losses we suffered daily in WW2 or would we sue for peace, even if that meant a virtual surrender just to avoid further losses?

 

[pete44ru]

.

Those figures are even more impressive when I look at those bomb, aircraft & ammunition statistics, and take into consideration that the bombing & shooting wasn't occurring every hour each day.

.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

This is the one that really amazed me. Now this is only Av Gas.
Think about the fuel Oil for ships, fuel for factories, along with all of the gasoline and diesel required. Plus we supplied other allied countries.

When you read about what we were able to build and supply both at home and abroad and to allied countries. It makes me wonder how stupid could the Axis powers have been to start a war with us.
Yep they awoke a really pissed off sleeping GIANT

6.Between 1942-1945, U.S. planes consumed 9.7 billion gallons of gasoline. That's 5,787 gallons a minute consumed JUST by U.S. aircraft. Now think about tanks, ships and cars that needed to be fed too!

This one too. Lots of brass used up.
8.Also between 1942-1945, 459.7 billion rounds of aircraft ammo were fired. That's about 295,588 per minute or 4,926 per second. Yes, you read that right!

 

[Jeepnik]

The aircraft lost, plus the tanks lost, plus the ships lost, all took their toll in young men. Young men who never had a chance to go to college, marry, raise children. Many died before reaching their 21st. birthday.

Men went out, flying, sailing, riding, or marching, knowing that some before them had gone the same way, never to return.

No wonder its called "The Greatest Generation!"


Bob Wright

Bob, some of those aircraft lost in transit cost the lives of the young women who belonged to the WASPs.

 

[yooper1]

My little city had it's own war plane in WWII named for the City, Ironwood, Michigan.
People sure went above and beyond to support the cause back then.

From a 1940's Daily Globe: the caption says:
Ironwood's Own Warplane - The Army pursuit plane, "The City of Ironwood, Mich." was purchased in the "buy a warplane" campaign conducted here several months ago, in which residents bought $95,000 worth of war bonds in excess of their regular monthly quota. This picture, an official Army photograph, was received today by J. Vector Jacobson, executive chairman of the local war savings committee, from Frank Isbey of Detroit, state chairman. Mr Isbey again congratulated Ironwood citizens on their response in the special drive.

And information here:

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=116718

shows it was damaged beyond repair 3 mi N of Bradley Field, Suffield, CT

So it never made it out of the States and was probably used / lost during training

 

[Wyandot Jim]

WOW That is quite a data base which I have never seen.
It would be interesting to know when the 47 left the factory.

 

[mohavesam]

fact checked?

 

[ptypegreen]

For a video of the Fallen of WW2, this is interesting:
https://vimeo.com/128373915
It is about 3 years old. American losses though high were a fraction of most others. When you see the USSR, you almost think the film is stuck.
It is about 18 1/2 minutes long.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

fact checked?

Well Mr. Negative what dose that mean??????????
I don't know about the others on here. But I try and post interesting items on here. I notice you seem to have a negative comment on most subjects posted on this site.
In the future please keep your comments to yourself when it pertains to my post.
Take it or leave it.

 

[mohavesam]

Rtfr. Post for all or don't bother.

 

[Ray Newman]

Vito: agree and well said!