88,410 heavy, medium and light tanks
469,000,000 lbs. of cabbage
6,552,290 rifles
15,603,000 shaving brushes
The astonishing materials of war. To save a Europe that had lost virtually its entire industrial capacity to the Germans, and to carry the war to Japan, the U.S. turned on a great gusher that armed and propelled Allied forces back onto the Continent. Without that, there would have been no D-day, no march toward Berlin, no victory of any kind. "The American war-production job was probably the greatest collective achievement of all time," said Donald Nelson, chairman of the War Production Board from 1942 to...