The Titans That Built America (2021) s01e03 Episode Script
United They Stand
1
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.
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.
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?
Turning
them into bitter enemies.
‐ You are nothing short
of a war profiteer,
a merchant of death.
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.
Neither would America.
Now, the
titans will have to choose
between their hatred
of the president
and saving the world.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
on board 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.
Knudsen thinks there's one titan
that might be easier to
get on board 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 time frame
that we need it,
except Ford.
‐ 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.
‐ 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 air power.
And by June, Hitler's in Paris.
The Germans' next
target is Britain.
‐ Our Father who art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name‐
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.
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.
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.
But even if
America has no interest
in going to war,
war will soon be
coming to America.
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!
Pull!
‐ Sir?
Sir?
Please come quickly.
‐ What is it now?
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.
And the severe bombing
of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes.
‐ Who's bombing?
‐ Japan.
The city of
Honolulu has also been attacked
and considerable damage done.
One of the bombs dropped
within 50 feet of KGU Tower.
It is no joke, it is a real war.
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.
‐ 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‐
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.
Where war once felt far away,
conflict on American
soil now feels very real.
‐ There was a real dramatic
anxiety in the country.
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.
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.
Americans had
reason to be worried.
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.
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.
The first thing
the US needs is weapons,
and there's one person
who can make that happen.
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.
‐ Hello?
‐ I'll do it.
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.
Pretty good, huh?
We can take out a whole
platoon with just one of these.
DuPont makes his choice.
To help save the country,
he must once again become
the "Merchant of Death."
FDR knows one of the key paths
to the US and its allies
winning the war is air power.
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.
‐ 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.
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.
But Edsel runs into a problem.
‐ Hi.
Sorry for keeping you waiting.
Okay.
Take a look at this.
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.
With the
production of his planes
already underway, any
setback could prove costly.
‐ 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.
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?
Not today.
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.
America's current shipyards
can't churn out anywhere
close to the numbers needed,
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.
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 ship ways
here and one over there.
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.
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.
At the rate he's going now,
it will take Kaiser
a hundred years
to build the number of
ships he's promised FDR.
Six months after their attack
on the United States,
Japan seems unstoppable.
‐ 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.
‐ You saw the advance
of the Japanese
on a very rapid and
almost terrifying scale.
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.
‐ Of course, the Blitzkrieg,
the mechanized forces were
able to take them all the way
to the outskirts of Moscow.
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.
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.
‐ 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?".
But then, Knudsen and FDR
finally get some good news.
How much time do we
need to make this happen?
‐ Eight weeks, nine max.
Du Pont has wasted no time
converting his factories.
‐ In just a matter of weeks,
du Pont has changed
over production lines
and is cranking out explosives
and shells for the war effort.
And then
there's another breakthrough.
‐ Bill, should be
ready any minute.
‐ This better be worth the trip.
‐ It will be.
‐ What's taking so long?
‐ Just a minute.
Even though Chrysler
no longer has its founder,
the company has figured
out how to make a tank.
‐ 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.
Here in the world's
first great tank arsenal,
devoted entirely to the
mass production of the tank,
we forge the
armaments of victory.
Chrysler's new tank is the M3.
‐ I'm upping the order.
Get me 3000.
‐ Done.
To build his ships faster,
‐ We don't need
to have a ceremony
every time we're launching
a ship, we've got
Kaiser has workers
going three shifts a day,
‐ Do what you can.
Seven days a week.
By the fall of 1942,
Henry Kaiser has not only
launched his first ship,
but dozens more.
Kaiser is a far cry from
the 500 he promised,
but the nation can't
wait any longer.
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."
The United States
is finally on the ground
and ready to show the
Germans what they're made of.
‐ The President's
waiting for you.
‐ Glad you could join us.
‐ We have a problem with the M3,
they're a complete disaster.
The 75 millimeter gun must
be forced into position
and it's getting out maneuvered.
The height of the tank
leaves it vulnerable.
The armor is proving
to be too thin.
‐ 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.
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.
The United States with
all its industrial might,
faces a German army
that is far superior,
better trained, and
with better weapons.
Knudsen realizes, even with
the titans doing their part,
it will take something
bigger to win this war.
While the allies
struggle in North Africa,
Hitler brings
terror to the seas.
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.
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.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. I did say that.
Well we've had some uh,
material shortages and
No, I understand.
Yeah, I will.
‐ Okay. Thank you.
‐ Yeah.
Knudsen has assembled
the greatest industrial
leaders in the nation
to build his war machine
but it's not working.
Something is still missing.
Well we've had
some material shortages and
‐ 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.
‐ It's Bill.
Listen, change of plan.
How soon can he get on a plane?
Detroit.
Knudsen sends Kaiser to Ford,
to learn the secret
of mass production.
‐ Is that him?
‐ It is.
‐ Are you coming?
So this is the pre‐production.
Working on suspensions.
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.
For Kaiser, the
factory tour is a revelation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I think you can safely say,
that Henry Kaiser was the
father of modern ship building.
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.
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.
So effectively
it's five, six cylinder engines
arranged around a central shaft?
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.
Knudsen needs
to find a smaller engine
that's still robust
enough to power the M4.
‐ Hello. I'd like to
speak to Mr. Ford,
Mr. Henry Ford.
‐ So, V8?
Right?
Who's it for?
Who did you say?
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.
Ford agrees to
give Chrysler the designs
for his 500 horsepower V8.
‐ Okay.
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.
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.
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.
The Yank tracer bullets go up,
and Nazi planes come down.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I wanna show you something.
‐ 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.
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.
Modification
centers are a game changer.
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.
‐ Good work.
Good.
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.
Every factory in America
faces the same challenge.
But then, a surprising
group comes to the rescue.
Women.
‐ 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.
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.
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.
Out west, groundbreaking changes
are also taking place
at Kaiser Shipyards.
‐ 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.
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.
But as American industries
race towards invasion,
allied intelligence
learns alarming news.
Hitler is secretly developing
a devastating new weapon.
One that could
instantly end the war,
the atomic bomb.
And FDR must once
again, turn to du Pont.
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.
Our understanding is
that he has been working
with Germans for
the last two months.
Designing what we believe
is a nuclear device.
At the time
there was research happening
around nuclear fission.
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.
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.
After working so hard to
leave munitions behind,
du Pont now holds
in his hands' plans
for the most destructive
weapon on earth.
As du Pont tackles
an impossible task,
he finds out some
devastating news.
‐ Mr. Morgan, Mr. Morgan.
Mr. Morgan.
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.
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?
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.
Then just two months
later, another Titan dies.
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.
Get your coat, I want
to take you somewhere.
We should get into this.
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.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The President of
the United States.
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.
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.
‐ 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.
The people landing
on any of the beaches
in the first waves that morning
we're going into this
incredibly difficult fight.
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,
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.
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.
And to the east Moscow radio
tonight three Savage fighting‐
Despite the
good news from Europe,
a stunning loss is felt at home.
The one good heave all
together to end
the war in Europe.
We take you now to NBC
in warm Springs, Georgia.
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.
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.
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
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
On May 7th, Germany
surrenders unconditionally.
And the war in Europe is over.
‐ 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.
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.
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.
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.
The enormous
complex requires 50,000 workers.
‐ 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.
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.
The test is a success.
Justice du Pont's plutonium
and Oppenheimer's bomb
have unleashed the
power of the universe.
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.
‐ 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.
And to carry
this weapon, America has a new
Ultra‐Long Range Bomber
able to reach Japan.
The Boeing B‐29 super fortress.
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.
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.
‐ Yes.
I see.
Thank you.
The war is over.
Bringing an end to the deadliest
conflict in human history.
‐ We about Normandy, we talk
about Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
the war was also won inside the
United States by
factories and industry.
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.
‐ 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.
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.
‐ 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.
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.
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.
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?
Turning
them into bitter enemies.
‐ You are nothing short
of a war profiteer,
a merchant of death.
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.
Neither would America.
Now, the
titans will have to choose
between their hatred
of the president
and saving the world.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
on board 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.
Knudsen thinks there's one titan
that might be easier to
get on board 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 time frame
that we need it,
except Ford.
‐ 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.
‐ 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 air power.
And by June, Hitler's in Paris.
The Germans' next
target is Britain.
‐ Our Father who art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name‐
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.
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.
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.
But even if
America has no interest
in going to war,
war will soon be
coming to America.
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!
Pull!
‐ Sir?
Sir?
Please come quickly.
‐ What is it now?
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.
And the severe bombing
of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes.
‐ Who's bombing?
‐ Japan.
The city of
Honolulu has also been attacked
and considerable damage done.
One of the bombs dropped
within 50 feet of KGU Tower.
It is no joke, it is a real war.
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.
‐ 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‐
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.
Where war once felt far away,
conflict on American
soil now feels very real.
‐ There was a real dramatic
anxiety in the country.
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.
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.
Americans had
reason to be worried.
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.
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.
The first thing
the US needs is weapons,
and there's one person
who can make that happen.
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.
‐ Hello?
‐ I'll do it.
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.
Pretty good, huh?
We can take out a whole
platoon with just one of these.
DuPont makes his choice.
To help save the country,
he must once again become
the "Merchant of Death."
FDR knows one of the key paths
to the US and its allies
winning the war is air power.
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.
‐ 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.
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.
But Edsel runs into a problem.
‐ Hi.
Sorry for keeping you waiting.
Okay.
Take a look at this.
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.
With the
production of his planes
already underway, any
setback could prove costly.
‐ 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.
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?
Not today.
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.
America's current shipyards
can't churn out anywhere
close to the numbers needed,
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.
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 ship ways
here and one over there.
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.
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.
At the rate he's going now,
it will take Kaiser
a hundred years
to build the number of
ships he's promised FDR.
Six months after their attack
on the United States,
Japan seems unstoppable.
‐ 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.
‐ You saw the advance
of the Japanese
on a very rapid and
almost terrifying scale.
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.
‐ Of course, the Blitzkrieg,
the mechanized forces were
able to take them all the way
to the outskirts of Moscow.
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.
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.
‐ 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?".
But then, Knudsen and FDR
finally get some good news.
How much time do we
need to make this happen?
‐ Eight weeks, nine max.
Du Pont has wasted no time
converting his factories.
‐ In just a matter of weeks,
du Pont has changed
over production lines
and is cranking out explosives
and shells for the war effort.
And then
there's another breakthrough.
‐ Bill, should be
ready any minute.
‐ This better be worth the trip.
‐ It will be.
‐ What's taking so long?
‐ Just a minute.
Even though Chrysler
no longer has its founder,
the company has figured
out how to make a tank.
‐ 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.
Here in the world's
first great tank arsenal,
devoted entirely to the
mass production of the tank,
we forge the
armaments of victory.
Chrysler's new tank is the M3.
‐ I'm upping the order.
Get me 3000.
‐ Done.
To build his ships faster,
‐ We don't need
to have a ceremony
every time we're launching
a ship, we've got
Kaiser has workers
going three shifts a day,
‐ Do what you can.
Seven days a week.
By the fall of 1942,
Henry Kaiser has not only
launched his first ship,
but dozens more.
Kaiser is a far cry from
the 500 he promised,
but the nation can't
wait any longer.
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."
The United States
is finally on the ground
and ready to show the
Germans what they're made of.
‐ The President's
waiting for you.
‐ Glad you could join us.
‐ We have a problem with the M3,
they're a complete disaster.
The 75 millimeter gun must
be forced into position
and it's getting out maneuvered.
The height of the tank
leaves it vulnerable.
The armor is proving
to be too thin.
‐ 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.
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.
The United States with
all its industrial might,
faces a German army
that is far superior,
better trained, and
with better weapons.
Knudsen realizes, even with
the titans doing their part,
it will take something
bigger to win this war.
While the allies
struggle in North Africa,
Hitler brings
terror to the seas.
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.
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.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. I did say that.
Well we've had some uh,
material shortages and
No, I understand.
Yeah, I will.
‐ Okay. Thank you.
‐ Yeah.
Knudsen has assembled
the greatest industrial
leaders in the nation
to build his war machine
but it's not working.
Something is still missing.
Well we've had
some material shortages and
‐ 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.
‐ It's Bill.
Listen, change of plan.
How soon can he get on a plane?
Detroit.
Knudsen sends Kaiser to Ford,
to learn the secret
of mass production.
‐ Is that him?
‐ It is.
‐ Are you coming?
So this is the pre‐production.
Working on suspensions.
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.
For Kaiser, the
factory tour is a revelation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I think you can safely say,
that Henry Kaiser was the
father of modern ship building.
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.
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.
So effectively
it's five, six cylinder engines
arranged around a central shaft?
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.
Knudsen needs
to find a smaller engine
that's still robust
enough to power the M4.
‐ Hello. I'd like to
speak to Mr. Ford,
Mr. Henry Ford.
‐ So, V8?
Right?
Who's it for?
Who did you say?
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.
Ford agrees to
give Chrysler the designs
for his 500 horsepower V8.
‐ Okay.
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.
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.
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.
The Yank tracer bullets go up,
and Nazi planes come down.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I wanna show you something.
‐ 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.
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.
Modification
centers are a game changer.
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.
‐ Good work.
Good.
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.
Every factory in America
faces the same challenge.
But then, a surprising
group comes to the rescue.
Women.
‐ 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.
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.
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.
Out west, groundbreaking changes
are also taking place
at Kaiser Shipyards.
‐ 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.
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.
But as American industries
race towards invasion,
allied intelligence
learns alarming news.
Hitler is secretly developing
a devastating new weapon.
One that could
instantly end the war,
the atomic bomb.
And FDR must once
again, turn to du Pont.
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.
Our understanding is
that he has been working
with Germans for
the last two months.
Designing what we believe
is a nuclear device.
At the time
there was research happening
around nuclear fission.
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.
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.
After working so hard to
leave munitions behind,
du Pont now holds
in his hands' plans
for the most destructive
weapon on earth.
As du Pont tackles
an impossible task,
he finds out some
devastating news.
‐ Mr. Morgan, Mr. Morgan.
Mr. Morgan.
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.
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?
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.
Then just two months
later, another Titan dies.
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.
Get your coat, I want
to take you somewhere.
We should get into this.
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.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The President of
the United States.
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.
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.
‐ 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.
The people landing
on any of the beaches
in the first waves that morning
we're going into this
incredibly difficult fight.
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,
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.
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.
And to the east Moscow radio
tonight three Savage fighting‐
Despite the
good news from Europe,
a stunning loss is felt at home.
The one good heave all
together to end
the war in Europe.
We take you now to NBC
in warm Springs, Georgia.
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.
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.
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
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
On May 7th, Germany
surrenders unconditionally.
And the war in Europe is over.
‐ 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.
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.
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.
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.
The enormous
complex requires 50,000 workers.
‐ 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.
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.
The test is a success.
Justice du Pont's plutonium
and Oppenheimer's bomb
have unleashed the
power of the universe.
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.
‐ 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.
And to carry
this weapon, America has a new
Ultra‐Long Range Bomber
able to reach Japan.
The Boeing B‐29 super fortress.
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.
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.
‐ Yes.
I see.
Thank you.
The war is over.
Bringing an end to the deadliest
conflict in human history.
‐ We about Normandy, we talk
about Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
the war was also won inside the
United States by
factories and industry.
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.
‐ 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.
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.
‐ 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.