240 a short history of the united states
On January 13, 1942, Roosevelt appointed Donald M. Nelson to
head the War Production Board, which would mobilize the nation’s
vast resources so that the war could be brought to a speedy conclusion.
The Office of Production Management, under William S. Knudson,
had been established on December 29 , 1941 , to coordinate defense pro-
duction to supply Great Britain and its allies with needed materials, as
well as the Offi ce of Scientifi c Research and Development on June 28 ,
1941. Price controls and rationing were established along with the Of-
fices of Economic Stabilization, Censorship, War Information, and
Strategic Services.
And it is truly amazing what American industry produced in terms
of war time matériel, resulting from unlimited governmental credit, the
high demand for these products, and the effective organization neces-
sary to achieve the desired results. American factories produced 75 , 000
tanks; 275 , 000 military aircraft; and 650 , 000 pieces of artillery. Amer-
ican shipyards built 55. 24 million tons of merchant shipping. Perhaps
no other national economy was managed so efficiently and successfully.
In addition, as a result of the Offi ce of Scientifi c Research and Devel-
opment, American scientists, with the help of their British colleagues,
invented radar, by which ships and planes could be detected from afar.
Most important of all was the development of the atom bomb. The
Manhattan Project, under the direction of Brigadier General Leslie R.
Groves, was set up to secretly build this crucial weapon. It was a crash
program to create the atomic bomb before the Germans perfected one.
Considering the long head start the Germans enjoyed in perfecting
advanced weaponry, it is astounding that the Americans succeeded in
their quest and the Germans did not. Had the Germans succeeded, the
war might have ended differently. The three bombs produced by the
Manhattan Project cost $ 2 billion. The first of them was tested on July
16 , 1945 , at Alamogordo, New Mexico, and a whole new world began.
Meanwhile, the war in Europe expanded when Hungary and
Romania joined the Axis powers, and Italy had invaded Greece with
German help and forced its capitulation on April 27 , 1941. England
endured an agony of daily air raids forcing Londoners to seek shelter in
subways and other underground facilities. Germany penetrated deep