President Franklin Roosevelt referred to Detroit as the "Arsenal of Democracy." The Ford Motor Company played a pivotal role in the allied victory during World War I and World War II. As a pacifist, Henry Ford had expressed that war was a waste of time, Ford did not want to profit from it. Henry Ford was concerned that the Nazis during the 1930s might nationalize his factories in Germany. During the Great Depression Ford's wages may have seen great to his employees but many of the rules of the factories were very harsh and strict. Those were tense times for American companies doing business in Europe. In the spring of 1939, the Nazis assumed day to day control of Ford factories in Germany.

With Europe under siege, Henry Ford's genius would be turned to mass production for the war effort. Specifically, the B-24 Liberator bomber, still the most produced allied bomber in history, quickly shifted the balance of power in favor of the allies. The aviation industry could produce, if everything went alright, one Consolidated Aircraft B-24 Bomber a day at an aircraft plant. Ford would show the world how to produce one B-24 an hour at a peak of 600 per month in 24 hour shifts. Ford's Willow Run factory broke ground in the April of 1941. At the time, it was the largest assembly line in the world, with over 3,500,000 square feet (330,000 m²). Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's son, under severe stress of running the B-24 bomber facility, died in the Spring of 1943 of stomach cancer prompting his grieving father Henry Ford to re-assume day-to-day control of the Ford Motor Company. Mass production of the B-24 began by August of 1943. Many pilots slept on cots waiting for takeoff as the B-24 rolled off the assembly line at Ford's Willow Run facility.

Pictured here is a stunning 1:43 scale diecast replica of a 1935 US Army Ford staff car. Comes in a handsome acrylic display case. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Length: 4-inches
Width: 1-inch