Did
You Know ?
August
4 , 2001
Last week we received an inquiry from
Dennis of Florida:
Q.
I know Chevrolet didn't build cars for consumers during World
War II, but I'm curious to know what they did build for
the war effort?
A.
Indeed, Chevrolet did convert its manufacturing capabilities
to meet the needs of the war. Civilian 
production
of automobiles ended on January 30, 1942. In the photo above you
can see a photo of women and men producing one of over 8 million
shells produced in Chevrolet factories.
In
addition to over 500,000 trucks and cars for use by our militaries,
Chevrolet produced a variety of war products from 1942-1945. Pratt
& Whitney aircraft engines totallying 60,000, wing and fuseage
compenents to by used by Grumman Aircraft Company.
Perhaps
the most remarkable numbers are in ammunition related products:
2,000 90mm guns, 200 million pounds of aluminum forgings, 5.7
million pounds of magnesium castings, and two billion pounds of
grey iron castings. Other items included: armored cars, 75mm shells,
and aluminum castings.
Chevrolet
placed ads in several magazines like the one shown above to promote
it's efforts in the war (click on the poster above to see a full
view image).
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