Seventy-five years ago, on December 29, 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his famous “Arsenal of Democracy” speech to the American people, urging them to stand behind the Allied powers who had not yet fallen under the German boot. Not to set off across the seas to vanquish the Nazis?that would come just under a year later?but to throw their backs into the production of war materiel to aid Britain and the Soviet Union in their fight against Hitler. Given its expertise in the mass production of automobiles, Detroit became a hub of the nascent military-industrial complex. In honor of the massive effort to arm not just ourselves, but our allies, FCA has produced a video noting Chrysler?s role in the proceedings.
While Fiat was busy turning out trucks and planes for Mussolini?s military, Chrysler was building M3 Grant tanks, used by the British to fight the Germans and Italians in North Africa. The M3, also produced as the Lee for American use, was an awkward thing?a product of interwar engineering?with its main armament unable to rotate 360 degrees. The first Grant was finished in March of 1941 and finally rolled out of the factory in April?before workers had even finished the massive Warren, Michigan, factory dedicated to its production. By July, production models were coming off the line. In 1942, work shifted to the superior M4 Sherman [pictured above], which became America?s primary tank for the duration of the war. Over the course of the war, Chrysler alone...