Bullets By The Billion

by Wesley W. Stout

This is the story of the only Chrysler Corporation plant where billions of any finished product were made during the war. It is the story of our assembly plant in Evansville, Indiana which made ammunition in astronomical amounts.

Before the war Plymouth passenger cars and Dodge trucks were assembled here by 650 people. By September, 1943 the working force had increased to twenty times that number and extensive additions had been made to the plant's facilities. Most of the management and supervision were loaned from Detroit, but the largest part of the working force was drawn from homes, offices, farms and little stores and shops in an area seventy-five miles around the city.

These people did eight important war jobs. They made more than three billion .4-5 caliber cartridges; almost a half a billion .30 caliber cartridges; hundreds of thousands of rounds of other special types of ammunition; specially packed a billion and a half rounds of ammunition for use in the Pacific; reconditioned 1662 General Sherman tanks; rebuilt 4,000 Army trucks; delivered 800,000 tank grousers and when the war ended, had just got under way on an order for 7,000,000 firebombs.

Each of these jobs was performed for the United States Army Ordnance Department, except the fire-bomb which came under the jurisdiction of the Chemical Warfare Service. Production was greatly assisted by the enthusiastic support and effort of these two organizations and by the aid and cooperation of the people of Evansville. The achievement of this Plant is another example of how peacetime developed engineered production methods were put to the service of the United States in time of war.

77 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple enough concept, here we have a factory (Chrysler of Evansville, Indiana) giving a summary of its accomplishments during the second world war.

It started with pistol caliber cartridges, moved onto rifles. Then as the War and Ordnance Departments needs changed it continued switching its production line. Some of the changes seemed small such as switching from brass to steel casings based on what was available- but even these needed machines to be retooled and testing to be done to ensure the same standard of reliability. They even had to devise an underwater conveyor system to put the ammunition cases through to ensure they were water proof (for shipment to areas where humidity was a factor).

The large scale changes were ending cartridge production and changing the factories layouts to allow for the refitting of tanks and trucks before they were sent overseas.

I think anyone who has seriously studied the second world war knows at least these two things, that the United States took about a year (From December of 1941) to ramp up its military strength (which includes logistics, supplies, training, etc.), and that American industry, being un-harassed by bombings or sabotage, was able to perform impressive feats in a short timeframe, ensuring that there was always more equipment being manufactured (bullets, bombs, trucks and planes, etc.) than there were losses to offset.

This book is a short evening read, and virtually every page contains a photo of the plants processes in action, or an illustration. Its a splendid little view into the home front.

[Nathan]

This is a brief corporate history of the Chrysler Corporation's factory in Evansville, Indiana that churned out literally billions of small arms rounds during WWII; late in the war, when ammunition stockpiles were sufficient, it switched to overhauling tanks and trucks. It's written at a middle-school level, and is a great example of the sort of "booster" literature that was parodied in Sinclair Lewis's *Babbit*.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the story of the Chrysler Corporation's Evansville, Indiana plant. A plant that manufactured billions of .45 and .30 caliber ammunition.