Evansville, Indiana, not only had one of the latest and largest fighter plants in the world for its P-47 production, it made Corsair wings, landing ship tanks (LSTs), and .45-caliber ammo.
Evansville produced 6,242 P-47s of the 15,000 built, according to the book LST 325, Workhorse of the Waves & Evansville's War Machine (Evansville Sunday Courier and Press , 2005, where I worked as reporter-photographer from 1957-61 until graduating from college) .
"As many as 30 fighters a day were flown out of Evansville by ferry pilots, some of them women." The Republic plant was important enough that President Roosevelt toured it April 27, 1943, his first wartime visit to a fighter factory.
Although 700 miles from the sea, Evansville built 167 of the 1,051 LSTs (including 25 used at D-Day), reconditioned about 1,500 M4 Sherman tanks and 3,000 Dodge Army trucks, and produced 3.2 billion rounds of ammo including 96% of the .45 caliber rounds used by the U.S. armed forces.
I was 6 when WWII ended. I remember Dad taking me out to the airport where we watched P-47s being tested in power dives and their eight .50s test fired with the plane's rear wheel hoisted and leveled.
My half-brother buzzed our rural house (yeah, it was encouraged in those days for patriotic spirit) in his P-39 before heading overseas. He was later shot down and killed by ack in a P-51 shortly after D-Day.
WWII was total. No domestic car production, scrap material collections, victory gardens, rationing. Everybody was involved in war support whether working in factories or volunteer efforts. Neighbor on one side was a B-29 radio operator, neighbor on other side flew B-24s, came home, bought a yellow convertible, married his sweetheart, had a kid, died of TB, wife died soon after, and her parents raised the boy.
Many places in the world have been more involved in war than the U.S. has been, but WWII was all encompassing. Never been anything like it since and I hope there never is.
